#shes bi and the showrunners confirmed it

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

I made it better

I'm assuming this is because of me getting annoyed at Azutara shippers in my other blog and calling them and Tyzula fans the "Azula fandom's equivalent of Zutara and Zukka" XD

Anyways *grabs a megaphone and gets on a soap-box*

As a bisexual woman that would go crazy with joy if Azula was gay/bi, and that ships her with Ty Lee and Mai, and even Toph and Suki every now and then, let me make one thing very clear here: Azula DOES have a confirmed canon sexuality, and it's straight. Heterosexual. Likes guys and only guys. The idea that ANY gay ship was CANON in ATLA, a show made in 2005 by a kid's Network, is ridiculous.

Azula explicitly stated that she has tried to flirt with boys before and it never worked out because they are scared of her. She was jealous that boys were paying attention to Ty Lee - and while fanfic writers, and even I, like to say stuff like "Oh, you don't like them getting too close to your gilfriend, Azula?" it's VERY CLEAR that the show was going for the classic "Why do they like her and not ME?" aka she wanted attention from GUYS. She wanted to hook up with Chan, and immediately went for "Let's conquer the world together!" after one kiss. Even the up-coming Azula comic has her dreaming of a guy trying to flirt with her and calling her pretty.

For fuck's sake, Grey Delisle already admiting to voicing the scene between Azula and Zuko as if Azula was trying to seduce her own brother. Meanwhile, even though she likes Tyzula now, when asked about the ship her first reaction was the same as the one every actor, writer and/or showrunner had to hearing about popular gay ships: "I did not see that coming."

It might seem surreal nowadays that the Network let the show get away with incest bait but gay characters were out of question, but that's what happened because, surprise surprise, homophobia was still going strong. Hell, it's still going strong TODAY.

Lots of Nickelodeon shows from the 90's and early/mid 2000's tried to get away with implying or flat out saying "This character is gay" and it ALWAYS resulted in banned episodes, some of which became lost media because the Network was just that desperate to bury any evidence of it to avoid controversy. Even characters that never had any love interests ever were assumed to be straight - not as in "treat them as being straight unless we say otherwise" but in "They are straight because that's the only thing allowed to exist in kid's media." There was no "otherwise" to be heard of. Fitting for years that followed the policy literally called "DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL."

THAT was the general sentiment around homosexuality at the time, especially on TV (KIDS TV, I remind you): pretend you don't know that's a thing.

Even The Legend Of Korra, that parts of the fandom still pretends did anything for gay representation, had the creators (the same who made ATLA) that they never even bothered to ask Nickelodeon if they could Korrasami happen, and thus kept the whole love triangle, with the girls fighting over a GUY, going. It wasn't until the very end that they had the guts to ask "Can we make them hold hands in the finale?" and Nick said "Sure, the final season will basically not be aired on TV anyways." Bryke even had to state ONLINE that "Yes, they are a couple." Only THEN, with the positive response from audiences, that neither the writers nor the Network had thought could ever gain any sympathy for the show, did they make Korra and Assami have an actual relationship in the Korra comics.

Do these guys sound like the type that would leave a character's sexuality up for debate or even try to write a gay couple into the show IN 2005, years before Korra was allowed to get away with a slight hint of gayness that to be explained on Twitter?

They didn't make Azula's attempts to win guys over fail to show she was a gay teen trying too hard to be something she was not, her envy that Ty Lee was getting a ton of attention from boys while she wasn't was meant to be taken as EXACTLY that, and no cutesy moment between her and her friends was meant to be taken as anything other just gals being pals.

We can, and should, point out that it is unfair that gay relationships were treated as "too adult" while straight romances weren't. We can change any character's sexuality in fanfics. We can ship whatever the hell we like. But claiming Azula was EVER meant to be seen as anything other than a 100% straight girl that just sucked at flirting and thus was struggling to get a boyfriend is just a flat out lie.

She's not bisexual. She's not a lesbian. Her sexuality was not "left up to debate" because THERE WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE A DEBATE!

Again, I would love a bisexual Azula (provided that wasn't handled by people like Yang and Bryke, who see her as nothing more than an ableist stereotype), but let's not kid ourselves here.

Nickelodeon is not our "ally", they're a company that wants your money. Bryke, by their own admission, were not revolutionaries who pushed for gay representation and were ready to give up on the idea of same-sex relationship with no resistence if the Network told them "no, only straight romances allowed". Korra was no Steven Universe or even Adventure Time, it was basically Disney with it's 50th "first" gay character that gets five seconds of screentime. Azula's sexuality absolutely WAS confirmed and it is (sadly for me) heterosexual.

And to the people that claim to love headcanons for bisexual Azula, but still insist I should only ship her with women, or make her strongly prefer women, or only have had bad experiences with men and positive ones with women, otherwise she'll be "basically straight": your biphobia is showing, stop hating on bi women everytime they shatter your ilusion that we're just confused/in denial and will eventually realize we're actually lesbians.

#azula #azula is straight #*cries in bisexual annoyance*/frustration #homophobia #biphobia

[thesunniest]

Why do showrunners feel the need to erase aromanticism when adapting media? (Spoilers for Shadow and Bone Season 2)

First it was Jughead Jones just for the sake of a love triangle but honestly I let go of that show after season 1.

Now we have Tolya Yul-Bataar, soldier, poetry and sun summoner enthusiast who literally said in the books he is not interested in anyone and his books and faith are enough. He is also the only one who doesn't have a love interest in a cast of 10+ central characters. And yet in the Shadow and Bone Season 2 it is implied he might have a crush on Inej. I'm out. I'm done being erased like this just for the sake of... what exactly? A plot point that's going to be dropped because we all know who the endgame is? I'm exhausted. Also for me it isn't a headcanon, we all know Leigh doesn't explicitly state major things about the characters and instead makes it clear in her own way so we can figure them out. For me this scene is as clear as day a confirmation he is aro/ace (or at least aro). Also we don't ever get to see Nina Zenik explicitly say she is pansexual, she says she is attracted to people, we don't see Jesper say he is bi we see him saying he likes boys and girls, but when we have the equivalent to those said by an aro character it is "up for interpretation" just so people can still have their ships. Like you don't expect Tolya to explicitly state he is aro/ace when this terminology doesn't even exist in the Grishaverse, do you?

#arospec #aromantic #tolya yul bataar #shadow and bone season 2 #shadow and bone #six of crows

[denimbex1986]

'Catherine Tate reveals that Doctor Who's 60th-anniversary ending initially took her by surprise. The star first joined Doctor Who as a guest in 2006's seasonal special "The Runaway Bride" before returning as the companion to David Tennant's Tenth Doctor in season 4. Tate and Tennant reunited to lead the show's 60th-anniversary celebrations across three adventures that saw a new Fourteenth Doctor (played by Tennant) once more with Donna, facing warring aliens, horrors from beyond the universe, and a powerful foe from the Time Lord past.

With a newly bi-regenerated Fourteenth Doctor joining the Noble family for a calm, normal life on Earth, Tate admitted in the BBC documentary Imagine... Russell T Davies: The Doctor and Me (via RadioTimes.com) that she had expected a tragic fate for the two characters. While Donna's fate defied Tate's Doctor Who return expectations of a tragedy, she ultimately feels that the ending was the best choice for both characters. Check out Tate's response below:

"It was so not what I was expecting. I thought there was going to be a massive, terrible final thing. [But] to end in the garden eating crumble is, of course, exactly where they should be."

What Comes Next For The Noble Family In Doctor Who?

Donna's potential fate became one of the most highly speculated points of Doctor Who's 60th-anniversary storyline. The character has endured so much tragedy, especially after season 4's conclusion left her at risk of a horrible death should she remember her adventures. Even "Wild Blue Yonder" almost ended with the Doctor rescuing her Not-Thing duplicate and nearly leaving the real Donna behind to be incinerated as the mysterious vessel self-destructs. However, despite the chances of her death being higher than ever and even showrunner Davies teasing a horrible fate, Donna survives, recovers from her Metacrisis transformation, and her faith in the Doctor is proven correct as he never let her down.

Ultimately, with the Doctor and Mel (Bonnie Langford) joining their family, the Nobles settle in France in the Doctor's new home, enjoying a quiet, peaceful life without having the fate of the universe on their shoulders. Davies has confirmed the Fourteenth Doctor is grounded for his foreseeable future and isn't set to take any joyrides into a Dalek fleet or stumble into a historical event, suggesting that he is content to live out what time he has left with his best friend. But that doesn't mean all members of the Noble family won't stumble into the Fifteenth Doctor's (Ncuti Gatwa) path, as Yasmin Finney may potentially return as Rose Noble in future Doctor Who adventures.

As part of a fan-favorite TARDIS team, the potential of Donna's Doctor Who return had viewers both excited and nervous about what may be. Not only could the character face certain death at the mere sight of an alien, but if mishandled, her return could negate the bittersweet but touching note that she and the Doctor parted ways on with his gift in "The End of Time." However, with Donna and the Doctor reunited in a comfortable life surrounded by loved ones, it is clear that Doctor Who's 60th-anniversary ending has left audiences and the cast satisfied.'

