That is certainly - a statement.

What about Jim, who both metaphorically and literally discovers a path for themself beyond what they were raised to be? What about Pete, who learns to overcome his toxic masculinity, his posturing and self-importance? What about Ed, whose entire story is about deconstructing the performance that is expected of him?

What about, oh, idk, our main fucking character Stede Bonnet, whose arc starts with him literally breaking out from the hetero marriage he was forced into despite never fitting in? Who tries (and initially fails) to build a community where he can be himself? Whose entire story is about discovering his own queerness! He starts out not even able to put a finger on WHY his marriage made him feel so suffocated, and then journeys through s1 until he reaches the emotional climax - "His name is Ed"!

Contrast that with Izzy, who has to be dragged into a supportive community kicking and screaming. Who rejects care and compassion, even at his worst, who has to be forced to accept help. He receives the leg and calls the crew a homophobic slur for it, ffs. Only after that, only when people refuse to let him push them away, is he able to poke his nose into something approaching positive human connections. And that's a powerful narrative, sure, in it's own way; but it's hardly the Ultimate Queer Experience, and it's definitely not the "only queer arc".

And Izzy never lets go of the old ways. He never abandons the Blackbeard-era pirate lifestyle for something more positive, not fully. And that's okay, because ultimately, his arc isn't even about himself.

It's about Ed.

Ed keeps repeating toxic relationship patterns, and Izzy is a part of that. He's linked (on purpose, and I wish it had been done more explicitly) to Ed's father; because Izzy represents the poison that was instilled in Ed from a young age, and that has become so entrenched in his system that he can't imagine a life without it. He keeps Izzy around despite being hurt by him because Izzy is predictable, and in that, is safe, even though he hurts Ed; at least it's a hurt Ed is familiar with and can rely on.

When Izzy slowly changes it's to show that Ed is growing beyond the little voice in his head telling him to reject softness, that he can never be loved, that We're just not these kinds of people. If Izzy can evolve from someone spitting boyfriend at Ed like it's a slur to someone congratulating him on getting laid by that same person, Ed can overcome his inner demons telling him the same thing.

That's the point of Izzy's arc. And this is why he has to die, because Ed can never be truly free as long as Izzy is around. So Izzy goes, quietly, peacefully, and releases Ed of the poison; apologizes to him, tells him I was so wrong, and I am so sorry, because that's what Ed needs to hear to move forward.

And that's such a kind, positive way to end the story of Izzy Hands.

all right. i'm ready to talk about izzy.

izzy is a great character. in s1 he sits in this great position as an antagonist that's close to the main characters, and in s2 he sits in this great position as an antagonist who's gotten everything he wanted, and found that actually - fuck! - that's not it at all. the world changes enough in s1 that there's no satisfaction in izzy getting what he wants out of blackbeard. and it's not just ed that's changed, it's not just the crew, izzy himself is fundamentally changed too. even before s2, and that change continues to grow and flourish through the series.

in reality, death is cruel. and death is senseless. and death is unfair, and shitty, and it happens to the wrong people at the wrong time, too early, with too much to live for, who mean too much to too many. it happens.

maybe izzy's death is all of those things, but i don't think that's the point. it's not meant as a lesson in mortality; it's not meant as retribution for past crimes; it's not meant as a commentary on who deserves to live and who deserves to die. it's not about deserving. if anything, it's about the fact that deserving doesn't come into it at all.

the point is that izzy healed.

a lot has been made of the fact that izzy is the only character who bears visible scars from the kraken era - the scar on his head, as well as the leg. but i don't think they're meant as a reminder of the injury, or as a sign that izzy is "damaged" post-kraken era. they're representative of the fact that izzy healed. the scar is there to remind you that izzy survived. you see it heal over multiple episodes because that's the work izzy is doing - he's healing from blackbeard's actions, from his own actions, from his history, from his constraints.

it's not too late to heal. it's not too late to find your place. it's not too late to come out. it's not too late to let people in. it's not too late.

and all those things are worth doing despite the fact that our time here is limited. we are all going to die. but we are here right now, which means it's not too late, and it is worth it to free ourselves to be who we need to be regardless of who we have been and who we are now and what time we might have left.

izzy isn't suicidal in ep 8. he's healed from that. izzy isn't abused or depressed or alone in ep 8. izzy is strong, and competent, and respected, and loved.

