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You know what's not a hot take and actually really dumb? Saying that people who are invested in the love story in The Hunger Games are just as bad at the Capitol. A lot has already been said about this to show just how dumb of a statement that is, but I want to add something I haven't seen talked about. And that's how the people of the districts were just as taken by the love story as the Capitol. They just understood the gravity of the Games and saw Katniss and Peeta's love as a successful rebellion against the Capitol, which inspired them as well. Katniss acting like a girl driven to madness with love doesn't dissuade the rebellion at all, and in fact she figures Snow put her up to it during the Victory Tour to distract her rather than as a tactic that would actually dissuade the rebellion.

We get little direct contact with the people of the rebellion, but one of the times we get it, during the visit to the hospital in D8, this is what Katniss narrates:

Despite his controversial interview with Caesar, many ask about Peeta, assure me that they know he was speaking under duress. I do my best to sound positive about our future, but people are truly devastated when they learn I've lost the baby. I want to come clean and tell one weeping woman that it was all a hoax, a move in the game, but to present Peeta as a liar now would not help his image.

For the people in the districts, their romance is real, the hope of these two rebels bringing new life to Panem is real, and its loss is a devastation. Are you going to tell me that these people who are literally dying for the rebellion are just as bad as the people from the Capitol?

So the people who compare those who are interested in the romance in THG to the people in the Capitol, get better critical judgement. The fans I've seen who are invested in the romance are far more akin to how the people of the districts feel about Katniss and Peeta. We love their love because it is a rebellion against the Capitol. It is what sparks the rebellion and inspires people to start fighting back against their oppression. And we the readers know everything from Katniss's perspective (which neither the Capitol nor the districts had access to) and there is still every reason in the world to ship these two characters because they looked at what the Capitol was trying to make them do and at every turn and said "I'm choosing my humanity over submission to you." And they did that together every single time.

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Katniss Everdeen is not the ambitious girl boss and fierce leader the movies and some audiences are trying to make her look like.

She was forced into that role because of who she is and the circumstances. She never wanted to become a leader or anything like that. She just wants a peaceful life for herself and the people she loves.

I don't know how to put it, but people who try to push her as the ultimate girl boss always give me the impression that they only watched the movies.

It especially rubs me the wrong way when they're like, Katniss is such a girl boss she doesn't have time for romantic love! She doesn't love boys like that!

Excuse me, she's canonically a teenage girl who actively daydreams while staring at Peeta's eyelashes, blushing when she's caught; she whines about not getting his affection when he doesn't hug or kiss her; she calls him when he just left her house to go back to his, which is only 3 houses away.

It's like, tell me you didn't read the books without telling me you didn't read the books.

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exceptionally strange to me that some readers think Snow demanding Katniss and Peeta continue their harmless besotted teenagers act is somehow indicative of Suzanne winking and nodding to all of their relationship in the books being forced for the sake of marketing, because first, Katniss and Peeta’s relationship is actually the core relationship of the whole series (like, we can argue about this, but you really can’t escape the fact that a truly insane amount of the plot hinges on it) and second, Snow hates their actual guts precisely because they literally refuse to stop being radically loving towards each other and towards others (not to mention, of course, all the political protest art and unhinged speeches they keep making and giving; he’s got to stop handing them mics) and it would make his day if they brutally murdered each other: I really don’t think he’s out here running a fan club except for very short-lived PR purposes circa the tour

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Ok, I've seen a rumor floating around that Gale was meant to be Katniss's cousin (with no sources to back it up, btw--if such a source exists, please link to it and I will eat the following words).

And while yes, editors have said they told Suzanne to include more of the love triangle, and specifically more Gale, that doesn't mean Suzanne didn't intentionally include the love triangle in the first place.

In fact, Suzanne got Katniss's last name from Thomas Hardy's Bathsheba Everdene and says that "The two are very different, but both struggle with knowing their hearts." Full clarification I haven't read Far From the Madding Crowd (yet), but the whole plot centers around suitors and relationships Bathsheba finds herself attracting and figuring out who she loves.

