if trading terrible puns is wrong then i don’t want to be right

warrior nun + text posts (2/?)

#SaveWarriorNun⚔️

I still have 3 episodes left of Warrior Nun, I know I’m late to the game. However, I need to address Camila saying to Bea, “it’s easy to fall in love with a warrior nun.” The way she talked about “they’re never yours”, “they never last” sounded PERSONAL. Camila and mystery warrior nun… canon?

The warrior nun news means there’s even more hope for locknation now!!

Congrats and good job to the warrior nun fans!!

Not people on twitter going to catholic churches and lighting candles for wn S3 😭

ok so i realized my mistake 🧍

i didnt tag my wn twitter lmfao

so, all my wn and avatrice truthers, NOW help my twitter feed turn into a gay mess 😭@cityinAL 🫡

This morning when I found out Warrior Nun was cancelled the moment I woke up, I wanted to rant, rage, shout Netflix in the voice of Lilith but I had a fuck ton of work and need to conserve my energy. It’s the end of the day and sadly I still can’t do it since I’m already tired and can’t move like Ava when her halo is depleted. SO! I shall imagine myself pulling up to Netflix’s office in this fashion and beating up the homophobic people who keep cancelling our lesbian shows.

A note from the editors...

On First Kill and What it Says About Netflix, Media and the Undo Burden Queer Women Have to Carry

I have no criticisms for First Kill. The people who worked on it did their best with the limited budget and experience they had. Even with its flaws the concept was good and the story of the two girls alone managed to get more viewership than many Netflix series that are constantly renewed.

I will however talk about Netflix. I have been very vocal of my criticism of Netflix in the past but always put that aside so we can promote wlw media on this blog wherever they came from. But it was always blatant how the idea of queer women leads is viewed on the platform.

Netflix initially launched into mainstream culture in great part due to offering diverse shows like Orange is the new Black (a show specifically diverse in terms of women's sexuality, with queer women leads). Shows that were considered alternative and progressive compared to Network TV. After succeeding in gaining popularity because they offered the thing others didn't, Netflix content shifted. Even though investing in creating a quality show with a wlw main couple had paid off in the past they decided being more like network TV was the best strategy. Any attempt at inclusion for queer women was either carefully veiled behind projects that "are not really about the gay girls, the gay girls are just there" like The Prom, promoted without a hint of the lgbt content like Everything Sucks and Teenage Bounty Hunters or not promoted at all like Feria The Darkest Light, The Half of It and I'm Not Ok With This. They were generally given very little room to succeed. Most of the wlw focused projects were never promoted, had unknown actors and given a small budget.

If the project was big, well promoted and expensive it meant the screentime of the queer woman was limited. Even Warrior Nun (based on very gay source material) and Babysitter's Club (with everyone thinking the lead has to be queer) simply gave a side character 2 minutes to be out as a gay girl and called it a day. If they're investing big you can count on the gay woman part to be small. This came to a head when they changed the lead's sexuality in Archive 81 (who was a lesbian with a wife in the original podcast) and made her wife her gay roommate. "And they were roommates!". It was in some ways laughable to what lengths they'd go to because of their need to limit queer women to side characters in big projects they're actually invested in.

But First Kill was a series putting the wlw couple front and center so we had to believe all of the above was a coincidence right? We gave them another chance and they proved everything we had been seeing was right. They set it up to fail and when it didn't they justified the cancellation by saying it didn't succeed enough. That's the thing. It would have succeeded enough if they hadn't set it up to fail so blatantly.

Netflix will rain unbelievable amounts of money to get the biggest names from the TikTok, acting and music worlds to star in their big budget straight cheesy romances. They gave First Kill 10 dollars and candy to paraphrase a person who worked on the show. They were unwilling to pay for the really good, experienced writing team needed to turn a vampire romance story into a well fleshed out TV show. As a result the writing was acceptable for a vampire romance novel but not for live action TV dialogue. They were unwilling to pay for good cgi. As a result the cgi made CW shows look good in comparison. They were unwilling to pay for expensive, popular actors. They were unwilling to pay for any sort of production value. Why? Because they don't have enough faith in projects about queer women to invest in them. But the wlw shows have to succeed anyway or else we confirm their aversion to invest in our projects was right. We are asked and creators are asked to make a hit out of something without given the proper tools and then told we don't sell.