#Donna Noble #Catherine Tate #Rose Noble #Yasmin Finney #David Tennant #Ncuti Gatwa #Bi-generation #Doctor Who #60th Anniversary #The Giggle #TARDIS #Russell T. Davies #The Runaway Bride #Imagine...Russell T. Davies: The Doctor and Me #Wild Blue Yonder #Melanie Bush #Bonnie Langford

[poisonivysource]

hello!! i'm new to comics and i have a question that i'm scared to ask on twitter lol... i always see people fight about ivy's sexuality. about if she is bi or lesbian and i don't know which is true? i'm so confused😭

hi there. short answer: she's unlabeled sapphic in most iterations and canonically bisexual in some—namely hqtas and poison ivy thorns

if you'd like a longer and more detailed answer, read below the cut

harley quinn the animated series

in this universe — which consists of the show itself and spin-off comics (written by tee franklin) — ivy is canonically bisexual.

she dated a guy named dan back in college, used to hook up with selina, was engaged to kiteman, and is currently dating harley.

poison ivy: thorns (2021)

this is a young adult graphic novel written by kody keplinger and illustrated by sara kipin. it was released as part of dc's celebratory line of pride books last year. in this universe, ivy is confirmed bisexual

(source)

jimmy palmiotti and amanda conner

i often see people bring this up

and i have to point out that neither jimmy nor amanda ever specified that ivy is bi. they didn't label her sexuality. what they did say was this

"but google says..."

i've seen a number of people use this as "proof" recently and again, not valid. that is a fandom wiki that just about anyone can edit and write anything they please. i checked to see if the person in question provided any references i may not be aware of and unfortunately they didn't. they only mention the existence of a "pride cover featuring poison ivy with the lesbian flag" and apparently they're talking about the kris anka variant for harley quinn #4 that was released last year

the color scheme can be misleading for sure. i don't know if anka did it intentionally or not, but i do know for a fact that he's normally not shy about attaching a pride flag aesthetic to a character. a solid example is his work on marvel's runaways, which has karolina dean (canon lesbian) and nico minoru (canon bisexual)

so if he intended for that to be the lesbian flag, on a cover for the harley quinn run that features both harley and ivy, i believe he would've definitely found a way to center the flag colors on ivy alone. but, again, i can't possibly claim to know exactly what went on through his head, so, at the end of the day, make of it what you will, i suppose

meanwhile... (still on the topic of dc pride covers)

jen bartel opted for a bi color scheme for both of her harlivy variants, very much on purpose.

now onto why her sexuality is such a hot topic for debate despite everything mentioned above. ivy has been portrayed as a misandrist more often than not. she never pursues romantic or sexual relationships with men without an ulterior motive—they are always a means to an end. with women, it's different. the connection is genuine, the feelings are real. her main love interest in the main continuity of the comics and almost every alternate universe, is harley. and whenever she happens to get a different love interest, it's a woman (see this post) even the casual hook-ups are with women (e.g. catwoman lonely city #3 and poison ivy #4)

and so, of course, none of this invalidates the possibility of her being bisexual. because misandry and bisexuality are not mutually exclusive, and her aversion to men stems from past traumatic experiences and the abuse she suffered at the hands of jason woodrue. but, at the same time, a case can just as easily be made that she is lesbian-coded. either way: she loves women. the end. 💚

#✿ #asks

[weaver-z]

Wasn't Velma gay from the get go? When was she straight? She was at least bi during the first ever episodes of Scooby doo.

I mean, her sexuality was not confirmed for a long time (the show began in the 1969), but her character is heavily lesbian-coded, and in mid-2020 the showrunners of Mystery Inc. (one of the most successful adaptations of Scooby Doo) confirmed that she was indeed written as a lesbian with comphet! James Gunn also wrote her as a lesbian in his live-action Scooby Doo movies, but he was censored.

#ask #the-hidden-ones-personal

[tfc-gal-pal]

Tbh I know gay Eddie is the most popular headcanon but I think objectively he would be bisexual. Whether one wants to believe he was in love with Shannon or not (and I think the show wants us to believe it), he had a lot of sex with her and it was never implied he didn't enjoy it. A lot of people seem to either have convinced themselves that the Shannon plot didn't happen or that it doesn't count anymore since it was so long ago. That's not how sexuality works tho. So yeah, I wouldn't say we have all come to the same conclusion here.

Thank you for the ask!

That’s totally valid and that makes sense with what the writers have given us since we first met Shannon. She has been the only solid love interest. And yes, you are right, he did seem to enjoy hooking up with her. Based on this, I think there is a solid claim for him being bisexual.

As for him being not into women at all, the main argument I’ve seen has been his seeming disinterest in the women he’s dated. (except Shannon). I speculated somewhere else that it’s possible he formed a strong friendship with Shannon that he mistook for romance, but this doesn’t explain his physical attraction towards her. As you said, sexuality includes physical attraction.

There is, of course, the possibility Eddie is straight, but I dont think he is and i am extremely hopeful that the showrunners aren’t going to make him “come out” as straight.

As for the post i made asking when we’d decided Eddie was gay and not bi, the only posts i have seen have been saying he’s gay since i started actively following the 911 tag here about 2 weeks ago. It was a lighthearted way of basically asking how did the majority of people come to this conclusion im curious. i personally don’t have a strong feelings on it, my opinion is that he’s definitely queer and might go as far as to call him gay (as in a guy who likes guys but not necessarily restricted to them, i am bi also call myself gay sometimes, idk if anyone else does this) but beyond that idk.

Regardless, sexuality is very nuanced and every person has their own unique experience with it. I’m not sure how Eddie would choose to identify or if the show is even going to attach a label to him. I hope however they do (or don’t) label him, people don’t start tearing each other and the actors to shreds.

I hope this makes sense? Again thank you for the ask! This was fun to analyze. I’m really excited we’re getting to see these stories play out and to have the possibility of confirmed queer Eddie on screen, something that I think many of us can agree was almost nonexistent under Fox.

If anyone made it to the end of my jumbled thoughts, thank you, i would love to hear yours in the comments or asks. i know a lot of people have really strong feelings about Buddie and 911 in general and while tumblr isn’t the shitshow that is currently twitter, this is my first time wading into waters like these and i am scared so please be nice even if you disagree :)

#911 abc #eddie diaz #buddie #anon ask #ask

[puthyflapps]

kinda outta left field but Mia is bi right? i don't really follow the cast at all so idk but i remember hearing that she was. also is the general consensus that Shelby is a lesbian or bi?

Mia is bi but Shelby has been confirmed to be a lesbian by the showrunners

Also Mia never misses a moment to remind everyone that Shelby is a lesbian who’s in love with another lesbian named Toni and together they’re in a lesbian relationship

#ask #mia healey #shelby goodkind #the wilds

[am-artist]

the wilds s2 e7 girls!! we are close to the end and i am close to the end of my rope

the fact they let gretchen twist these kids’ trauma into making them listen to her is so fucking sick! where is nora! what horrifying thing are we going to learn about seth!

wow the child casting is so good on this show

happy montage is way too happy what’s happening now. oh mommy abandonment issues? oh child self-harm lovely. well was expecting worse as the SA backstory but here we are

what’s so good with the girls is they all have their ups and downs / moments where they step up for the team. also this is rachel’s season i love her & her fucking self-determination.

fatin it must be said has also been flawless team mom the whole season.

seth needs a jumpscare at this point

of course seth is the #nice guy hung up on a girl friend dating someone else. please tell me he does not assault her while shes drunk.

fatin’s kanken backpack still holding up bless

kirin and josh’s friendship is good, but kirin’s mentality is a bit screwy and the influence is 50/50 good and bad. toxic masculinity is a bitch is the moral here. nice job gang.

poor fucking henry trying to passively coast through the entire mess on the island

seth and henry’s home dynamic is so specific and weird. not really feeling the focus on seth’s nice boy act. and since back home he has the girl and whatever now im expecting some other drama to unravel him enough to land in therapy with gretchen.

god seth makes me so uncomfortable with the buddy buddy look at me im so nice act. show some contrition or honesty jesus. you assaulted someone!!!! theres no reset button asshole!!!!

rachel being that girl once more. she gets through to leah. she gets through to toni. she gets through to herself.

just now connecting dots to dot’s dad and martha….. yeah ow

me @ seth when hes talking to henry: stay away from her! get a job!

even more so because seth clearly has a hand in this island bullshit so hes just! letting it happen! fuckkkk him!! so hard!!!!

why are we all moving on from this assault so casually gang. seth has to fucking psychologically admit to it at some point. yes his stance is logical but i feel like they should still make him face his actions not just circle around them via niceties.

oh hes going to do something insane to the boyfriend isnt he.

OH THE FUCKING CAT

leah bi confirmed thru her crush list babey

i have mixed feelings about shoni this season

well there goes the haircut. shelby’s bangs and wig are bad.

is there a second mole on the girls’ island??? i forget if this has been established before.

i feel for raf so bad bc hes got one singular friend who brought him into the fold & who he wants to help but that friend is a fucking piece of shit.

GOD seth’s complete refusal to act anything but jocularly normal is driving me insane.

ok well it’s driving everyone else insane too apparently! thank you showrunners.

oh yeah full abusive obsessive #nice guy it checks out. still not connecting the dots with what made him assault josh but the whole vibe is cohesively terrible. henry has it right.

oh my god gretchen shut the fuck up this guy needed an actual therapist not your enabling ass

honestly i keep saying this but she’s such a failure this whole experiment is such a flop. her dumbass justification is so stupid. terf logic

oh my god THIS random guy who knows leah??? are you joking

as stupid as it is gretchen’s awful son being her downfall would be just satisfying enough to be appreciable

#the wilds #the wilds s2 #the wilds spoilers

[brainwad]

Just saw a post about how queer rep is queer rep regardless if whether or not the character is in a relationship or not, and OP rambled about trans people existing, ace people existing, and bi people in different-sex relationships.  And I just....