So to be clear: per the author, Katniss's last name is a direct reference to the fact that an important part of Katniss's story is looking into her heart, to see who she loves and how she loves them. Knowing this, it seems far-fetched to me that Gale was ever meant to be a cousin (other than in the Capitol's fabrication of the star-crossed lover's tale).

Go ahead and critique the use of the love triangle or fanfiction a situation where Gale was Katniss's cousin, but don't be spreading misinformation about this. Thank you.

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Something that really bothers me with The Hunger Games is how readily some people dismiss the fact that there's romance in the books at all in some weird attempt to make it sound better. The old 'oh it's really a story about revolution, shame ppl focus on the boring love triangle' 'oh it gets dismissed bc of the love story but it's actually really deep.'

Y'know, as if admitting that one of the core themes is love and human connections somehow makes it a lesser thing. As if it's not the whole point of the books that our lives can't just be about surviving from one day to the next, that we need to live for more than just rebellion and anger and trying to put food on the table. As if our entire human race can't even EXIST without relationships in one form or another.

Can we just not pls k thnx

(This isn't limited to THG, it's just something I see happen a lot with this series in particular.)

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AU where Percy has to hide the fact he’s a Big Three kid otherwise he’ll be killed on the spot so nobody finds out he’s Poseidon’s kid until his 16th birthday. Instead, he he had to pretend to the child of a different god. At one point, he literally tricks someone into claiming him and whatever god he chooses is just like “I truly do not remember you, but I also have so many kids so… sure” and so you just have this black sheep of a demigod vibing in whatever cabin.

This can kind of be cool though bc, depending on the cabin he’s integrated into, he gains some secondary skills bc he needs to learn how to blend in. If it’s Apollo then maybe he’s forced to learn archery or to prove he’s a Hermes kid he becomes one of the best thieves around or with Ares he has to learn to fight respectably with multiple weapons, etc…

For fun, I want to say Aphrodite bc I think Silena would 100% know Percy isn’t an Aphrodite kid, but helps him anyways and teaches him everything he needs to know to blend into their cabin and she’s the best pretend-sister ever teaching him French and how to do the perfect winged eyeliner. Also, Aphrodite is the daughter of Oceanus and literally made from the sea so it works out well if he accidentally slips up occasionally.

Plus if it’s Aphrodite we can get Percy in earrings and maybe when he’s older getting some cool ass tattoos or something that have magic that makes them move to help him look at Aphrodite-ish as possible.

Later on, the war is rapidly approaching so people KNOW there is a Big Three kid in their midst, but can’t figure out who. Percy is basically being headhunted and desperately trying to hide his water powers or whatever. It’s kind of like a witch hunt, essentially. Eventually all the Aphrodite kids find out it’s Percy and are dedicated to helping him blend in and keep him safe bc they’ve all accidentally decided they love him.

Then the war finally comes and after Percy defeats Kronos or whatever then Poseidon claims him and it’s super badass and whatever godly parent originally claimed him is just sitting there like “….yo wtf I’ve literally been bragging about the fact you’re my kid” and Percy still basically honors them as he second godly parent and his cabin-mates as siblings. I can’t stop thinking about this. Might drop literally everything and write it.

Also, for the Aphrodite take, you got Annabeth, Rachel, and Nico all sitting there like: you aren’t a child of Aphrodite??? Then explain how I’m in love with you??? And Percy is just like “wow I did such a good job pretending that people actually think they like me!”

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twitter fans this. reddit fans that. how come nobody is talking about the quora dot com fans.

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I made a list similar to this on Twitter that included basically all of this but also

what if you’re in med school working as hard as you can to become a doctor, but then you die and go to heaven. there’s no need for doctors in heaven in heaven where sickness doesn’t exist I’d think I’d have an existential crisis post-existence.

The heaven in Supernatural disturbs me greatly

I was reading a post-finale Supernatural fic (as one does), and I literally couldn’t continue because of the implications of living in this heaven world. So, it’s just like living on Earth, but better? And literally forever? This idea has more holes than Swiss cheese, hold on, lemme get out my numbered list…

1. People from different generations are all living together in one place? The towns/cities are gonna have to change to accommodate newer people, so that’s gotta cause confusion and fear for the older folks. (1600s guy: “Yoooo, wtf are these METAL MACHINES driving around!? I’m scared now. This is hell.”)

