We went from “Bury Your Gays” to “Just Cancel the Show Instead” real quick and I honestly can’t say which is fucking worse at this point.

Honestly, finally giving the queer community good, wholesome, and non-toxic content only to have it ripped away for no articulable reason (WN has the highest critic score of any Netflix show ever) is feeling worse than outright killing queer characters.

At least we knew not to get attached when they were shooting us.

Disrespectfully, fuck you, Netflix.

i don't think our #doomed girl number one is actually gonna die anytime soon* but now my brain is going mag 40 mode like "alice, you didn't die here did you?" anyways if she ends up either already being some sort of undead/construct or turning undead at any point i'm a genius and otherwise i was just kidding teehee

We are not comparing queer media! Stop saying that is what is happening. Calling out double standards isn’t pitting media with representation against each other. Sapphics don’t get to be the main characters on shows. When we have sapphic mains they either die or their shows get canceled.  Heartstopper is a wonderful show with wonderful representation. And guess what!? When people are talking about this most of the time they include the words “I love Heartstopper but…” No one is dissing on it or saying it should’ve been canceled. it’s an adorable and cheesy queer show that was incredibly popular and well loved. But when cheesy shows are sapphic, they are too cheesy and are more deserving of being canceled then unpopular shows about straight white people. Comparing the numbers and pointing out that First Kill was more popular than Heartstopper but got canceled while Heartstopper got two more seasons and thinking that is incredibly unfair, is not trying to tear down a piece of queer media to build another up. First Kill is a sapphic show with black leads. it’s not just a show with sapphic and black main characters. The main storyline is around the sapphic protagonists, one of whom is a black lesbian. they are not secondary main characters. They are the main protagonists. Having that representation is important and complaining about that being taken away is not acting like other media with representation is less important. Just that there’s a double standard that needs to be called out. 

“bury your gays” doesn’t mean you can’t kill off any queer characters but like have it serve an actual purpose. not just for shock value or tragic narrative purposes. you can have tragic stories without killing off your queer characters. canon queer couplings are rare enough, why is it that one or both of them always has to die? and usually right after a love confession? not saying that this Always falls under “bury your gays” but if you’re going to have queer couples in your media, maybe don’t kill them off? just an idea.

the way people will see a character who wasnt previously a girl be decided to be transfem actually by the creator and then go "but what if he was transmasc instead 😳" is so frustrating and i dont even know how to properly word it it just makes my blood boil

Black Lightning, Batwoman, Legends of Tomorrow: dropped like they were radioactive.

Motherland: dropped after a very short three seasons (33 episodes).

Wynnona Earp: four seasons, and they had to fight tooth and nail for each one.

Doctor Who: First two female Doctors (one Black) and first time the show has introduced a w/w relationship for the main character (with a WOC): dropped with the show going back to its male-centered format.

First Kill: being lambasted so hard in mainstream media (that otherwise doesn't bother with it, like they've ignored MFS), it isn't likely to get another season (fingers crossed though).

How many times over the years have we heard the groans over Clexa/Lexa fans going so hard to have her back or hang on to the character long after she was killed off?

Because we. don't. get. shit.

Just because your partner/friend/whatever is poly or autistic doesn't mean you write good rep for those communities. Really you're just writing torture porn and calling it representation and that's gross.

what’s so interesting to me about stranger things season 4 is that of all the new characters introduced this season, the most complex character is eddie “the freak” munson. like he had so much potential of this new complicated character that easily fit into the dynamic of every main character he was next to and yet the duffers decide he had to die? he had to be the one to sacrifice himself for hawkins because oh it resolved his arc to stop running and die fighting? you know what it also does? it tells every person that identified with eddie that running and being scared at watching someone horrifically die in front of you makes you a coward if you don’t do anything about it. it says that freaks and outcasts have to prove themselves in order to be heroes and to feel seen. eddie munson was a fucking hero for being himself and being sweet and kind and loving and funny and passionate. and to have joseph quinn feel so inferior in playing eddie because they were going to kill him off from the beginning is not good storytelling or writing.

