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bengiyo · 8 days

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I’ve just finished my rewatch of Go Ahead, a cdrama you will probably never watch because it’s het and mostly about family trauma. But it’s one of my all time favs and one of the best things about it is the strong found family theme—it’s essentially about three broken families and how they join together as one to support each other. It got me thinking about my fav found family narratives, and especially those that are explicitly queer, because there’s often added life or death stakes in those stories. What are your favorite found family stories in queer media?

This is an interesting question, and I think you qualified appropriately right away by bringing up the life or death stakes of this kind of narrative. I think I want to make a distinction between "finding your people" and "found family" because I think these things often get blurred in romance stories.

Favorite Queer Found Family Stories

For me, a good found family story has to be about the found family component of it. Romance can be a significant portion of the story, but the primary driving relationships need to be about the queers being each other's primary network. I think estrangement from your bio family is a critical component, because knowing you are all each other has is a big part of it.

POSE (2018-2021)

It's really impossible to establish what found family looks like without referring to a show about ballroom culture in NYC in the 90s. We were dying. We were being abandoned. The houses gave people a place to be and a sense of purpose. These kids called their leaders Mother for a reason. Every single queer character in this show was saved by another character in this show before going onto save another character in this show. No show has ever done it like POSE.

Despite their fighting and bickering, Elektra saved Blanca. Blanca would go on to form her own house and provide shelter and support for multiple kids. There is a desperation to queer found family for me that makes it so important. Pray Tell's final choices still resonate with me to this day.

Queer as Folk (2000-2005)

We remember all of the fucking in this show, but this is another show where the queers are their primary support network. Their families aren't really there for them. Justin is kicked out of the house and lives with Debbie for a while, and is nursed by his community after being bashed. Michael and Ben adopt Hunter. Brian donates for Lindsey and Melanie. Debbie housed Brian in the past. Emmett's family disowned him, so his friends are all he's got. The community rallies constantly to protect each other.

Part of what makes this show so special as found family, like with POSE, is how often these folks piss each other off and get into huge fights. They fall out repeatedly in this show over fundamental disagreements that are not easily solved. Some of those fights are ugly in a way only people who know you best can hurt you.

The Fosters (2013-2018)

There's no way I'm not including my favorite TV lesbians of all time raising all them kids on this post. These two public servants found each other, made the difficult choices to be together, and keep expanding their family with more fosters and adoptees over time because there's always more love to go around. This show tackled how important it is to be able to call people family, and what it means for that to be a choice over an obligation. These two always found a way to make it work for their complex family and gave a budding queer the space to grow and be a brat of a teenager after saving him from having the shit beaten out of him for wearing a dress.

Sense8 (2015-2018)

From the directors of The Matrix (1999) and the creator of Babylon 5 (1993-1998), few shows are as queer as Sense8. Eight strangers suddenly become connected to each other and cannot turn it off. Half of them are queer in some way, and it's about their adaptation to each other and looking out for each other as they're literally being hunted. This is one of my favorite sci-fi concepts of all time, and I love the way their relationships outside of their cluster play into their dynamics.

She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat (2022- )

This is a recent favorite for this, particularly because of Season 2. In Season 1, we know that Nomoto puts a distance between herself and her family because of the pressure to become a wife. In season 2, we learn that Kasuga has severed ties with her family because of the expectation that she surrender her own life to take care of her family. When she tells Nomoto this, Nomoto gets angry on Kasuga's behalf and they decide to commit to living together. They are also building their community around them, and I better see everyone in their new apartment in season 3.

Gameboys 2 (2022)

So much of what's going wrong for Gav in this season is that he doesn't feel connected to the rest of his bio family after his grandmother passed, and he's desperately holding onto all of the friendships he has because he's so lonely. It's why he's still close with both of his exes (Pearl and Terrence), and why he won't let them go. Also, he's falling apart and Pearl is the one making sure his bills get paid on time.

The Shape of Water (2017)

Shout out to my man Doug Jones for always playing creatures that everyone is attracted to. The way this movie is so much about undesirables choosing to love each other and saving each other. Go watch it if you haven't. This film is not about a sexual awakening. It's about loving inside of a white capitalist structure.