You missed the fucking point.  

Yes, queer people are queer regardless of their relationship status, but when you’re talking about representation in media, what matters is what happens in the text or on screen--especially in films and tv, where we don’t really get the opportunity to experience the character’s inner monologue.  

A trans person is trans regardless of their relationship status, because trans-ness is not a form a queerness that has anything to do directly with relationships.  It’s about that person and their relationship with their gender, their body, their self.  An ace person is ace specifically because they don’t WANT a sexual relationship, just as an aro person is aro because they don’t WANT a romantic relationship.  Yes, their are complexities and nuance, but their queerness is largely defined by not wanting a relationship.  

But a gay character who does not have an on-screen gay relationship can be reinterpreted a million different ways to not be seen as gay.  Creators have a long tradition--famously She Who Must Not Be Named--of confirming a character’s gayness in interviews without actually doing the work of putting it on screen or on the page, because when it comes down to “canon”, the only thing that matters is what the audience is actually shown in the text.  

This doesn’t mean that you need to focus on the relationship aspects of queerness, but if you never show it, it doesn’t actually exist.  

Because media does not function like real life.  Queerness can exist in a vacuum in real life, but in media, the only things that exist are what happens in the text or on screen.

Adding on top of that is the very LONG history of films and TV moralizing queerness.  Queer people have not been allowed to visibly exist in film for decades (ie: The Hayes Code).  When queer characters showed up, queerness was conveyed through coding: giving characters traits that the audience was expected to associate with a particular group of people.  So, these characters who were intended to be read as queer were never actually queer, because the filmmakers and showrunners had to be able to able to say: “see? they’re not actually gay, you just think they are.”

So when people are complaining about the lack of gay relationships in media, or even being upset their faves aren’t smooching, it’s because we are STARVED for same sex relationships to be shown, to be accepted, to be as NORMALIZED as het relationships.  (Yes, bisexuals in M/F relationships are still bisexual, but that’s a whole other problem media has.)  Straight people are always just accepted as straight when they’re not in a relationship.  No one looks at a character who is single and says, “Oh, they’re not heterosexual, they can’t be, we’ve never seen them date a member of the opposite sex.”  Disney never blames China for Thor not having a girlfriend, or a princess not getting married to a guy at the end of the movie.  We never have to be told that a character is heterosexual by a writer in an interview, as if they’re revealing a big secret.  

TLDR: if gay people are not shown being in gay relationships, their gayness gets handwaved away as “just your interpretation,” but if they’re shown IN a relationship, the evidence of their queerness can’t be ignored.  

#long rant #queer media #queer representation

[rebecca-weltons]

chloe decker + bi pride flag colors 

#luciferedit #lucifer #chloe decker #chloedeckeredit #heavensentgc #uservalentina #useraurore #usermorgan #userliv #tusershay #sincerelygabby #femaledaily #dailycolorfulgifs #bbelcher #chewieblog #dcmultiverse #my edits #no im not taking criticism #shes bi and the showrunners confirmed it #so biphobic comments get you blocked

[leighlew3]

now that the show is over and some time is slowly passing, are you willing to revisit the discussion about early show discussions about making Kara pansexual and how it veered away from that?

I mean... I've heard things but you never know what's true.

Look, I have a friend whose friend wrote for S1 under that predatory piece of shit AK, and she was so traumatized by the experience that she refuses to even discuss her time working on the show. So my friend who also watched the show and rooted for an LGBTQ Kara and SC Endgame and wanted to know WTF along with everyone else, rightfully wasn't about to push nor ask about what truly was planned or went on, because it just wouldn't be appropriate.

I also know somebody who is connected to AA's circle and I know AA went through a lot of bad and unfair shit as well. So you never know what plans people had, what long-term outlooks were in mind for characters, but starting off with a lesbian co-showrunner, and sapphic jokes and nods to Kara's possible sexuality multiple times in S1 ("Oh my God you're a lesbian." and Leslie saying she gave off sapphic butch vibes and Kara's comments about Lucy, etc) certainly hinted that she might've been meant to be bi/pan from the get by some. And rumors suggest that too. But maybe CBS got in the way?

And then when it landed on The CW, maybe someone hoped to try again with bringing in a favorite amongst wlw fandoms in the form of KMG, with an "LL" name and red/blue dynamic and her first episode having a Clois save recreation and testing chemistry and such with a 3-episode arc a la EBR on Arrow being hired for just one episode initially then recurring, then being made a regular and Oliver's romantic endgame. It sure seems like it was always something some people were aiming for -- especially after that confirmation from the S2-3 writer who openly wrote "Supercorp" into a script, wrote a scene after Mon-El was sent away where Cat tells Kara that love is still ahead for her and in walks Lena who asks Kara to dinner, and said on Twitter she "was always rooting for those two". But clearly those who rooted for it and tried for it were continuously fought and shut down by somebody... showrunners, networks, EPs, etc -- who knows. I believe even Chyler had mentioned being surprised that Alex would be the LGBTQ character for S2, and I think I read someplace that FL was cast a pretty last minute.

Meanwhile over the years, SG repeatedly lost or never locked down some of their best LGBTQ and SC-heavy writers. Did they simply move on? Were they let go for always fighting for SC? Or were they just sick of hitting walls on what was clearly the most organic path for Kara and Lena and the show, and grew tired of writing forced cheap imitation relationships between the two women and various men due to heteronormativity and homophobia and bts situations forced upon them by somebody above? Nobody knows.

So again, we can't know for certain what everyone's plans were until they reveal it themselves, if they ever even can or do. I do know other writers from the A'verse who fully saw and believed in SC and didn't understand nor agree with what the show did and why they never went there. To me, that tends to suggest it wasn't a DC/WB issue... because if was you'd think they'd know that. So it sounds -- at least to me -- like it was more of a showrunner or EP or network issue.

I will also say, I was shown a DM exchange between a S5-6 writer and a fan in S5 during the height of the writers room getting hammered with negative feedback and reviews where this writer hinted at creative conflict with showrunners and within the writer's room in general, and made it clear that some writers were in line with what fans wanted, but had people above them to answer to.

This also seems to be backed up with JF's recent interview where he stuttered through an answer on SC/queerbait, citing approvals from above being needed and so on, but never giving a direct answer on the issue. Obviously no one wants to break rank or risk future work by pointing any finger directly at any one person or company.

Look, perhaps one day we'll all find out the truth... until then, since Kara's sexuality was never defined as straight, since she slept with one man in the history of the show one time, but also seemed a bit taken by Lucy, openly flirted with Kate twice, had interesting chemistry with multiple women from Psi to Cat to Imra and more, and was established as being soulmates with Lena over the years with all the Clois and other romantic parallels and tropes and framing and the 100th (being mysterious "partners" in a universe where both weren't with others at all, and one could plead the 5th in court against having to testify against the other) and their heavily coded "coming out" discussion and "us against the world defending our family" vibe in the series finale, plus Kara looking Lena's direction while singing "we belong together" and looking/heading towards her after she took off her glasses and walked away, now her true self...

I think it's safe to assume via tons of subtext and even at times maintext in a way, that Kara was in fact pansexual, and Supercorp was truly endgame. So just take that "win" -- which in the year 2021 is an absurd and unacceptable consolation prize, alas...

It is what it is.

#supercorp

[lizzybeth1986]

Protagonist-Centered Sexuality

(Read the rest of the "Hana Lee: A Study In Erasure" series here!)

Previous: Power Dynamics, Part 3 - Lorelai and Xinghai

CW: Mentions of Bullying, Homophobia, Bi-erasure.

--

"To be clear, Hana is bisexual, but at this point in the story, that's something she's still figuring out for herself!" - Kara Loo

I don't think there's any better way of starting this essay than the story behind this quote.

(Note: Some who were around at the time of this story mentioned that that the team was under pressure to say Hana was bi instead of gay, partly from discourse with "people who took offence at Hana being coded lesbian". Being in the fringes of this discussion at the time, I cannot completely confirm the veracity of this, but just for clarity I thought I'd add this context as well. For the purposes of this essay, though, I will be mostly referring to Hana as bi and focusing to a larger extent on depictions of bisexuality, but will attempt to discuss whether that is reflected at all in the writing).

Sometime in October of 2017 (a few weeks after TRR2 released), a player had posed a question to the Choices Support Team. Does Hana Lee have a canon sexuality? The response was... bizarre - if I were to put it in the kindest way possible - even if you were someone who barely paid attention to Hana's scenes:

There was plenty of backlash over this response, of course, because when the hell had Hana ever tried to "pursue the prince" and how the hell would that make her straight! Kara Loo, one of the book leads, almost immediately posted a response, apologizing and maintaining that "this doesn't reflect how we view bisexuality at Pixelberry". It was clear from her post that Hana wasn't out to herself yet, forget anyone else, and it seemed to hint at a journey of sorts.

It's 2021 now, and we're on the seventh and final book of the series. The word "bisexual" hasn't appeared in the story once.

Mechanical vs Canonical Bisexuality

Different types of media write about expressions of sexuality in different ways, but the distinct discomfort that comes with openly talking about queer-related issues can be found across the board. A lot of visual media, esp film, has had a long history of erasure when it comes to LGBTQ+ representation, leading to either a lack of depictions of those stories, or having them heavily couched in innuendo. And even though there is more openness to such rep now, the discomfort often remains.

