unhingedpirates reblogged
Seeing a few "those MEDIA ILLITERATE CHILDREN still INSIST that the finale was BURY YOUR GAYS" floating around.
I'm happy to break down my reasoning:
- David Jenkin's post-finale interviews all make clear that Izzy's death was decided upon - even if only by David himself - at a very early stage.
- Having established that Izzy would die, the writing team then chose to give him an explicitly queer narrative arc of self-discovery and joy, one they knew was going to end in a painful death.
- They gave no other characters that strikingly queer arc of self-acceptance and expression - just the one they'd already decided to bury by the end. There were other queer characters, in queer relationships, but they didn't get queer arcs. (A character arc is the transformation or inner journey of a character over the course of a story. Being queer is not itself an arc; for example, Lucius's arc was about overcoming trauma. A character can be queer without a queer arc.)
- The only character who did get a queer arc also got a grave.
- You should be concerned by this choice from a writing team, especially if you are queer.
- You should not be belittling the people who are voicing their concern.
As a side note, I was born in the 1980s. I grew up in the UK under Section 28. For what it's worth, I also have a first in English Literature. I've been suffering terrible media representation of gay people my whole life, and when I see it in a show which made a point of encouraging gay fans to feel safe and seen and respected, I'm going to point at it and scream very loudly.
ok i swear i’m not trying to start a fight but i have two questions:
- even if we’re only considering character arcs about an inner journey of self-acceptance a “queer arc” and not any of the several queer romances in the show, isn’t the whole show?? stede bonnet’s queer arc???
- is there a storyline jenkins et al could have written for izzy that still ended in his death without it being “bury your gays”?
#'izzy the only character to get a queer arc'#ed and stede: am i a joke to you?#also add jim onto the list because i'm pretty sure there was a queer self-descovery of their non-binary identity through s1#prev is so right tho >#I hate to say it but this is not the Izzy Hands show!#ofmd#izzy hands#ofmd 2#ofmd s2 spoilers#our flag means death#ofmd s2 finale#ofmd s2e8#also I'm so sorry that your idea of feeling safe and respected meant that no queer character would be harmed or killed#either that's your interpretation or you only ever cared about izzy#izzy hands discourse