Not Queer But Good

Shout outs for my faves. Some have queer characters in them, but aren't inherently or explicitly queer.

The Golden Girls (1985-1992)

No one did it like them. A bunch of aging women living together and making the most of their lives still resonates almost 40 years later.

Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-2008)

All of these kids are estranged from their families, and are building out something that works over the course of the show.

The Good Place (2016-2020)

I really love that this is a show about people who didn't get it together in life getting it together in the afterlife because they decided to work together, and then to care about each other. When you're literally being tortured by devils, you're all you've got.

What Doesn't Fit?

This is where things can get a little bit wiggly, but why I want to draw a line on this. I think that shows about queer friendship are important, but I also think that there's a difference between "we are all we've got" and "these people are the most important to me." So we end up with shows like the following.

Noah's Arc (2005-2006)

I often call this the Black answer to Queer as Folk, but I don't think it had time to fully-develop the found family themes in a way that QaF did with its much-longer runtime. Noah and his friends are super codependent and absolutely there for each other, but I don't think the absence of their families is explicitly attributed to their queerness but rather a byproduct of the focus on their gay life dynamics in LA. I love this show dearly, but there isn't a desperation to this that belies the family angst necessary for found family.

For The Boys (2021)

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In many ways a spiritual successor to Noah's Arc, this show falls into the same place. The friend trio at the core of this is the most important relationship in their lives, but this show doesn't have the necessary found family angst.

What about QL?

For me, the biggest problem with doing found family in QL is that the primary genre is romance. These shows prioritize the way these relationships will turn romantic in a way that detracts from the found family component even when it's present. Also, because QL focuses so hard on coming of age plotlines, there's an element more of "finding your people" that supercedes any found family dynamics.

I Promised You the Moon (2021) is a good example of this. The primary drama of this show is about the romance between Teh and Oh-aew and the complications they face once they leave Phuket. Oh finds his people there and blossoms from it, but this is a story about how he and Teh can't get over each other.

As much as I love What Did You Eat Yesterday? (2019- ), the only real component of that is in Wataru's character. Kenji gets along with his mom and sisters, and Shiro is working on repairing the relationship with his family the entire time.

With Thai BL especially, I feel like they're big on friend groups, but not as big on found family. New Siwaj loves big friend groups that love each other, evinced by Love Sick (2014-2015), Make It Right (2016-2017), Until We Meet Again (2019), EN of Love (202), My Only 12% (2022), etc. He's done some great work in the space with queer friends, but not really queer found family.

Cheewin, a former collaborator of New's, also loves friend groups that have each other's backs. Probably his best example of that is Secret Crush On You (2022) with that friend quartet. The closest I think he came to found family was Uea in Bed Friend.

Another example that comes close is the unit that forms on their road trip in The End of the World With You (2023). I often think about this group of queers and the kid they adopted screaming to the heavens that they want to live.

Something I love, but which doesn't count for me is Our Dining Table (2023). There are powerful family dynamics here, but like in WDYEY they're adding Yutaka to their family and Yutaka reconciles with his adoptive family. I don't generally think that adding a romantic partner to your family counts as found family. Besides, Yutaka has a stable job and housing.

Final Thoughts

For me, the stakes are pretty high with queer found family, and it really needs to have a queer basis for me to feel strongly about it. Going back to their bio family is not an option, and often times the terms we use for traditional relationships don't always fit properly (yet another reason why Unknown got so much right). I don't think it's queer found family when they're students in college whose families just aren't around because they're paying for their kids to go to school. Finding your queer community as an adult is a huge part of growing up, but a queer found family is there for the really ugly and desperate parts of existence that your friends might not see.