It is possible for showrunners/filmmakers/writers to attempt to cater to two very distinct audiences: the homophobic audience that is uncomfortable with even a hint of something that isn't heteronormative, and the LGBTQ+ audience that would like to see themselves in the characters they watch. Several strategies are employed to gain the attention, and money, of both: queerbaiting, queercoding or queercatching, all of which involve some form of catching the latter audience's interest with tantalizing hints about a character's sexuality, while still being vague enough to make it "safe" for the former type to watch. (Do watch Rowan Ellis' video essay "An Evolution of Queerbaiting: From Queercoding to Queercatching".) An infamous example of this is how J K Rowling announced Dumbledore being gay after her books released, yet you would never learn this outright from either the original HP books nor in the subsequent Fantastic Beasts film series.

For games however - especially choice-focused RPGs - the mechanics of this are somewhat different. For instance as a queer woman playing Choices, I can tell which sexuality is the default and which one is barely written with any thought at all...but what I'm complaining about wouldn't fit too well in the category of "queercatching" because a gay/bi/pan character's relationship is still at the center of the story, if I should so choose. So how do I explain why I'm so dissatisfied with what I'm getting, if at least I'm getting a full relationship with a woman out of it?

This is where we separate the way relationships fuelled by the mechanics of the game, from LGBTQ+ stories that are stitched into canon. Verilybitchie, in her video essay "How Bisexuality Changed Video Games" (seriously, watch it. It's a real eye-opener) goes into detail about this, but here's a small screenshot just to give you a rough idea:

(The essay breaks down many, many concepts - such as how sometimes the games view bisexuality and polyamory as almost interchangeable, and how some of the games negatively equate polyamory to cheating by taking away the option to be honest with the partners. One of the reasons this video focuses on bisexuality is to show how monosexuality is often viewed as a norm in the game mechanics themselves, even equated to faithfulness. But that is not relevant to this essay).

Mechanical Bisexuality - basically put - moulds the sexuality of your romanceable characters to suit yours. If you're gay/bi/pan, and want to romance a same-sex character, they will respond to you romantically and based on what they say in those playthroughs they may be either gay or bi. But if you play the same  game as a straight person, you will probably never know. There are ways this can be done well, and still be respectful to those  characters. But if done badly, this means that the romanceable character's sexuality is important only in relation to the player and not on its own. Which is to say that as long as you're using fictional bisexuality for my coin as a queer player, but not bothering to explore bisexuality as a lived experience, you're still engaging in a form of bi erasure.

Canonical Bisexuality, on the other hand, establishes a character (who is not the player) as bi regardless of the player's choices. Which is to say that their sexuality - like in real life - exists independent of the player-character's actions or desires, and is a part of their character history by default. Again, this doesn't mean it's completely perfect - Verilybitchie's video shows us examples upon examples of how a lot of canonically bi characters are villainized and othered in gaming culture. But if used well, it can be extremely empowering to see a bi person proudly and by default establish their identity within the framework of that game. 

The video establishes three main criteria that a game must meet to be viewed as showing canon bisexuality - the showing of bi attraction across the board, not centering the player-character in the character's bi identity (ie I should see it even in playthroughs where I'm not romancing the character) and - the most important - we shouldn't take into account Twitter canon.

What is Twitter canon? It's when the developers/story leads "out" the character in their interviews, but continue to not address their sexuality in canon. As Verilybitchie explains it, "game developers are much more likely to call their characters bi in interviews than in the actual games themselves. Using the word "bi" is not everything, it's not the be-all or end-all of representation, but games do tend to avoid the word "bi" like the plague. You know, like in real life!"

What Kara Loo essentially did, in the example above, was exactly that. Twitter canon. 

LGBTQ+ Rep and PlayChoices

Before we go into whether Hana has a journey related to her sexuality or not, it helps to take a brief look at how queer characters are depicted on the basis of both being aware of their identity, and being public about it. In a game like Choices that has long considered its diversity in representation its USP, you will have at least one LI who is considered canonically gay/bi, at least two books have a trans character, and in a book with a gender-customizable MC, every LI should be assumed at least bi. That isn't even counting side characters who are canonically gay, bi, pan, aroace and non-binary.

So it's not about whether these characters exist. That is the game's setup. What is important then is the way their queer identities are contextualised. And I find that this manifests in four different ways (note: I'll be sticking to LIs here):

1. Mechanical Bisexuality: In Choices, the texts that show this most, are the ones that have gender-customizable MCs. Because the MC could be either male or female (or nonbinary, in one case), it is assumed that the LIs are automatically bi (there is a section of the fandom that would rather view them as "playersexual" but I'm going to pretend they don't exist). In books where the LIs are viewed by their writers solely as male romancing female MCs, the heteronormativity is apparant in the way they're written, esp their sex scenes (eg. when you see carelessly-written pronoun changes for a gender-customizable character). However, we do have examples that show the writers clearly putting some level of thought into that LI's interactions with a male MC. Think of how PM2 has Damien's ex Alana refers to him wanting a "partner" rather than a girl/boyfriend, or the scene where Ethan Ramsey has sex in OH1 with a male MC. However, these strategies are sometimes used in tandem with ones that make the character's queerness less apparent to players who may not be comfortable: think of how, in both OH2 and BSC - Rafael Aveiro and Dallas James' other partners/ex-partners are given the same gender as the MC, meaning that their sexuality would rarely or never be addressed across canon. There is also a disrespect from PB itself in the way coded sexuality is viewed - think of how, for instance, TE allowed for us to choose the MC's sexuality in the beginning, yet in the service of a diamond scene claimed "you can change your mind" and used the split-attraction model as an excuse for this framing.

2. Out and Proud: Queer characters who are either confirmed or assumed to already be out in public. Often this includes characters who romance female LIs in genderlocked books but who never reference their sexuality in the books and aren't treated any differently when they openly romance the female MC. Generally it is assumed that they are comfortable in their identity and publicly identify as such. In most cases, PB does this as a way to not talk about sexuality, but in comparison to the categories following, it can be somewhat mitigated by the implication that this character is out and proud.

There are examples where the character can hint at, or talk about their journey though. Lily Spencer (BB) starts out dating another woman, and tells us by Ch. 3 that she was a "nerdy, bi black girl growing up in rural Wisconsin". You have Emma Hawkins (HSS) mentioning her coming out to her parents, and Zig Ortega (TF) casually coming out to his friends when he says he finds James' friend Teddy attractive. You also have Teja Desai (RCD) speak of romantic escapades with a girl in the first book, and confirming she is lesbian to her friend Seth in the second. We have two transpersons (Aisha Bhatt of BP and Andy Kang of ILITW), two nonbinary people (Cameron of HSS and Wren of AME) and one aroace (Zephyr Hernandez of TE) who are also comfortable in their identities and give us small insights into their journeys. These moments and dialogues may be fleeting, and may have very little to do with the character's current arcs, but they add a lot of rich detail to the characterization and give us an insight into their journey as queer people.

3. In the Closet: Characters who are out to themselves but still in the closet. Usually, they are aware of their sexuality, have been for a long time, but cannot - for personal or professional reasons - come out. The MC is often faced with someone who knows they are gay/bi, but is navigating a relationship with, or supporting them while they deal with whether they can be so in public or not. Struggling with coming out can be a character arc in itself for these characters, and notably PB has focused on some of their journeys.

An excellent example of this is Kaitlyn Liao (TF). In Book 2 she tells us she's been aware of her sexuality since school but had never been in a relationship before the MC ("I knew I liked girls, but it seemed like a total fantasy that anyone would like me, you know?"). The entirety of the second book is dedicated to her coming out - first to her friend from Texas, Arjun, then to her parents - one of whom takes time to get used to this truth, but who unequivocally supports her at the end of the book. You also have Eiko Matsunaga (MoTY) who cannot come out at her workplace but is outed by the homophobic Vanessa. This is also a subplot often used in some of PB's historical stories (as well as the next category) - Annabelle Parsons (D&D) and Gemma Montjoy (TUH) imply their awareness of being attracted to women, but have to keep their sexuality a secret because in their time their identity is not only deemed unacceptable, but also invisible (at least in Annabelle's case).

4. The fourth category is what I sometimes dub as "Baby Gay/Bi/Queer".

Unlike "In the Closet", these characters start out unaware of how they identify, and their realization that not only does the (female, in all these cases) MC capture their attention in a way they don't expect, but that it goes beyond her into who they are and who they feel romantic attraction for. In at least two of these cases, those LIs (both are lesbian) openly say they will never again lie with/date another man.

I won't talk about Hana now, but I will briefly touch upon Sabina (ACOR) and Ava Lawrence (MFTL). Sabina lives in ancient Rome, was married off as a child and is under the thumb of an abusive man. She is a deeply traumatized woman when we first meet her, and the MC must peel through her many layers of pain and repressed anger to finally help her find freedom. A fan-favourite Sabina scene references the poem "One Girl" by Sappho, the poet from ancient Greece so intimately tied to the history of LGBTQ+ literature that two terms came both from her name (sapphic), and the name of her birthplace (lesbian, from Lesbos). Ava, on the other hand, is still in school, overcompensating in her relationship with Mason, battling her confusion and feelings for the MC, before coming out to their classmate, Bayla. In a rare instance of inspired writing from the MFTL team, Ava describes the words as being "ripped out" from her, and Bayla becomes a source of comfort and solidarity when she reveals that she, too, is a lesbian. She is paired either with her or with the MC, who is also written as canonically bi. We are also told that she comes out to her parents later on, and gets their support.