ok wait nvm i've reflected (stalked my mutuals' tags) and yeah i do think it's dumb that laenor has a whole "im not the step dad, im the dad who stepped up" speech 0.2 seconds before getting launched into character purgatory

me after making a character (villain) that does so many bad things but as deliberate choices that conflict with their morals which is still bad regardless of guilt they may feel. and at the same time she's not "intrinsically evil," nor do they enjoy it in any way. and also they come across neurodivergent, and i don't want THOSE traits to be demonised. and they do still have lines they won't cross which is interesting compared to other characters but they are very very awful still and state this themself: hm i think. i think i did a little more nuance than i needed to here. i'm sure i won't mess that up and people will read things as intended and in good faith :)

i dont think i will ever be over dragon age 2. like. bioware made an epic fantasy story about a chosen one having to save a country and stop the apocalypse and then they made the second installment of the series be about the sociopolitical climate in ONE city through the lens of a family of refugees fleeing from the war of the first game and just. made it about political tensions and class dynamics and the influences of living in a church-mandated state and the growing tension over an occupied piece of the city and political killings and interpersonal conflict and power and its story is ENTIRELY character-driven. it has easily the most iconic set of companion characters. the premise of living through a story told over the course of ten years and knowing from the start that something really bad will happen in the end was so fresh and exciting. the fact that the acts really built on top of each other andhow much the city changed over time. and the game was so mature in terms of the topic of fighting against oppression in so many ways (im usually generous and say that the short development time left some things a bit wanting), and as much as some people say that the game treats mages and templars as being equally bad, i don't think that that is actually true about the game and it very earnestly tries to grapple with some pretty complex political dynamics.

and then the game completely flopped financially and was almost universally hated for its queer themes and its sympathy for "terrorism" and a lot of the things that stemmed from basically having no production time at all and then the studio just made another epic fantasy story about a chosen one that has to save the world from the apocalypse

okay there is a post going round about how izzy’s death means the writers are saying that only ‘socially acceptable’ queers get to have a happy ending

and first. what is socially acceptable about an entire ship full of pirates with diverse genders and sexualities and ethnicities and body types sailing off into the sunset while their two co-captains open an inn

and second. none of us are socially acceptable. ‘socially acceptable queers’ is an oxymoron. we see this every single day in the homophobia and transphobia that happens around us, that’s all over the press, that’s perpetuated by governments

you could be the most squeaky clean, socially acceptable, cishet passing, white male ordinary normal queer in the world and bigots are still going to call you a slur and try to deny you your basic human rights

if you think the show has stopped being groundbreaking because it killed off one of its entire cast of beautiful diverse queer characters then you never appreciated how transformative it is in the first place

Tbh, I think if you read an mxtx novel with the expectation that the story’s hero is meant to learn some valuable lesson that fundamentally changes their character and views on life, then you are reading her books wrong. There’s not a single mxtx protag (currently) in existence who changes by the end of the story. It’s the world they live in that is changed because of their actions:

—Shen Yuan’s Shen Qingqiu transforms a toxic masculinity fantasy into a queer romance in which the unhappy stallion protagonist with a harem in the 100s is given his monogamous happy ending with a husband he actually loves and values with reciprocity. They fuck off to their forever honeymoon after exposing the corruptness of the cultivation world that ruined Luo Binghe’s life to begin with, and all of this was only possibly because Shen Yuan was just a genuinely nice fucking person. The world lives to see another day and a fuckton of people who died (or didn’t even get to exist) in the original stallion novel get to live long, more fulfilled lives in Shen Yuan’s revision.

—Wei Wuxian is killed for sticking up for a condemned clan, is resurrected against his will, and still stands by his actions in his first life while protecting those that continued to wrongfully condemn him. As a reward, the corpses of the people he died protecting save him and his loved ones (and the rest of the bystanders who killed them), he bags himself the most perfect and perfectly matched man in the cultivation world, and he continues to help others and do what he wants to the ire of the cultivation world who are now too embarrassed to fight him. The younger generation look to him as a beloved teacher, protector, and role model to aspire towards.

—Xie Lian rebelled against hierarchy as a beloved prince of a prospering kingdom, then as a beloved god against the older gods, then as a reviled scraps god against the then most popular gods of the present day. He was always willing to lend a hand to anyone who needed it and to never hold resentment even if that kindness blew up in his face (and it often did). He gets to marry the man (ghost) who has seen him at his best and absolute worst and chooses him unconditionally, something no one else has ever done before. At the end of the novel, he is the god that all the other gods look to for guidance and strength.