That is our vicious circle with Netflix even if it's proven that when money and work is put in to a project that centers wlw, people will come. Even if millions are lost on failed projects that center straight ppl. Even in a world where Gen Z is set to rule the world and it's a generation that is more and more queer.

Queer women are expected to consume projects that are lesser than those of straight ppl and even those of gay men. Unfortunately, we live in that messed up intersection of misogyny and homophobia that makes investing in us somehow the last risk to take. As they liberally throw money away on worthless trash. But it's straight trash so...

Good news is Network TV is dying. Netflix imitating their focus on a default basic straight audience (and the white gay pretty boys they can fetishize) does not seem like a good strategy for the future. Other services that are putting real effort into bringing queer women out of the TV margins will become the entertainment providers of the most sexually diverse generation of women we've ever had. Let's bring about that future as soon as possible. Go watch Paper Girls, Yellowjackets, Harley Quinn animated series, Dickinson, Crush... If you're a woman, or non-binary person, and not straight, fuck Netflix. Cancel your Netflix account.

Do fear for The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Expect as little from Netflix as possible. That's what they're willing to give you.

Twitter said it best:

Do you want Season 3 of Warrior Nun?

Here are a few easy steps to achieve

If you have Netflix let Warrior Nun run in the background ALL the time. You have to work? Put it on the background. You have to be outside? Make sure your TV or computer is on back home and streaming Warrion Nun. The deciding factor for renewal is competition. How many people have watched from start to finish

Go to imdb rate it and leave a good review https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9059350/

Go to rotten tomaties rate it and leave a good review(you can copy pate your imdb review it's ok. Do it both for season 2 https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/warrior_nun/s02 and for season 1 https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/warrior_nun/s01

Go to Google, put a thumbs up and leave a good review(again you can simply copy paste the review Warrior Nun

Tell all your friends and use hastags on twitter, tik tok and whatver else you have

Reblog this post and add more ways to help our show if you know them

There is exactly ONE "person" to blame for Warrior Nun's cancelation and one alone: Netflix.

I have seen some people try to blame the fans who watched the show because, apparently, we didn't watch it hard enough. So I need y'all to repeat with me "Fans are NOT at fault!".

It is not a fans job to sell their soul to the devil and give up their lives in order to stream over and over a TV Show for a VERY slim chance of renewal.

Fans are the ones who gave this show a sliver of a fighting chance and I will not have anyone try to bring our efforts down. It doesn't matter if you spent your every waking moment rewatching Warrior Nun or if you just watched it once.

Your views, your participation in the fandom and your love for the show are appreciated, and no one has the right to demand more from you. You helped in whatever way you could with the amount of investment you could spare. And that was enough.

So, thank you for that!

Now, the real problem here is Netflix. They're the ones not doing shit, no promo no nothing, for the show and then act surprised and cancel the show when it doesn't produce the numbers they want. They have one parameter for cancelation and that's numbers without looking at anything else that might be a good indicator for renewal, such as:

The increased social media engagement from season 1 to season 2;

The crazy amount of views comparatively to the zero promotion the show got and during release of other highly competitive TV Shows;

The cheap ass budget the show is already on which makes it a low maintenance show to keep caring on;

The significant impact this show has had on the LGBT community (and yes, this IS a big factor that should be taken into consideration);

And finally, what makes this cancelation such a damn bad decision from a business standpoint, the Fandom backlash that comes with the cancelation of yet another LGBT show.

This final point is extra important because their recent track record with cancelation of mainly "lesbian" shows has been giving Netflix a very bad reputation and the backlash bubble has been growing and growing with each cancelation and this might just be the last straw.