As you can see, Sabina and Ava being "Baby Gays" allows for some great scenes, where they can strongly assert their identity as lesbians and find a happy future. The problem lies in how the writing teams often write them and their journeys as if they are outside the scope of the story, not valuable enough for consistent exploration. In their respective books, both Ava and Sabina are often written out of the events and rarely given much attention. Financially they are given far less chances to rake in money because the scenes are so few and far between, and structurally, they are overshadowed by their male counterparts. Of course that is a factor that affects female LIs across the board, but in the case of this particular type of character, it is even more damaging.

It is important, especially for these characters, to have more space and attention given to this arc in particular, because it is their central arc. We are watching their coming out journey, their discovery that they are not straight, in real time. And it is essential in such cases - if you're a company that cares about representation - to allow that arc to blossom outside of the MC, and to center these LIs first and foremost in this story. And it is important because they tend to be the most vulnerable - often coming from familial/societal structures that don't allow them to even question what their families expect them to feel (in at least two of these examples). In their stories they deserve support, they deserve space to explore that aspect of their identities - with or without the MC - and if narratively possible, they deserve to know that they are a part of a large community. Depriving them of this can send a damaging message, esp if you're a company that benefits from being viewed as acting "inclusive", with a "lack of heteronormativity" in your stories. (HAHAHA)

Hana as a Baby Bi

Hana gets her first proper kiss, ever, in TRR1 Ch. 16 (optionally). She sleeps with someone for the first time, ever, in TRR2 Ch 18. While this is par the course if you're not the person the MC was joining the competition to win (Drake, too, gets his kisses and love scenes late in the story), the story is insistent that these are things she's never experienced before. What does this mean, and why was it necessary in Hana's case to take this long?

If you choose every single romantic option with Hana in TRR1, you will notice a slow, but subtle progression. She blushes and doesn't directly comment on how this affects her in almost all these scenes, but from her room to the Cronut shop to our dancing lessons to playing piano, to...finally...confessing her feelings before the Coronation, we find Hana slowly getting comfortable with the intimacy of touch.

If we were to go by Hana's own account, most of the girls/women she'd interacted with thus far hadn't shown much of a desire to interact with her: they're described as either privileged, pampered women who saw her as a rival (much like Olivia and the other noble women do in the beginning), or as people too wrapped up in their own interests to notice her (as she hints in the dressage scene). Even a "nice woman" is a novelty to her.

The MC turns her notions of how other women act on their head as soon as the two meet, and we find that every word that indicates attraction, and every touch, seems to surprise her with how much it affects her. In the bakery where they have cronuts, she is shocked enough by her own response to immediately withdraw her hand, and she seems to have an experience she didn't at all expect when she teaches the MC the romantic Cordonian Waltz. But by the time she plays piano for the MC, she seems to feel more comfortable around her, allowing the touches to now linger. By the time of the Beaumont Bash, she is enthusiastic to retry her first kiss, showing us just how much she's progressed in establishing a sense of comfort with this woman she is learning to love.

Romantic, sensual touch is a novelty to Hana not only because she's new to the idea of a woman being with her. It's because she is new to the whole concept of sexual desire itself, beyond the books she may have read. She is so new to what it's like to passionately love and be loved by someone, that when she finally confesses her feelings to the MC in her Ch. 17 diamond scene, her words come out confused and almost inarticulate:

In the second book, while she is comfortable with kissing and light makeouts in most of their diamond scenes, she places boundaries when it comes to sex, because the experience is not only new but something she can only feel comfortable doing when she's confident of her relationship with the MC (as implied by the way the narrative stops short of sex in her last two individual scenes before her proposal). But this is perhaps something I will be addressing later on in this essay.

Touch and romance with the MC is central to how we read Hana's sexuality - mostly because it's the only way we can get a clear idea of her sexuality journey overall. The narrative doesn't want to even think about it otherwise. There is no dialogue that refers directly to it, no interactions with other people that directly references her having feelings, no indication of this part of her identity. So a lot of my reading of Hana as a woman learning other sexualities besides "straight" exist...is based mostly on her interactions with the MC.

There is one huge catch to this, though.

There is no scene of Hana's, across the seven books of this series, that references her sexuality - lesbian or bi - by default.

The Discomfort Around A Sapphic Hana

To elaborate on that last sentence - most of the scenes I mentioned above? Are part of diamond scenes. With friendly options. Some of them have more friendly options than romance, in fact.

In the sub-essay on LI!Hana and Friend!Hana, I made a comparison between the three confession scenes at the Coronation Ball. It was clear that the MC would learn about the male LIs' feelings for her by default, and can have Hana openly confess in the free option for the scene, but you have to push the romantic options consistently for Hana to state it in her diamond scene. Her "confession scene" can absolutely be played without ever once referencing her attraction to the MC, simply by the MC friendzoning her first. And unless you choose a romantic option in TRR2, Hana never, ever talks about this attraction for you again. Perhaps the only indication of her feelings that happens by default, is Olivia's calling out of the MC prior to Coronation Ball ("It might be fun to buddy up with Hana...but at the end of the day, she's going to go away heartbroken. And have you ever considered that you might be the cause?"). It hardly even sticks because it's brushed off so casually afterwards.

It is possible - even easy - for you to go through this entire series and the subsequent one, without hearing a single word from Hana herself, about either her love for the MC, or what it means for her to realize that she can love women.

What is absolutely striking about this when you look at these bits of writing as a whole, is how much the comfort of a straight (and possibly homophobic) female player is prioritized in the way Hana interacts with the MC. Hana's love for the MC has to be tailored to fit the player's comfort - Liam's and Drake's do not. A Hana who is told that the MC doesn't love her back is supposed to return immediately to "best friend" mode - no lingering sadness, no regret, her feelings are simply not allowed to have value on their own.

This is disturbing in itself. But perhaps this would be mitigated by seeing Hana's sexuality play a role in other exchanges that may have at least a romantic aim, right? So let us further explore other possible relationships, even the ones where she has no interest yet must enter in with the intention of marriage:

Peter

The Cordonian Waltz scene with Hana in TRR1 is perhaps the only one where Hana's queerness is at the center - or at least hinted to be. There is a compelling collision between her growing feelings for the MC (if you choose to romance her) and the memory of a man who almost married her - who we never see in the actual book, but who is referenced in later scenes as a looming example of her "failure".

Hana speaks of Peter with a mixture of gratitude and pain - she is careful to tell us that he was a nice man who handled their situation more kindly than she expected him to, but is also aware that he had the privilege to expect sweeping romance from a relationship in a way that she never could. Her description of their engagement cuts into the pain of living in the closet - not only does she not love the man, she also feels immense confusion and guilt at her "inability" to do so ("even though I told him what he wanted to hear, I couldn't hold back the tears"). Whether or not the MC flirts with her in this scene, this story (thankfully) features, and has all the power and intensity that you'd expect from a scene about a queer person in a closet.

Back when TRR1 was the only book out, many players found this scene hinted strongly at Hana being lesbian, and I'm inclined to agree. There is an emotional intensity that suggested a realization that she couldn't love a man, couple with her attraction for a woman. And while honestly Bi Awakenings can be just as powerful, I can see why it would be read this way more.

(This is not the only time we learn about Peter. Hana's subsequent stories about him tell us one very interesting thing about her life with her parents - that she is not only closeted, but also a virgin. At truth-or-dare, she describes her first kiss with Peter as a staged performance that crashed into disaster when he missed and punctured his lip on her earring. The first time the MC seriously makes out with her, Hana tells her that her relationship with Peter had always been chaste. Canonically, she has never had sex nor actual sexual contact before the MC. This puts her in a doubly vulnerable position because not only is she in the closet, but she also has no rubric for what sexual dynamics are like, and that can change how certain LI scenes could be read. For instance, when the MC who is engaged to someone else sleeps with Hana, there is an added layer of exploitation, considering there was no readiness for sex when they were not official.)

We are never given a default scene that even picks up on the threads Hana leaves with this story. But ironically, Peter is referenced twice by other women to label Hana a failure. It really goes to show you what the team thought the most important takeaway from this scene was.

Liam

The two things to keep in mind with any interaction that features Hana and Liam is that 1. They're both LIs, and 2. Hana is a lady of the court, and ladies of the court are often given limited interactions with Liam (at least, if you're not Olivia) because the focus of his story is so trained on the MC. So they're friends in group scenes, have a handful of interactions independently, can speak positively of each other to the MC - but there is never going to be any closeness that can be misinterpreted as romance.

Hana's stated purpose when she enters Cordonia is that she hopes her chances at marrying Liam will be better than that of marrying Peter. Yet, romance wise Liam is a non-factor for Hana early on. There is no question of her having romantic feelings for him, and because Liam's story is (from the beginning) primarily about the conflict between doing his "duty" and loving the MC, there is no expectation from his end either, which means the transition into stating they are friends happens pretty soon after the social season ends.

We have dialogue from both of them speaking about each other even outside of group scenes (Liam telling us why he appreciates Hana as a friend in NY, Hana telling us an adorable story of Liam helping her on her first day in Cordonia) but very little that references the brief time when she was supposed to woo him. Which is alright, because it hints at an easier and less painful dynamic than what she had with Peter, and a far less annoying one than what she has with Neville.

Unfortunately, however, the narrative seems to add her not being picked as Liam's bride on her "failure" list, which is egregious when you realize that literally no other woman from the same social season is measured by that ridiculous, sexist standard. It also points to a disturbing aspect of the worldbuilding in general, but I'll get back to that a little later.