and some folks have been disappointed it's not romantic love. i get that. but i think it's super important too that izzy's healing is worth it without romantic love. familial, platonic love is so fundamentally important to the queer community. found family. friends. solidarity. the look when some stranger sees you and you see them and you both know the other is family, that they're safe. the way we fight for each other - for our rights to love who we want, fuck who we want, to marry, to adopt kids, and also for housing, for jobs, for healthcare. for our rights to use the bathroom, for our rights to choose our own names and our own bodies and our own families. we're fighting for our right to exist and that, guys, it's not romantic. the foundations of our community is about - well, i'll let izzy say it:

it's not about glory, it's not about getting what you want. it's about belonging to something when the world has told you you're nothing. it's about finding the family to kill for when yours are long dead. it's about letting go of ego for something larger. the crew.

ed and izzy, following s2e3, interact and communicate on izzy's terms, and that's made clear. that's the last relationship for izzy to heal. when izzy finally approaches ed in ep 6, it's - not great. it's a start. you gotta start somewhere. he lets ed apologize, in their very closed, guilty way of speaking to each other, but then goes back to the crew, back to his safety.

he finally finishes his healing arc with the drag performance and la vie en rose, and then he and ed DO have good moments. he teases ed about stede. he directly reverses his previous actions in s1 and tells ed to listen to his good feelings. that's where djenks is getting this (imo, still a bit weird) father-figure business. the scene in the republic where ed's watching fishermen and izzy comes to say hey, it's all right, hey, listen to your gut. they don't need to directly come out and have some deep serious conversation about their relationship because that's just not like them, man. they're doing their healing their way. i think it would be nonsensical to expect these two to be open and honest with each other regardless of how they are with everyone else because their relationship is not like their relationships with anyone else.

until they run out of time.

and this, i think, is important. izzy controls this last conversation because it's what ed needs to hear, because izzy no longer needs to hear it. izzy doesn't need to hear that ed's sorry, izzy knows ed's fucking sorry. ed's whole arc this season is about the guilt he's carrying. izzy says what he says because he knows ed needs to hear it. ed, you weren't a monster all on your own. ed, i saw you. i saw you outgrowing him, and i didn't want that to happen because i was worried about what it meant for me, but i see now that it could have meant this all along - family. balance. something to die for, sure, but something to live for.

you could argue that ed and the crew don't think of each other as family. i think it's a bit more complicated than a yes or no on that one, but when izzy says, ed, you're surrounded by family, maybe it doesn't matter whether that's fact. maybe it's a statement of possibility. look at this family who can love you if you let them. look at this family who will forgive you even when you don't deserve it. look at all the ways you can still heal. look at how worth it it all is.

just be ed, izzy says, there he is.

he says it to ed because izzy already knows he can be just izzy. izzy already knows he's dying surrounded by family. izzy already knows that love and belonging and family are worth it, and he uses his dying moments to make sure ed knows it too because despite everything, despite everything he did and despite everything ed did and despite not being ed's romantic choice, he loves ed. it's worth it to use his dying moment to make sure ed knows this because izzy loves him.

it's worth it.

izzy is the stand-in for the stereotypical pirate, the villain - the representative of how repression and oppression work together, of how race and class and colonization interact with each other, of the lines between love and obsession and power and rage and fear blurring beyond recognition - and he heals. guys, the point of his story is not that he was all those things and paid that price. the point of his story is that he could grow beyond all those things and that growth and healing was all worth it despite the fact that yeah. our lives will inevitably end.

historically, israel hands is said to be one of the only major pirates who survives the golden age of piracy, and he doesn't survive it well - according to the contemporary account of "captain charles johnson" (almost certainly a pseudonym) in A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates, published 1724, hands dies a beggar in london sometime between 1719 and 1724. it has been suggested by some pirate scholars that hands may have actually been the source for much of the information johnson is able to relay regarding blackbeard - and that johnson's apparent wealth of information contributed significantly to the legacy blackbeard left behind and his lasting fame. i had actually really hoped to see this play out in ofmd - izzy protecting ed and stede through perpetuating stories about blackbeard's 'death' (fake, i'd hoped) and legacy.

but i think - he is. in his way. he's there on the hillside, keeping watch. he's there to hold all the stories and all the memories of pirates and what it meant to belong to something, even as the golden age of piracy sets. he's there to show what it is to love and to be loved in return: eternal.

i don't like that izzy died. i think he's a great character, i think he's great fun to have in the ensemble, i think his dynamics with ed and stede are so fucking chewy and delicious. i think con o'neill has done the work of a lifetime on this character and, i hope, had and continue to has the experience of a lifetime with this fandom. my heart goes out to those of you who are devastated; i've been there in past fandoms, i know how achingly difficult that is. i'm so sorry.

but izzy's story is worth telling. izzy's story is worth celebrating. izzy is about making mistakes - bad mistakes! - and finding your way back to something better. izzy is about healing, and about community, and about hope that even when things are shit and people are shit - they can change. things can change.

and maybe - yeah. it's about the role stories play in our lives. about using fictional little scenarios to deal with our traumas. we're here. we're alive. we're coping. we will heal.

not moving on is worse.