None of these stories humble these characters for being good people. Even when their morally righteous actions net them unimaginably terrible results, even when they falter in the face of their failures, they ultimately remain true to their goodness. And none of the books humble them for that, because being good is not a character flaw. So in short: please stop talking about how mxtx protags “needed” to learn valuable lessons to “be good people” when they were already good people from the very beginning. These stories are not about how the world changes people but how genuinely good people can change the world just by actively being kind even with no benefit to themselves and especially if that kindness leads to detriment.

one of the main reasons i love ofmd is the unapologetic queer joy they show us. there's not a single moment where the drama revolves around a character's "coming out" moment. there's no need to accept or reject anyone for what they identify as. like, for fuck's sake, there have been so many moments in the show where they explicitly tell us, "hey, this is us, take it or leave it." no explanations, no justifications—just pure, unfiltered representation. it truly drives in the point that at the end of the day, queer people are also just simply people.

as much as i appreciate the abundance of queer representation we're getting now, i cannot emphasize how much a show like ofmd means to me. i am begging more companies to do what ofmd is doing and just show queer people living as boring old fucking people instead of as victims. take us beyond existing as an educational tool or a plot device. show queer people being people, and we'll stop being victims.

"kill me. kill us all. our spirit will last throughout your entire fսckin' empire because... we're good." you know what this show teaches us? that queer people are resilient as fuck, and that whatever we may have been told, shown, and made to believe about our queerness is wrong. we're good. we continue to be good despite the hardships we face. despite all the shit our elders and trailblazers have gone through from the beginning. despite the political landscapes of today that continue to try to strip us of our dignity and rights. we still exist and we will continue to exist—as people first, and victims last.

queer horror memory lane

i know this screenshot above is just way of some algorithm but seeing these books together i am so honored youve allowed me to open my heart and trot out my art in this unique way. having two well received queer horror books (and third on way) is amazing given where i started my trot. thank you

easy to talk on 'death of unique art' these days but if you look at my story it is powerful example that buckaroos have a taste for challenging or untraditional figures in art. this is NOT to my credit, this is to YOUR credit. YOU have supported queer autistic art. i am so moved

i am already a pretty optimistic bud but still BLOWN AWAY by way my trot has been embraced over time. i recognize my perspective is 'strange' to many but to see the way this unique way was once treated with irony and now sincerity has bloomed in its place. it brings tears of joy

as i trot down my QUEER HORROR memory lane i am going to repost TRAILER for each book just because i have been basking in these memories and recalling the slow embrace of this timeline around me. thank you for allowing me this space i am so humbled and honored. LOVE IS REAL

STRAIGHT

When a strange tear in the cosmos appears within Earth’s annual path, the consequences are disastrous. For one night a year, the vast majority of humans now undergo a frightening mental change, transforming into hateful, rage-fueled zombies who will stop at nothing to satiate their desire for brutality.

While not much is understood about this horrific mass hysteria, the demographic it effects is very specific: cisgender straight people. 

A few years after the first of these tragic events, four friends from across the queer spectrum look for safety in solitude, hunkering down in a remote desert cabin for what is now known as Saturation Day. With a vaccine available for straight people to curb their violent episodes, some predict the worst is over. Others aren’t so sure.

As night falls, it becomes clear that survival isn’t guaranteed this Saturation Day.

GET STRAIGHT HERE

CAMP DAMASCUS

From beloved internet icon Chuck Tingle, Camp Damascus is a searing and earnest horror debut about the demons the queer community faces in America, the price of keeping secrets, and finding the courage to burn it all down. Welcome to Neverton, Montana: home to a God-fearing community with a heart of gold. Nestled high up in the mountains is Camp Damascus, the self-proclaimed “most effective” gay conversion camp in the country. Here, a life free from sin awaits. But the secret behind that success is anything but holy. And they’ll scare you straight to hell.

GET CAMP DAMASCUS HERE

BURY YOUR GAYS

Misha knows that chasing success in Hollywood can be hell.

But finally, after years of trying to make it, his big moment is here: an Oscar nomination. And the executives at the studio for his long-running streaming series know just the thing to kick his career to the next level: kill off the gay characters, "for the algorithm," in the upcoming season finale.

Misha refuses, but he soon realizes that he’s just put a target on his back. And what’s worse, monsters from his horror movie days are stalking him and his friends through the hills above Los Angeles.

Haunted by his past, Misha must risk his entire future―before the horrors from the silver screen find a way to bury him for good.

PREORDER BURY YOUR GAYS HERE

i am blessed by your support, your love, and your kindness. cannot believe how lucky i am to trot with you in all in this way and i cant WAIT to see what the future of this timeline holds for us. thank you for proving love with me from the past to the future