Rashad and Neville

These two characters enter at a rather interesting point in Hana's story. She is either interested in the MC, or not interested in any relationship at all, but faces threats from both her parents and Madeleine to either get a male suitor or leave Cordonia. Even the MC, regardless of her feelings for Hana, is viewed positively in this scene only if she stands in as Hana's wingwoman, with her optional offer to be a suitor not even seen as a viable option. No matter whether there is a romance or not - the MC seems strangely distant from the very real possibility that her potential lover may be forced to marry another man, which is a real contrast to the possessiveness and scorn Drake's MC can optionally show when it comes to Kiara.

The one good thing that comes out of this subplot is an awareness from Hana, that these two are not viable options for her anyway. Straight off the bat, she can by default consider them boring, and the few times she speaks about them she can articulate what she finds dissatisfying in her interactions with them. Rashad recedes in the background once it's clear that Neville likes her more (though he briefly features in TRR3 to help Hana with a contact for her father's business). She is eventually allowed to push back at Neville, independent of her argument with her father, and let him know exactly what she thinks of him (on the flip side? She does this in defence of Drake, and Neville becomes the main antagonist in Drake's TRR3 subplot from that point on).

As I mentioned in the previous essay, Neville is Hana's final straw when it comes to obeying her parents. He is disagreeable enough to her that she has to put her foot down. Whether or not the MC takes an interest in her, Hana clearly feels marrying Neville is beyond even her limits of endurance, and the prospect of marrying him coupled with her defence of the MC is part of what propels her to defy her father in Shanghai (Sadly, what could have been a default coming out moment is instead turned into an vague argument about friendship and self-reliance).

This may work...as long as it is a springboard to Hana's self-discovery both within and outside of her romance with the MC. If it is something that opens her up to either dating, or figuring out who she is and what she likes romantically. Which...doesn't exactly happen.

These are the men we see with "relationship possibility" in Hana's story, yet it is clear that she has no romantic interest in any of them. The dynamics with some of the men (esp Neville) revolves around her discomfort with those relationships. We do not see any other examples of this furthermore in the text, and often this is used as an example of how she can't possibly be bi (which is honestly a legitimate argument when you take into account what we said earlier about "Twitter canon"). The MC is the clearest indication for her preference for women...except that it centers the MC more than her, and mostly depends on the player's comfort with her sexuality to even be seen.

With that said, do we have any examples of her having anything romantic with women? Women who aren't the MC??

Madeleine

"But Lizzy," I can hear some of you say, "what about Madeleine?"

Which is a fair point. Every LI had an alternative LI (though Maxwell's was scrapped almost as soon as he became an LI) and Hana was no different. Madeleine was very clearly intended, by TRR3 at least, to be Hana's alternative LI. On the surface, this should sound like a good thing, right? Hana's sexuality and feelings for women could be acknowledged beyond the romance with the MC, right??

Well...if you like bully-victim "romances" that revolve around the bully, I guess.

If you squinted, maybe you could see something that would pass for a hint of romantic symbolism in TRR2 (the bachelorette activity Hana had planned for Madeleine hints at her believing the two are supposed to have a date after the chocolate fondue party), followed by a handful of scenes in TRR3 where Madeleine could imply having a crush on Hana (these scenes only appear in her single playthrough). In between these two things...is Madeleine's admission about wanting to "break Hana".

I've already addressed the chocolate incident and its implications in the essay of "The Ladies of the Court", so I'll be skipping straight to the "romantic" implications of that scene and how that "romance" is framed thereafter.

Many Madeleine stans often treat the chocolate incident as a one-off, which is not only wildly inaccurate but callous in its minimization. Madeleine in her position as Queen-to-be, constantly reminded Hana of their power dynamic and in fact threatened to send her back to China if she didn't manage to get a suitor. The source of a lot of Hana's anxiety in TRR2 revolves around very real threats Madeleine had made. The chocolate incident wasn't just one bad thing Madeleine did that one time, but an escalation in a string of abusive and threatening behaviours. Which means that once the writers established Madeleine and Hana as possible endgame (as they clearly wanted to do), they were faced with the choice to either address what Madeleine had done to her and have her face consequences, or retcon it completely to make the romance easier for Madeleine. They chose the latter.

On the surface you can tell exactly which trope the team might have been going for - the Armoured Closeted Gay/Bi that usually involves a gay/lesbian/bi character dealing with their discomfort of their sexuality by harming another gay/lesbian/bi character. (We've seen a variation of this in ILITW, with Lily Oritz and Britney - except that the situation revolved more around Lily's unresolved feelings for a bully who was once her friend, and she had the freedom to choose differently when Britney disappointed her at the end. It's still problematic, but Lily is given a healthy sense of agency within this dynamic). This trope often involves bullying, which is justified as them coping with their confusions and possible self-hatred. There are ways to ensure the victim is centered in such a dynamic and not the perpetrator (which you can see, to an extent, in an example like Lily's), but it can also center the bully and ignore the victim's perspective. In Madeleine's case, this trope was part of a bigger "redemption" arc - one in which she was a patriot with a neglectful and overly critical father, grieving her lost chances and learning to find purpose in her new job - with Hana being subtly positioned more as a prize for her dedication, rather than as a person with her own opinions and agency. It shows in the way their interactions in TRR3, when the narrative was trying to subtly push the ship, are framed.

There are five distinct scenes total in Hana's single playthrough that hint at the possibility of this relationship in TRR3. Madeleine's "stupidly perfect" dialogue in Fydelia, Hana and Madeleine cross-referencing each other in their scenes at Costume Gala, Madeleine's nonapology and offer for a dance in Vegas, Madeleine's reaction to the Hana MC asking if she's "jealous" prior to her wedding reception (she reacts a bit flustered about Liam - the man she was going to marry - and Hana, versus her casual dismissiveness at the same question from a Drake or Maxwell MC). I'm not including the finale conversation, as that was an attempt from the team to backtrack on the ship completely, post backlash, and therefore features excuses that contradict canon to make Madeleine's reasoning sound legitimate. Three out of these five feature Hana, and you'll find a common thread in at least two of those scenes:

In both scenes, Madeleine hints at her attraction for Hana, but Hana is only ever allowed to be surprised and at the very most say that she never expected that from Madeleine (and while Hana can - thankfully - sound a slight bit suspicious of Madeleine's motives in Vegas, the "tricks" she mentions do not match the intensity of what Madeleine actually did in TRR2. Which makes sense, considering they were already retconning the chocolate incident altogether). The end result usually has Hana say...very very little about what she feels.

There is only one scene among these five that even allows Hana to vaguely imply any interest in Madeleine at all, in fact - at the Costume Gala while talking with the MC and Olivia:

The writers made a subtle distinction between her compliments for Madeleine in her single playthrough, and Kiara in her LI one, by having them be more personal for the former, and more neutral with passive language for the latter. But it is one in four scenes that have Madeleine talk more, express more, articulate her feelings more, with little space or agency left for Hana. Hana almost feels like an afterthought in these scenes.

In each scene that features the two in this "romance", Madeleine is the one whose thoughts and feelings matter. She feels Hana is "stupidly sweet and perfect". She thinks Hana's company is more bearable than most people's and that she would "be willing to let bygones be bygones" when the MC speaks of her earlier behaviour. She feels that mayyyybe she mayyyy have wronged Hana. She is asked if she feels jealous of the Hana!MC. She feels her abominable behaviour towards Hana would actually be justified if Hana had been "fake" like she'd suspected. And you will see this even in the way many fans who support the Madeleine x Hana ship frame the "romance" - Madeleine's feelings are explored more, Madeleine's actions are justified, excused or downplayed, and Hana's feelings and journey are clearly not as worthy of exploration.

We hear so much about what Madeleine thinks of Hana and almost nothing of what Hana thinks of her (until the epilogue, and even then Hana is allowed only a few lines about needing time to forgive Madeleine, while Madeleine's assumptions and excuses dominate the conversation). So even in the one other relationship that would have confirmed Hana's sexuality, the feelings of the woman who harmed her have far more value.

This leaves us with the MC, who is the only person Hana is actually allowed to express a clear attraction for, and who functions as the catalyst for her LGBTQ Awakening (another trope, which shows a queer character emerging into a realization of their own sexuality), yet there is no real space for Hana to move forward if the MC isn't interested. There is no real attempt to have her awakening lead anywhere if it doesn't benefit the MC. The narrative wants to give the MC the credit of being Hana's first, in every way possible, but cannot be bothered to move it away from the MC if she doesn't want to be.

And even if the MC decides to romance and marry Hana, the fact that they're a queer couple is hardly ever addressed. Questions that Hana could have as a wlw, are hardly ever brought up. In TRH1, while the writing changes to accommodate alternative ways of getting pregnant for a wlw couple, a lot of the dialogue seems to remain the same as it is for the male LIs (esp the ones about "making babies" and sex). When she marries the MC, the narrative forgets that Hana was ever in that damn closet to begin with!

In the end what Hana gets is a story that moulds the importance of her sexuality according to the comfort of the player, but that won't allow her to explore her sexuality on her own terms outside of the MC. It's a sexuality that centers the protagonist, rather the the actual person experiencing that journey. The only two romances PB allows her are about the other person, and very rarely about her.