2. Is new media created? Like… is Freddie Mercury releasing new heaven-exclusive tunes? Otherwise, you’d run out of stuff to entertain yourself with, right? UNLESS you’re in a room with someone who died much later than you and can experience their newer sources of entertainment through them or something? idk that’s just weird

3. If you fall in love and want kids in heaven… heaven babies? (ugh if periods still exist in heaven I swear to god) Do those babies never die/just stop aging? Wait, what if the kid turns out to be an evil psychopath, and now they’re in heaven and can’t die!?!?

4. Are other animals in heaven? That’s SO many souls of slaughtered animals. You’ll need buttloads of farmland to accommodate all of those poor cows and chickens, and don’t even get me started on the bugs…

5. What if the love of your life doesn’t ever end up in heaven but you do, that’s gotta suck. That “what if we were together” will hang in the air for literal eternity

6. OH NO what if your first spouse dies and you fall in love and marry someone else, and then you’re all in heaven? The only possible good solution would be a throuple, every other outcome is just sad

7. Just the unlimited amount of choice and lack of real-world responsibility combined together sounds completely overwhelming

8. I know it’s cliché, but the highs of living don’t feel as fulfilling if you don’t also experience the lows, so every great moment would feel normal/mundane instead of spectacular

And yeah… I guess heavenly interference would prevent or avoid all of this discomfort somehow to make heaven enjoyable, but it doesn’t make my brain stop screaming at me

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The trouble with Dean Winchester

When a traumatized, abused, occasionally suicidal person is convinced he’s destined to die a certain way—angrily, violently, going down swinging—and that’s what he gets: dying terrified, angry, randomly, and pointlessly, once again his daddy’s blunt instrument, it shows people who may identify with him and his story that there is no peace to be found here. You’ve done what you can, but the only place there is happiness and peace for people like Dean Winchester is in the beyond.

Then, if we were to touch on Castiel’s confession and subsequent disappearance from the narrative, it raises another message sent to people who identify with Dean. The best they could have hoped for Dean was that he was going to carve a niche for himself, an add-on to someone else’s family. Sam and Eileen or Jody and the girls or all of them. He would be everyone’s family, tangentially. But then came Cas. No one expected someone to fall in love with Dean Winchester. Dean was always going to have to settle for being the fun uncle at Christmas and he was going to rock it, but when Cas loved him, everything changed. Not only did Dean Winchester deserve to be saved, he deserved to be loved, fully. But that was also stripped from him, so Cas could also fulfill his destiny which also turned out to be a cheap sacrifice, and being loved completely and as a whole person, damage and all, was something neither of them got to experience with his best friend.

The Supernatural finale neither saved nor loved Dean Winchester and all of us who identified with him lost a little of whatever he propped up within us when he died angry, terrified, and without justice.

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Shipping destiel is great bc you get to piss off w*ncesties/br*nlies, homophobes, robert singer, the cw, radical christians, people who hate spn, people who hate dean or cas, people who hate misha, megstiels/sastiels, the entirety of r/supernatural and s e hinton all for the price of one.

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Definitions: Queercoding, Queerbaiting, and Queercatching

After running across a lot of people incorrectly using terms and/or not realizing there’s a better word for what they’re describing, here are some definitions! My inspiration is from Rowan Ellis’ video “The Evolution Of Queerbaiting: From Queercoding to Queercatching “ and my definitions are from an amalgamation of sources, from Rowan Ellis to wikipedia.

Queercoding

Queer-coding is a term used to say that characters were given traits/behaviors to suggest they are not heterosexual/cisgender, without the character being outright confirmed to have a queer identity. (Fanlore)

Queer coding is the subtextual coding of a character in media as queer. Though such a character’s sexual identity may not be explicitly confirmed within their respective work, a character might be coded as queer through the use of traits and stereotypes recognizable to the audience. Such traits are greatly varied, but traits of exaggerated masculinity and femininity, vanity, and hypersexuality are frequent. (Wikipedia)

Queercoding can hold both positive and negative connotations. On one hand, the coding may be unintentional, or a way for creators to slip as much representation as they can past censors, like on a kids show where rules about explicit representation are more strict. On the other side, many villains fall into this definition, including many from disney like Scar (effiminate features and flair for the dramatic) and Ursula (resembles drag queen Divine, deep/husky voice), and the connection of queer stereotypes with villains or antagonists may then make queer traits seem negative or wrong by association.