So, the full fault here lies with Netflix and I want your anger directed at them. Not at the fans that helped give this show a chance of survival.

At this point I can only assume Netflix is intentionally trying to tank Warrior Nun. Why else would a great YA fantasy with a cast that's 90% women, has great action sequences, and LGBT representation not yet be confirmed for renewal? Guess they've got to clear that budget for more transphobic comedy specials.

WARRIOR NUN IS BEING RENEWED IVE NEVER BEEN HAPPIER IM TRYING NOT TO FUCKING SCREAM BECAUSE NO ONE ELSE IN MY HOUSE IS AWAKE BUT OHMYGODD HASJBNWKSASKJSKJ :DDDDD

Hi Leigh!

I hope you don't mind me asking this, but because of your knowledge of the industry, I'm genuinely curious about your thoughts on the whole Warrior Nun situation. With everything going on - fandom noise, all the articles, Netflix CEO commenting, etc - what do you, realistically, think is going to happen? Not only with the show itself but also within the industry. Like, do you think it will have an impact in any way? I've personally never witnessed a streaming service getting so much negative criticism before, but it reminds me of the time around Lexa's death on The 100 and all that followed. It feels like "bury your gays" turned into "cancel your gays" and if nothing else, I just hope all these WLW shows getting cancelled leads to some changes - but again, is that something you see happening?

Buckle up, this is gonna be a novel...

In all honesty if this was a couple years ago, or even just one year ago I would say it might make people less likely to drop LGBTQ shows, absolutely.

But with everything that’s happened over the last year… sadly, I think Hollywood will do what Hollywood so often does and take all the wrong lessons from this and become even more paranoid about greenlighting LGBTQ (and in particular wlw) shows in the first place, for fear if it doesn’t work out they’ll have a widespread backlash from the LGBTQ community and risk being labeled as homophobic. aka “We don’t have to worry about pissing people off with cancellations if we don’t make the shows in the first place.” aka “Not worth the trouble.” could be the perspective of people in charge in the coming days.

Lexa’s death on The 100 taught the lesson that it’s (generally) NOT okay to bury your gays. And then Supercorp on Supergirl sent the message that queerbait is outdated as hell, and just plain embarrassing and unacceptable now (aka either deliver and go there, or stop teasing it and state outright you never will). 

So, I’d love to say Warrior Nun will teach people not to cancel wlw shows that have strong fanbase, but based on recent statements it’s clear that in this case they’re running with the (hard to buy) defense that it wasn’t successful and the fanbase was “small” (?!), or at least not successful and big enough for the budget it required to keep going. So between that + the many, many wlw shows that have been lost over the last year to cancellations... it’s pretty bleak right now, tbh. Recent events overall, even beyond WN, is just likely sending the message to TPTB that it’s risky doing shows featuring (lead especially) LGBTQ rep, in particular shows with wlw rep. It’s sending the message that wlw shows simply don’t perform to the level needed. 

And rather than look at the REAL reason WHY something failed to reach a broader audience or meet someone’s invisible and undefined standards for renewal, TPTB in many cases could sadly chalk it up to “queer women don’t sell” even though there could be so many other reasons a show didn’t reach the level of audience they deem acceptable for a renewal, including but not limited to: bad or limited marketing by the network or streamer themselves and/or lack of time to garner a proper audience (a struggle many streamers have with their shows in general, even outside of LGBTQ rep), or maybe it’s on TPTB behind a show itself aka it simply had subpar writing and poor production value, or bad acting/casting, or lack of chemistry for the lead duo, or just plain terrible creative decisions (see The Wilds Season 2 making a show about girls into a show about boys) etc etc. 

I mean, Dickinson was effing brilliant, fantastic casting and chemistry, incredibly clever and heartfelt writing, solid production value, overwhelmingly positive reviews -- but it never got the marketing it should have had. And thus it quietly came and went, left its mark on its core fans, but was at least able to end in the way they wanted if nothing else, after 3 short seasons. 