But romances aren't the only way one can highlight a sexuality journey, though they are one of the most effective. Being part of the LGBTQ+ community...is also about community: about realizing that there are many others like you, and that you can find solidarity among people who have experienced similar journeys, about the LGBTQ+ culture of the place you're staying in. So...does TRR attempt to do at least that?

Heteronormativity and Cordonia

There are ways you can address sexuality if you don't want to push forward a romance. Have the closeted character meet other queer people. Have them join communities dedicated to LGBTQ support, and engage in activities that support queer people. Hana is a voracious reader so having someone recommend her books by queer authors wouldn't have looked out of place either (ACOR did a variation of "lesbian character reading lesbian literature" by having Sabina and the MC read out Sappho's poetry). Have her rethink feelings she may have misinterpreted as closeness or hero-worship of someone (eg. maybe a famous female celebrity) to realize that what she had was a crush. Sure, this may not center the MC, but if Drake can spend chapters whining about his sister and Maxwell can spend more chapters believing in the goodness of his obviously-evil dad, then dammit Hana could have been allowed space to see her sexuality beyond how it could benefit the MC.

Not only does the narrative NOT do any of this, but they also reinforce heteronormativity in several sequences, while aggressively retconning previous indications of it so to avoid addressing possible past homophobia.

I've mentioned before that the Cordonian Waltz scene is perhaps the closest Hana gets to speaking about her sexuality, in a roundabout, unaware way. While her engagement with Peter, and the reason behind their subsequent breakup is the center of her story, it is just as much about her parents' heteronormativity - where they would throw only men at her for marriage, where Hana had clearly never even thought loving a woman was possible before, where the traits her mother assumes to be attractive to suitors tend to appeal to men in the court (acting like a damsel in distress, for instance). Everything about her parents' training screams heteronormativity.

The Cordonia of the first two books seems to reinforce this somewhat. It is depicted as a stiff-upper-lip sort of society that focuses on "propriety" and is squeamish about PDA, and most of the relationships we get to see in its world seem to reinforce heteronormativity. Perhaps the closest someone ever gets to openly mentioning they're queer is Maxwell in his TRR2 finale scene, where he speaks about flings with "people", which gave rise to the hc that he was pansexual. Hana herself gets to engage with a queer character or two (such as Marguerite from TH:M in TRH1) and even gets to encourage Kiara during truth-or-dare when the latter is asked to choose women she can date.

In TRR3, the narrative seems to lean more towards theories about TCaTF (equating the Great Houses to the Five Kingdoms, showing us weapons from those times, having more Duchesses than Dukes and having Liam remind us that one of their most iconic rulers was a woman), which didn't seem as heteronormative (eg. Tevan can casually talk about his male and female suitors in the middle of battle, Annelyse is openly flirting with Kenna when they first meet). In addition to this, the choice to make the reception from the public, of the Hana x MC relationship, the same as the other LIs...allowed readers to view Cordonia itself as a society that views relationships that are not openly hetero, as normal. Queer dynamics are okay, I guess, as long as the narrative doesn't have to work to show it.

Unfortunately, the lack of real thought and planning that strategy suggests, leads to moments that would seem out-of-pocket or strange in such a world, yet not treated that way.

A clear example of that is this scene. Cordonia at this point is supposed to not discriminate between men and women, and okay with same-sex relationships. Yet Hana - the closest we have (until the hints about Madeleine) to a canonically queer character - is considered a failure for two men not choosing her! In a narrative where, optionally, she is marrying a woman and on the verge of becoming a Duchess! And this persists even after her goddamn marriage when the queen of a neighbouring country can mock her the same way!

This is bad enough already. But from the same chapter emerges something even more insidious - the erasure of Hana's own background, especially the components of heteronormativity we saw in her Cordonian Waltz scene and the argument with her father:

"New money" was never a factor in Hana's family's reasons for choosing the matches they did - direct or implied. The gender of her expected partner was. Not once did Hana's parents ever try to put forward a powerful, titled woman of old money, and this story was filled to bursting with them. Hell, even the Cordonian Waltz scene shows us that Hana was never even allowed to think in the direction of loving women! Yet the narrative thought it appropriate to wrap up Hana's arc with her parents - whose isolation of her and control over her relationships led to her being unaware of her own sexuality for years - by erasing that very important detail.

The narrative itself treated even Hana's wedding as an afterthought. She was never really viewed as another bride, never given all the perks that the MC got. Their wedding was written (like Maxwell's) with glitches galore, including the infamous "husband and wife" label from the officiant that openly ignored the player's own choices just a few chapters before. And as I've mentioned in previous essays, the writers made no distinctions between bride!Hana and bridesmaid!Hana at the reception, resulting in the uncomfortable image of Hana doing bridesmaid duties in her wedding gown. One book later, people were teasing Hana and the MC about all the sex they were having to make babies, and the only real difference between Hana's single and married playthroughs...was that married!Hana could learn she couldn't get pregnant. In her single playthrough, despite the core theme of her story being self-discovery, she was hardly given any life of her own.

When this is the way the narrative itself treats Hana's sexuality, what hope is there that they will allow her any sense of community with her queer identity, outside of the MC??

Lesbian or Bi?

It is a testament to how little Hana's sexuality mattered to the writing team, that even after the end of TRR3 the fandom was still debating over whether Kara's Twitter canon had any weight.

It didn't need to be this way. They could have made Hana's confession to the MC actually default. They could have allowed her to actively show interest in a woman (or a woman and a man) and center her in the story with that alternative LI, rather than treat her as a prize in a former antagonist's story. They could have even peppered the story with hints that she was going out, meeting other people, learning on her own that she was not straight and letting us know clearly what she identified herself as. And while sure, this may be too much to ask from a company that often sidelines its female LIs, the fault still lies with them for making her a person so deep in the closet that she had to come out to herself first. (Which, btw, they never allowed to openly or subtle reference in canon).

Hana was called bi by a story lead of the book. The same story lead claimed she was going through a journey of discovering this, yet nothing in her actual story supports that. She shows no attraction to any man in the books, but we also never see her show any real, obvious, consistent, canon-supported attraction to a woman that isn't the MC either. The only other possibility of a relationship revolves around someone who'd found joy in harming her, with little to no agency for Hana. Her sexuality was spoken of as "something she is still figuring out for herself" yet it's been six books since and we've heard nothing about what it is she's figured out.

The narrative would have lost absolutely nothing by making her a canonical lesbian, or even a canonical bisexual, yet pushed her into a version of the "mechanical bi" template where she could either show her attraction to ONE woman in particular, or just keep that aspect of herself hidden forever. And while one may assume that her "figuring out" of her sexuality happened offscreen, it is clear that her writers were too uncomfortable with her sexuality themselves, to provide clarity, to even want to give it any value beyond the MC's needs and desires.

In closing, if I were to sum up how TRR treats Hana's sexuality, it would go something like this:

Hana isn't allowed past romances. Hana isn't allowed future romances. Twitter canon claims she's bi yet only has her briefly talk to four men she's not even interested in. The only woman she's allowed to actually date is the MC and even that is moulded for the MC's comfort levels. The only other romance she's "allowed'' is with someone who wanted to break her, and she's hardly even allowed an opinion on that person's interest in her. Her parents are shown to be homophobic but when the team wants to soften them further they erase their homophobia. And then she is never, ever, EVER allowed even a sense of community with other queer people because the fucking world they built is actually so fucking heteronormative!!!!

It is clear, therefore, that even Hana's sexuality is written in a way that it's never about her - it is written for the MC. If the MC romances her, Hana's whole sexuality story begins and ends with this one person, with no future reference to what her closeted past was like or how her journey progresses beyond her marriage. If the MC rejects her, the narrative never bothers with what happens next for that story. It is the MC who romances her that benefits from her attraction, and the MC who doesn't want her love that benefits from her silence.

Hana's story of her sexuality - as with many other aspects of her writing - begins in uncertainty, but ends in erasure.

Next: China, Cordonia and "Home"

#hana lee #hana lee: a study in erasure #long post #lgbtq #the royal romance #the royal heir #the royal finale

[posi-pan]

Yet another unlabeled/mlm/queer character has been confirmed in the last few days, this time one that I love a lot and hold close, and instead of getting to celebrate and be excited about it… I’m just getting disappointed and upset at everybody automatically deeming him bi when his label hasn’t been actually stated or confirmed anywhere. All we know is he’s a boy who has an interest in other boys, and has had girlfriends in the past. There is a whole plethora of labels that could fit him, or the authors could instead choose to use none of them. But once again the mentality that “liking more than one gender = bi and only bi” is prevailing and I’m so very tired of hearing that every. single. time. an unlabeled character/person comes out.

It’s really hard to celebrate the coming out of unlabeled mspec characters when everyone defaults them to bi and that’s that, and they shut down any other ideas about their identity. I should be happy that we even have this rep to begin with, especially when it’s a character that’s close to my heart. But it’s just so hard. I’m so tired of being overlooked and ignored and then called biphobic when I speak up about it, or when I say that I see these characters as pan or omni or queer instead. But like… there is more than one mspec label!!!! There is no default sexuality!!! Others exist and we should be able to see ourselves in these characters too. We should at least have a chance at seeing ourselves in these characters but we never even get to do that.

i’m sorry you’re upset about this. but also, preach!!!!!!

this makes me think of the show dead to me. one of the main characters is queer but her sexuality isn’t labeled on or off screen, yet everyone decided she’s bisexual or argued that it’s harmful representation for her to not be labeled on screen.

and this particularly annoys me, because the showrunner spoke about wanting to reflect growing casual sexual fluidity instead of the typical Big Important Coming Out stories. they very much did not decide to write a bisexual character and backed out on using the word, like everyone automatically assumes every single time an mspec character isn’t labeled.

so not only do people erase other mspec identities that an unlabeled character could be or intended to eventually represent by assuming they default as bisexual or it’s biphobic for them to be unlabeled, but they also erase the fact that unlabeled people exist and deserve representation, and sometimes an unlabeled character is purposeful and thoughtful.

it’s one thing to headcanon unlabeled characters as specific sexualities, but it’s another to act as if it’s just a given that the character is canonically the sexuality you interpret them as. but yeah, people very much need to stop treating bisexual as the default, inherent mspec sexuality, because it’s not and it never has been.