A discussion of media analysis of S1 vs S2 OFMD. [based on a twitter rant I saw someone go on about fandoms falling apart]

My issue is I'm a little media analysis pig.

I will dig and dig and DIG so hard for any tiny truffle that I will become obsessive. Because I fucking *love* writing and media analysis, I love the *implications* of stories. It's awful, a major 'waste of time', and I love it.

Then I'll turn around and share my opinions only to find out that, wow, I kind of look like a hater? That me 'overthinking' themes, arcs and motifs is me not being a real fan?

Like, in S1, any Izzy meta I wrote was received with the usual death threats, yeah. But at the same time, OFMD itself was a stable enough story that if you didn't get Izzy's POV you still had something there. We had people who were fans of Frenchie, Wee John, and Roach. Characters who barely had any screen time, but we felt we knew them. You can tear S1 apart and it still holds together in a way S2 just doesn't.

The only meta I'm left with for S2, Izzy or side character-wise, is just discussing why it didn't feel like a satisfying story compared to S1, and that's not a fun headspace to spend all your time.

I fucking LOVE grim dark stories in my fic, especially with Izzy/Ed but I think we can all admit, the show never wanted to give that relationship the depth that episodes 1-3 gave it. It pulled back, and we were all left confused. This fucked over the rest of the season.

Even with our main couple, I'm left stumped. Fuck, there's a reason I have written a small piece on Stede but haven't written my bit on Ed. I want to write it, but I know that once I start, I won't stop. That, and everyone seems to have put aside how shitty his arc was.

Now that we have BTS content, my little fan heart is happy to see that yes, there was still something fun here. That same close-knit family vibes I got from S1's crew, while sadly not on screen, was behind the camera this whole time. This story still has the *chance* to fix itself, in my eyes. To become about finding community and love again. But it has a LOT of work to do to make me believe that Stede and Ed could ever love each other long term.

Mentally, yeah, I've put S2 in it's own little box and have started to enjoy the queer love and community present within this fandom. Especially after learning how much the queer actors on screen were allowing themselves to shine through, but it makes me a bit bitter that *this* is what the show decided to do with it.

so I finally plucked up the courage to rewatch our flag means death season 2, now that I've had some time to sort out my feelings. I went into it with an open mind, hoping that some of my initial dislike of it was just the fact that it was shocking – and I definitely do think I preferred it more this time, but I still have some issues:

all mention of polyamory in any form is erased: no mention of Lucius and Pete's open relationship; no Zheng×Olu×Jim×Archie polycule (which arguably would have made sense); and by the end of it Spanish Jackie only has one husband

speaking of Zheng, it just doesn't really sit right with me that her entire fleet was blown up. she's the pirate queen. I don't know, it just felt weird.

likewise, that Jackie lost literally everything except the Swede. I know we needed a low-point, but wouldn't it have been just so Jackie to see her at the end opening shop for a couple of bedraggled pirates in the only surviving building or some shit?

Edward should have apologised. To Izzy, properly, and to everyone else, at all. I love him, and I empathise with him, and I understand that this is the show where people forgive; but Edward did terrible things and never took accountability, even when people asked him to.

on that note, I really felt like the crew disregarded Lucius's trauma a bit? they can't possibly see inside his head, I know, but it felt like they wanted him to just be the old Lucius again sometimes

I know that his selfishness is Stede's big flaw, but I wish it was addressed more here, when he is arguably being far more self-centered than last season

their relationship was rushed. blame the fact that the episodes were cut if you like, but if that's so then they should have done on a tentative 'things will get better' and ended on a hopeful note, rather than trying to rush the entire relationship and leave them in their little shack when this series proved time and time again that they are not ready for this yet and need a bit of space to discover who they are apart

I just really fucking hate the inn. sorry.

and Izzy. sigh. he just didn't need to die. that wasn't necessary. that wasn't what this show was meant to be about. and to kill him after he finally accepted himself for his queerness and for his newfound disability, and when he attempted suicide earlier in the series. "I want to go" then what the fuck was the point of his arc?