Queerbaiting

Queer baiting (or queerbaiting) is a term used to describe the perceived attempt by advertisers or canon creators to draw in a queer audience and/or slash fans by implying or hinting at a gay relationship that will never actually be depicted. “Queerbaiting” is most often — but not always — applied to television and film. (Fanlore)

Queerbaiting is the practice of hinting at, but not actually depicting or confirming, a queer character and/or relationship on screen - this is obviously linked to queer-coding but has some added extras. Namely, it happens after the Code, where an audience might reasonably expect queer characters to eventually be revealed. It might also be linked to marketing campaigns or press interviews where the people behind the scenes will be coy or vague when asked about the subtext. (Rowan Ellis)

Queerbaiting is a marketing technique for fiction and entertainment in which creators hint at, but then do not actually depict, same-sex romance or other LGBTQ representation. (Wikipedia)

The definition of queerbaiting is somewhat vague, and is used quite a lot in fan spaces, so from what I can tell there are actually several interpretations. Some believe that if a show already has queer characters/relationships and/or it isn’t homophobic towards queer topics, that it cannot queerbait. While others believe that even if a show has a gay character/relationship the show can still queerbait for another character or relationship. Essentially, some take queerbaiting as encompassing all the content of a piece of media, while others see it as able to apply to specific characters/relationships and not the piece of media as a whole.

Queerbaiting has largely negative connotations and many prominent examples, including Sherlock and John from BBC Sherlock, Derek and Stiles from Teen Wolf, Arthur and Merlin from Merlin, and Kara and Lena from Supergirl, just to name a few.

Queercatching

Queercatching is explicitly talking in the promotion of a film or tv show about a queer character but not following through in the piece itself in any meaningful way (see: Lefou is gay! (in two blink and you miss it scenes)).

It can also be seen in the act of putting little to no indication of a character’s sexuality into a piece of work, and then retroactively telling the audience they were LGBTQ+ all along  (see: JKR & Dumbledore). (Rowan Ellis, coined by)

Since queercatching is a relatively new term, there isn’t a lot written about it, but it seems to be becoming more popular. This term encompasses such instances as the MCU’s first gay character being advertised as a big deal, only for the representation to last for two minutes, Dumbledore being retconned as gay, and the seven different “first openly gay” Disney characters who are then barely in the movie and promptly forgotten about (edited because we got a new one in Cruella today, apparently).

Queer catching could also apply to shows or movies where characters are in a gay relationship but have very few scenes together as a couple and the relationship is largely ignored. Or maybe a show has a trans or nonbinary character that originally seems to have a larger role, but then is pushed to the side in favor of other characters and storylines. And those shows or movies advertise the diversity of their cast and brag about how diverse they are, when in reality those characters or stories get sidelined.

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Because queercoding, baiting, and catching are quite popular in media I felt it would be important to have a simple, easy to read guide on what the terms meant so everyone can be on a more similar page when talking about issues with LGBTQ+ rep in media. And I didn’t end up running across anything similar, so I figured I should create one of my own. I hope this post was at least somewhat helpful to you!

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Doctor who is the least hated and least “cringe” part of superwholock because it didn’t have an overwhelmingly popular gay ship I’m not wrong and it ought to be said

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thinking about the fact dabb and singer were the only spn showrunners who weren’t jewish and they wrote that dumb fucking good christian heaven ending

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this is like the finale all over again. prepping for the worst possible outcome and getting fucking blindsided by the stupidest possible outcome

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—Regarding Dean, 12x11; Urban Cowboy, 1980

credit to Veneredirimmel!

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Hey Spencer. I do love and appreciate all the queer and trans fans out there. I guess I will tell you this, I feel like the fact that Castiel’s declaration of love at the end of Supernatural was inclusing and gave queer and trans fans some validation I think was really meaningful and super important to me, and made my arc on the show feel relevant and worthwhile. I hope that means something.