Look, one of the most successful streaming series of all time that literally helped launch the format -- was the sapphic as hell Orange is the New Black. But OITNB was the perfect recipe. It was well written, fantastically cast, had organic buzz galore, award noms -- but it also had big marketing. It was the ideal alignment of ALL vital elements coming together to work. 

And I think that show really paved the way for a lot more queer wlw content to emerge, and fill the streamers especially. Alas, sadly, the bubble burst. And it burst for many reasons, including political theater in real life and an attack on LGBTQ rights of late. But for two big reasons, from a strictly industry side: lack of proper marketing for some shows, and lack of quality from others. 

I mean, let’s face it, some of the wlw series that have been axed the last year or two were not always high quality shows overall (I mean come on, some were on The CW for a reason). And it may seem like “But, cishet shows can be silly or cringey or lame and last for years!” Yes, absolutely. And that’s incredibly unfair that LGBTQ audiences can’t have shows that are just straight up camp or have mediocre writing or acting but are still loved by fans and last for a while. But that’s the hierarchy. It’s heteronormative bs and it’s not right, but it’s just how things are until we can successfully change them. The community has to work twice as hard to be taken seriously. And for LGBTQ BIPOC in particular, sadly one can stack those obstacles even more. 

So, I think for the next few years, shows with wlw representation in the TV space (and otherwise) -- well, they’re going to have to check a LOT of boxes in terms of overall quality, casting, concept, execution, talent on screen and bts, etc and then be grabbed up by a partner that truly believes in it enough to properly promote it -- in order for it to stand a real chance at sticking around. 

Warrior Nun had most of the elements above, alas much like Dickinson -- it just did not have the marketing support it needed. Meanwhile others shows had the marketing -- but honestly just weren’t that great in terms of quality, so fans simply didn’t latch on as much, and who could blame them. 

And thus, here we are. So do I think the widespread backlash around Warrior Nun’s cancellation, and fans’ amazing efforts to fight back will have any lasting effect on how Hollywood makes cancellation decisions? In the past I would have said 100%. But for now, I sadly kinda doubt it, because its cancellation was just the latest (but arguably biggest) in a long list of cancellations. 

If anything, right now Hollywood execs may actually feel emboldened to just go with the flow, take the social media fury from fans, and do what they’re gonna do -- with no regard for impact on the LGBTQ community. They also can hide behind the excuse of “Lots of shows and projects are being cancelled left and right, LGBTQ shows are no exception nor being specifically targeted, LGBTQ fans just don’t see the bigger picture. For every LGBTQ show canned, there’s 10 shows about straight people that are dead too.” And I say this -- because I had this said to me recently by someone with power in the industry. Alas what these people don’t understand is it’s NOT the same. Because LGBTQ content is so limited already that the community can’t afford to lose any more. And those 10 cishet shows that got the axe? They’ll just be replaced with 10 more next year. Meanwhile LGBTQ shows? Are less likely now to be greenlit after all this. 

And that’s disheartening. And it’s not okay. 

TLDR: I dunno how all of this will play out for sure. I HOPE the Warrior Nun situation changes something for the better, I just... right now, at this exact moment in time, I don’t feel super confident that it will. I think we just need to get through this painful period in LGBTQ media history and hopefully come out the other side better off somehow, likely after a show with wlw rep hopefully comes along soon that has both the quality AND marketing to truly succeed.

If they were to renew warrior nun, how do you think Ava and Beatrice’s reunion would go? Do you think it would be in the first episode?

First or second. Ava will definitely be back by the first episode, if she's not back before it.

As far as how it would go, I think Bea would say 'i love you' immediately, filled with a worry she's carried the whole time Ava's been away that she didn't say it fast enough, that Ava didn't hear her or know how she felt.

Then Ava would give her that big, goofy smile and say 'i know, Bea' and then big time kissing and Mother Superion clearing her throat to remind them both that everyone else is still in the room and that Ava's hand is getting a little too low.