my take on the OFMD s2 finale: fuck that

(major spoilers continuing from here)

it’s sweet that the crew now also has zheng, auntie, spanish jackie and the swede is back, the reunion kiss was the sweetest thing ever, i loved lucius and pete’s wedding etc etc but there’s some things i can’t look past.

let’s get into izzy. izzy went through a lot this season. he started off as someone we were meant to dislike and slowly evolved into the only reason the crew was alive and functional. they became his family, and he became their new, true leader. their new unicorn, if you will. they cared for him, they loved him, and he loved them back. hell, he even had that sweet speech about piracy that made me tear up!

but then he died. and this isn’t the bury your gays trope, since the show has dozens of happy gay people and a lot of queer joy, but the redemption through death trope - or at least a poor attempt at him.

look at me. izzy got all the redemption he needed. he proved himself. he was happy. he was content. he had a good life ahead of him. and then he died.

his final words didn’t even mean anything, because ed still left the crew (along with stede). and this is sweet because they got to fulfill their dreams of having an inn, but this would have been better if izzy’s speech was just slightly different. or if it was like it canonically is, then it should have been established the crew was going to visit, or the inn was temporary, or ANYTHING.

back to izzy - i’m not mad he died. i’m mad the timing was horrendously bad. a single 28 minute episode is not enough to have ed’s character arc evolve, a sweet reunion, lots of drama and comedy, kill izzy off, have a lupete wedding, and have gentlebeard stay behind to have an inn. there should have been one or two extra episodes. there should have been more time to mourn izzy! i was sobbing my ass off and the show had already moved on to the wedding - i mean, what?? are we just not meant to care? i get that he had that burial, and he was shown as the last frame in the show yes, but how much tribute is that? stede’s dialogue made it seem like he barely cared when we knew the two had gotten closer! i get that he may have had conflicting emotions and this show is a comedy, but come on, people, you can do better!

the inn idea is sweet but i don’t see it lasting. the fourth episode really makes me wary of this idea because those two girls really fucking hated that domestic lifestyle bro!!! also, ed just accepted himself as a pirate outside of blackbeard, he just forgets that life? that’s bullshit. you can’t just spend the entire season exploring ed’s character as a pirate and then drop the pirate part. you can’t!!!

still mad about izzy. still confused about why everyone was in such high spirits after his death despite, you know, them getting along with him amazingly this season and loving him so deeply. but whatever, i too would be back at sea and giggling after my (at heart) captain died. in fact, i would even get married after that! yay, ring those bells! (/sarc)

i loved the wedding but you cannot tell me it wouldn’t have been better if there had just been more time between izzy’s death and it.

also. i’m pretty sure so many other characters walked off wounds in that exact area izzy got shot in... but i guess... plot armor??

tl;dr: i’m pissed off at OFMD’s season two ending, especially the way izzy’s death was handled.

yeah, i’m not happy with this. at least put me out my misery and announce this is the last season. dragging it on for longer would not work.

ending words: i would have been much more content with izzy dying if he was given more time, if his death was handled better, and if his speech had meant anything at fucking all to ed.

hi. its flopping fish anon from yesterday. i did send an ask earlier but tumblr gave me an error message for including a picture of stede doing some gay shit.

anyway. my izzy friend and i think this fanon version of him is so fucking weird and antithetical to who he is as a character. (we had a lot of issues with his death scene that was more due to its execution pun intended than with the fact that he died at all. honestly his death just made sense for ed's narrative but we dont need to get into that rn.) but because this wrong version of him so pervasive, and there's people in the extremes on both sides of the love/hate spectrum who want to beat you over the head with their opinions, it's hard to acknowledge that we like izzy at all. i know i know this all sounds "woe is me" but it is true.

as for why i was trying to send a picture of stede doing some gay shit that got me nuked by tumblr, i was just expressing my frustration as a stede girlie at that #tilc document's insinuation that the man who has a whole episode dedicated to his gay little matador outfit is somehow not the queerest character on the show.

hello flopping fish anon 🐟

i’ve unfortunately seen multiple people asserting that stede doesn’t count as a queer character or that while he is queer his story isn’t about queerness like how izzy’s is. etc etc

all as part of the severe mental gymnastics required to try and paint izzy as ofmd’s single uniquely queer character

and it’s truly baffling to me bc wtf is stede’s story about if not queerness

and how is izzy’s arc more queer than any other queer character’s? bc he was in drag? is that the reductive take we’re going for?