#asks #anonymous #mspec antagonism #unlabeled antagonism #long post

[thesnadger]

Me: My dash is full of stuff about current events, I really wish there was something else on it to distract me.

Tumblr: That TV show you keep forgetting is still on the air confirmed a queer relationship in the most homophobic way possible.

Me: I honestly don’t really --

Tumblr: Shhhshhhshh. I’m not done.

Tumblr: This is how you will learn that one of the actors from this show wrote "no” on an essay someone gave them about their character being bi, an event someone else wrote an entire novel about, which appeared on the TV show Riverdale after she was hired as a writer for it.

Tumblr: Which in turn will be how you will learn that the showrunner for Riverdale was once sued by Archie comics for writing a play where Archie came out as gay, moved to New York City and got into a love triangle with real-world infamous murderers Leopold and Loeb.

Tumblr: This is all I’m going to talk about all day.

Me: what the hell

#mainstream tv shows are you okay? #i've been in a podcast bubble #is all television like this now? #homophobia mention

[kitkatopinions]

I always assumed Ironwood wasn't straight. I mean he's a dude in his 40s who's unmarried and has no previous family or children to speak of. Then again he did dance with Glynda that one time so who knows?

That's just the thing, there's no way of knowing. Here are things that literally would not go against Ironwood's suggested feelings for Glynda.

Asexual and Biromantic, Panromantic, or Heteroromantic. Bisexual and Biromantic, Panromantic, or Heteroromantic. Pansexual, and Biromantic, Panromantic, or Heteroromantic. Homosexual and biromantic, panromantic, or heteroromantic. Homosexual and homoromantic, but using compulsory heteronormativity (idc what MKEK said outside of canon, their own heteronormative writing in the early seasons makes it impossible to believe that there aren't things like Homophobia, transphobia, and sexism in the world of RWBY.) Asexual and Aromantic - Flirting does not mean that you're not aromantic. Heterosexual and Heteroromantic but trans, non-binary, or genderqueer (although he looks male-presenting, that's not an indication that he's definitely canon cisgender, and yes, he goes by he/him pronouns, but I have a non-binary sibling who mostly goes by she/her and stills calls herself my sister. You never know just by someone's appearance or even their pronouns.) Any of the above, and still not meaning anything really by his somewhat flirtatious tone and asking Glynda to dance in the same way that Yang winking at a White Fang member before attacking him says literally nothing about her canon sexuality since she's casually flirty, because he might just be casually flirty and that doesn't even mean that he's trying to appear straight even if the writers were clearly heteronormative themselves when they wrote everyone in the first three seasons before they decided to think about making Pilot Boi their first queer character. Heterosexual and heteroromantic and cisgengered.

Personally, I myself see James Ironwood as a bisexual, biromantic man who deeply respected Glynda, was attracted to her appearance, but more wanted something to be between them than actually having real feelings for her. But it's perfectly valid to headcanon any of the above.

Currently Ironwood's sexuality (and his gender for that matter) has yet to be confirmed. Even if the show writers stated that James Ironwood is just the straightest most straight, cis, non-LGBTQ+ character in their show, it still wouldn't be show proper canon, because Word of the Author is a broke system that many people threw out sometime around JK Rowling telling everyone wizards used to just pee and poop all over themselves at random and magic away the evidence. And even if the show writers wrote Qrow or Winter or something to say "Yeah, James is the straightest most straight cisgendered hetero guy we knew," post-death, it still would not be wrong to headcanon anything different.

James Ironwood is as gay as you want him to be, I guess is what I'm saying. James Ironwood is not a canon straight guy, I guess is also what I'm saying. It's deeply flawed and rooted in bi, ace, and pan erasure to assume that anyone is straight just because they make advances towards someone of the opposite gender. I already see so much biphobia specifically in the RWBY fandom, especially in regards to Blake, Yang, and even Qrow these days. It just really makes me frustrated that people have this mentality. Either they are Homosexuals or they are straight. Either Yang oogling men in season one means she's straight and now they're retconning her sexuality or Yang's a lesbian who was clearly just being comphet/Yang's a lesbian and if you're still clinging onto the first season, you're stupid. Either Blake's straight and it was wrong of the showrunners to 'pretend otherwise' to force her to be anything else or Blake's a lesbian and anyone still shipping her with Sun or other men are denial ridden homophobes themselves. Either Qrow is straight and anyone paying attention to lingering looks, hugs, and blushes are idiots reading into unintended framing or people shipping Qrow and Winter are just so stupid to ignore that Qrow winking at her meant nothing and people who read romantic tension in their fight have 'hetero goggles' on. Btw, there's nothing wrong in my opinion with headcanoning Yang as not attracted to men at all, Qrow as not attracted to women at all, or even Blake as not attracted to men at all and only thinking she had been. But that's not canon, and trying to enforce it is rooted in biphobia.

And now it's 'James is established straight from the get go,' because he said a somewhat flirty line to a woman and asked her to dance. It's very annoying. James is no more of a canon straight than Yang, Weiss, Blake, or Penny is. Expressing a very casual slight attraction towards someone of the opposite sex very much so doesn't determine someone's sexuality.

You're right, who knows? Nobody. Because currently, James Ironwood could be pretty much anything (even alive!) and we wouldn't know.

#rwde #pro james ironwood #LGBTQ+ James Ironwood #James Ironwood antis kindly don't reply thanks :)

[katya-goncharov]

Different ways the prequel could try to appeal to tumblr fans / destiel shippers

I've been trying to theorise the likeliest ways the prequel might try to cater to us. The thing is, it's a mainstream cw show, and it's centred around j*hn and mary, so it is likely that it'll be at least partly aimed at, you know, the straight-white-republican half of the viewership. but the thing is, they DO know that we (younger, mostly queer people) make up a large part of the spn audience too - like, from the spn episodes robbie thompson's written, it's obvious that he's very much aware of that. so i do think there'll definitely be something for us - but honestly realistically, it'll probably be similar to supernatural in terms of trying to cater to both sides.

so there's a few of what i think are vaguely likely options:

option 1 (most likely in my opinion): they have an explicitly lgbt side character. maybe a friend of mary's or something. considering it's robbie thompson, i do think this character would hopefully be quite compelling and well-written, but there is always the danger that it's just box ticking. like, would we really get invested in the show over ONE side character?

option 2 (could tie in with other scenarios): show is mostly centred around mary. she's the one the show is mostly focused on, she's well-rounded, she's badass, and generally written to appeal to us. mary's the focus, it's her story; her relationship with john and it's complexities is explored through her own experiences.

option 3: the queer-bait option. they try to give us a new destiel - a ship to become invested in which will never actually become canon. maybe mary's got a female friend who she's super close to in a way that makes john jealous. mary vents to this friend in a way she can't to john, there's all these parallels to destiel which show that she has a much healthier relationship with her female friend than with john, but they're never explicitely confirmed to have romantic feelings for each other.

option 4: bi mary!! this is similar to option 3, but mary's actually confirmed to have romantic feelings for a woman, or even be cheating on john. maybe she meets this woman first before the whole cupid thing. either option 3 or 4 could be really interesting actually - showing how mary's forced into this relationship she's not really happy with, how the future she could have had has been taken from her - especially since it's a period drama, this could be so interesting! whether it's made explicit or just implied through queer-bait

option 5: cas guest appearance. they all know we love cas, so they bring him in for a small role maybe for one episode. maybe he's talking to dean while dean's narrating. maybe he visits mary and john in a different vessel. maybe it is misha's cas time travelling. anyway they bait us with cas - he's got a small role, doesn't add much to the story, but they assume we'll watch if there's even the slightest sign of him

option 6: destiel confirmed through narration. we get our canon destiel, but we don't actually get to see it, and the focus is no longer on dean so there's less danger of alienating the other half of the demographic. there's some sort of side comment from dean that confirms that he does have feelings for cas, or even that they do eventually get together. it would still be so bad in terms of representation, but i think a lot of us would still find it validating to hear. i can definitely see the showrunners viewing it as a good compromise (even if we really deserved better) - and it's a good way of baiting us into watching, just in case we get more crumbs of destiel in later narrations.

anyway, there's probably more hypothetical scenarios, and i have no idea how the tv industry works so i could be wrong! honestly knowing spn, they'll probably go with something so batshit i couldn't possibly have guessed it. i've just been having fun theorising about what i think the realistic options are - because i definitely think it's going to be that confusing mess of trying to appeal to both sides again, so they can bring in the maximum viewership, and honestly there's so many ways that could go!

#sorry this is long and wordy! #i'm not the best at being articulate and i tend to waffle on a lot #i just do think it's interesting to think about and i love theorising! #spn #supernatural #destiel #deancas #dean winchester #mary winchester #castiel #jensen ackles #prequel