as was pointed out the other day he’s one of the only characters in the show that isn’t explicitly confirmed as queer lmao (fwiw before folks get their pitchforks out i do not think he is straight but the point is that canonically he could be and we don’t know)

anyway sorry that tumblr homophobically blocked your gay stede content here you go:

k now that it's over here's my thoughts. they're the negative ones so they're under readmore. i'll post my positive ones the way i normally do.

i want to start by saying of COURSE i love this show. like of course i do. so:

second seasons are almost always written kind of badly so i am trying to be fair here. i also know strikes and time constraints BADLY fucked the script.

but even so, some of the pacing is fucky in a way that feels confused. like some scenes were cut so short i thought there was an editing error. relationships seemed to develop offscreen, when it feels like those scenes should have been prioritized over some others if folks knew they were gonna have to make cuts. and for whatever reason, some scenes or concepts were held onto when there simply wasn't any room for them (ned being the most egregious imo).

i predicted that they would react to the fan obsession with izzy by giving him too much airtime and i was right. he had more time and character development (though i think his character was changed unrealistically at times) than anyone else by MILES. i am an izzy hater, but even if i wasn't at a certain point i would BEG him to give up the fucking mic.

ESPECIALLY because he has now overshadowed Jim (!!!!!!), who was groundbreaking as a queer nonbinary POC lead. season 1 Jim was practically co-lead and now had NO motivation outside kissing girls this season. AND we STILL don't know anything about olu, roach, or frenchie. our characters of color were badly neglected i think. yi sao may be the only exception, i think she was done well with the time given.

speaking of olu, his romance with the pirate queen was pivotal to the main plot of the season but we get like NO time with him! let alone his relationship with yi sao. imagine a few cut izzy scenes to flesh out olu's situationships. all of them.

i believe at least part of the reason they dropped olu/jim was because jim's actor advocated for jim to date women. That's fine. but it was handled SO disrespectfully given their romance arc in season 1!! not even a conversation?? and to shoehorn in archie when jackie and yi sao and mary/anne were right there?? Lazy imo, and poor streamlining

and speaking of other characters, there were too many. season 1 connected all the antagonists together nicely, with the main big bad being the british. now the big bad is ??? sometimes ned, sometimes yi sao, sometimes nose guy, sometimes jackie, sometimes ed.

season 1 had episode-long enemies, a la calico jack and the french party, but the episodes SAT with those enemies and made them meaningful. ned just kind of appeared and died. if stede needed a reason for his ego trip, or to show off his people management skills, it could have been like. literally one of a million other situations. if we needed ed's suicide attempt to be via ned, ned could have shown in episode 3.

no one's relationships had time to develop naturally like they did in season 1. you didn't have time to understand anyone's motivations. stede and ed were a "couple" for all of half of two episodes. for a show about their romance there was surprisingly little time dedicated to the beats of their relationship. though it would have been painful, i think this season would have deeply benefitted from ed and stede not getting together until the finale. their actions and motivations don't make sense unless you take the kissing out of it. I'm sure a good deal of that is due again to cuts made by HBO.

i'm very disappointed, but that doesn't mean i'm ungrateful. this show is still extremely important, i am praying for a third season renewal, and i hope that season turns the ship around.

literally realised this is the only place i can express how badly i hate izzy hands is here bc nobody follows and the fact he has wormed his way into s2 as s1 mixed with an assortment of revenge crew members (essentially taking away from their characters too) and the fact i was tricked (i mean for like 3 minutes but STILL) at the v beginning of s2 bc i hadn't thought about ofmd in months into feeling very bad for him and i got confused but then i played back s1 in my head and went huh wait a minute. you cant do 'character development' if the development is just ur power is not really a thing anymore and its a little scary out here. its a great like,, starting point for development but he just. became a different character who was just deeply insulting (to the point of racism and homophobia STILL) at odd occassions to try and convince viewers its still the same guy from s1. idk man. im just saying every single thing wrong w s2 can be traced back to izzy hands thats all im saying. and im not trying to be dramatic i just. have been going a little fucking bonkers over it to be honest because i just dont understand how that character is so very beloved. it makes me so so fucking sad dude. anyways um. dont hurt me im just talking here. and sorry there wasnt really any quantifiable Points here just. i literally just hate that character and i just like if youre gonna make him be the supportive guidance queer icon character at least give him an arc that gets him there. dont just pretend he was always like that when his fucking toxic vitriolic (homophobic/toxic masculine) words to ed at the end of last season is literally the REASON he stopped healing healthily. like. did we just forget about that part. why was that never brought up again

honestly just curious here, but what exactly are you so angry about regarding shadowhunters season 2? besides the whole malec sex thing which was horrible yes and perhaps the izzy drug thing?

There are a lot of things that really annoyed me this season so I’m sure I’m forgetting some but let’s try to sum some up:

(Uhm I’m putting this under a read more because this got longer than I thought it would!)

the constant sidelining of Luke. One of the showrunners said it’s because there are “a lot of characters to juggle” (x) but he’s one of the mains?? So that’s a weak ass excuse

In season 1, the narrative was written in a way that urged the viewer to sympathize and identify with the Downworlders. The Shadowhunters were obviously the morally grey ‘protectors’, the people who didn’t really care if a Downworlder life or two were lost on their mission (see the multiple scenes in which the Shadowhunters carelessly kill vampires). We were told again and again through the narrative that Downworlders represent real life minorities and that the Shadowhunters are in many ways their oppressors. But in season 2, however, this narrative completely changes. Suddenly the viewer is urged to forget about the Downworlders and focus on the Shadowhunters instead. All the Downworlders are either sidelined, brutalized, needlessly and graphically tortured, demonized or just completely written out. They are shown to be disobeyant, unorganized, careless and disloyal. Maia struggles with Luke’s authority, Alaric and the pack don’t even look for Luke when he goes missing, Luke acts abusive towards Maia by locking her in a freezer (knowing full well she’s claustrophobic because of past abuse) and tazing her, something we all know Luke would never do. They are intentionally writing the Downworlders OOC so that we would stop identifying with them. There’s a brief mention of a brewing civil war between vampires, only to never be mentioned again. Magnus’ scenes with people that aren’t Shadowhunters can be counted on one hand. The writers are trying really hard to just completely erase all importance the Downworlders hold.

the lack of consent in the Malec pre-sex scene

how little screentime Malec, their only m/m canon relationship, gets compared to hetero messes like r*zzy

how the little screentime Malec does get is often used in promos so that fans will promote the show, hype up their scenes, etc. only to have their scenes cut from the actual episode

they way they’re writing Magnus to basically be Alec’s trophy husband. Hello, he owns a club?? He has a business?? Where are his clients, his Warlock friends, him being shown doing his job??? He’s literally just waiting around for Alec to come home (”go, Shadowhunter. I’ll be right here waiting.”)

Izzy’s complete addiction arc. It was handled poorly and insensitively, there were a lot of racist undertones such as a black character providing her with drugs, a Latina character getting addicted to said drugs and a Latino character later providing her with a different way of getting her drugs

Izzy’s “relationship” with Raphael was needlessly romantized and sexualized. Another showrunner literally called their scenes romantic (x) when their entire fling was purely based on mutual addiction. There was nothing healthy about it.

Raphael’s coming out as asexual was, again, handled poorly. People with lack of knowledge about asexuality wouldn’t even know he’s asexual. I’ve seen people think he doesn’t do sex because he’s religious. Why is it so hard to use words to define sexualities??? Let Magnus say he’s bi, let Alec say he’s gay, let Raphael say he’s ace.

White saviorism

the needless villainization of Raj

Killing off female characters for shock value (Jocelyn, Gretel)

Torturing Downworlders and graphically showing the aftermath (Raphael, Meliorn)

everything is a hetero mess and I’m suffering

we were told that this was our show. It was supposed to be groundbreaking, it was supposed to be a show for LGBT+ fans and fans of color. But all the characters of color are being paid dust (Victor, Raj, Izzy, Magnus, Raphael, Luke, Alaric, Meliorn, Maia) with exception of maybe Simon? But even that’s debatable and we have one (1) gay and one (1) bi character while they had so many opportunities to give us more queer rep

queerbaiting :) (seriously, none of Simon’s ‘coming out’ jokes are actually funny if the narrative is going to continue to portray him as straight)

WHERE. ARE. THE. SAPPHICS!!!!!!!!

speaking of sapphics, clizzy was baited so hard in the first half of the season (I didn’t watch past 2x06 but both r*zzy as cl*mon happened afterwards so I guess the clizzy scenes got less gay) and I’m sure the writers did it intentionally to get sapphic viewers desperate for rep to keep watching. Fucking hell, they even put romantic fucking music over one of their scenes when Izzy comforts Clary and tells her she’ll always have her

ANYWAY this is getting really long so I’m ending it there. I think I covered all the basics, but if someone has anything to add, feel free to do so.