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lands-of-fantasy · 3 months

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Titular Women in Live-action Superhero Media

Cathy Lee Crosby as Diana Prince / Wonder Woman in Wonder Woman (1975)

Lynda Carter as Diana Prince / Wonder Woman in Wonder Woman (1975-79)

Helen Slater as Kara Zor-El / Linda Lee / Supergirl in Supergirl (1984)

Teri Hatcher as Lois Lane in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993-97)

Ashley Scott as Helena Kyle / Huntress, Dina Meyer as Barbara Gordon / Oracle, Rachel Skarsten as Dinah Redmond in Birds of Prey (2002-03)

Halle Berry as Patience Phillips / Catwoman in Catwoman (2004)

Jennifer Garner as Elektra Natchios in Elektra (2005)

Melissa Benoist as Kara Zor-El / Kara Danvers / Supergirl in Supergirl (2015-21)

Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter in Agent Carter (2015-16)

Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones in Jessica Jones (2015-19)

Gal Gadot as Diana Prince / Wonder Woman in Wonder Woman (2017) and Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

Olivia Holt as Tandy Bowen in Cloak & Dagger (2018-19)*

Evangeline Lily as Hope van Dyne / The Wasp in Ant-Man and The Wasp (2018) and Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania (2023)

Brie Larson as Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel in Captain Marvel (2019)

Sophie Turner as Jean Grey / Phoenix in X-Men: Dark Phoenix

Ruby Rose as Kate Kane / Batwoman in Batwoman Season 1 (2019-20)

Margot Robbie as Dr. Harleen Quinzel / Harley Quinn, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Helena Bertinelli / The Huntress, Jurnee Smollett-Bell as Dinah Lance / Black Canary, Rosie Perez as Renee Montoya, Ella Jay Basco as Cassandra Cain in Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020)

Margot Robbie as Dr. Harleen Quinzel / Harley Quinn in Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020)

Brec Bassinger as Courtney Whitmore / Stargirl in Stargirl (2020-22)

Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch in WandaVision

Javicia Leslie as Ryan Wilder / Batwoman in Batwoman Season 2–3 (2021-22)

Elizabeth Tulloch as Lois Lane in Superman & Lois (2021-)

Scarlett Johansson Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow in Black Widow (2021)

Hailee Steinfeld as Kate Bishop in Hawkeye (2021-?)**

Kaci Walfall as Naomi McDuffie in Naomi (2022)

Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan / Ms. Marvel in Ms. Marvel (2022-?)

Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer Walters / She-Hulk in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022-?)

Letitia Wright as Shuri /Black Panther in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Brie Larson as Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel, Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau, Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan / Ms. Marvel in The Marvels (2023)

Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez in Echo (2024-?)*

________________

*While not directly reffered as such in their shows, "Dagger" and "Echo" are, respectively, Tandy's and Maya's codenames in the comics.

**This also goes for Kate and the "Hawkeye" codename, but in her case the show implies she will use it in the near future with the blessing of Clint Barton (the original Hawkeye, who also stars in the show).

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diceriadelluntore · 1 month

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Storia Di Musica #324 - Alter Bridge, Fortress, 2013

Le scelte musicali di Maggio avranno come filo rosso la presenza di un edificio in copertina. Mi rendo conto che la scelta dell'elemento in comune è di per sé poco discriminante, perché la lista sarebbe lunghissima. Tuttavia con un percorso che ho immaginato a scorrimento di grandezza dell’edificio ne uscirà, spero di non deludervi, una bella selezione. Poi è sempre una buona occasione per scoprire altri dischi rispetto a quelli che ho scelto io. La copertina che inizia questo piccolo viaggio è una casa abbandonata in un deserto, che in maniera piuttosto ironica è stata scelta per descrivere la Fortezza del titolo. Fortress è il quarto album in studio degli Alter Bridge, uscito nel 2013. Gli Alter Bridge nascono agli inzi degli anni 2000, quando si unirono ex componenti di due band, i Creed e i Mayfield Four: dal primo provenivano Il chitarrista Mark Tremonti, il bassista Brian Marshall ed il batterista Scott Phillips facevano già parte dei Creed, insieme al cantante Scott Stapp, fin dal 1997. Dopo la pubblicazione di due album di successo (My Own Prison del 1997 e Human Clay del 1999) Marshall lasciò la band nel 2000, a causa di dissidi con il frontman Stapp: rimasti un trio, i Creed pubblicarono nel 2001 il loro terzo album, Weathered, un altro grande successo rimasto al primo posto per otto settimane consecutive, primato che i Creed condividono con la compilation The Beatles 1. La band divenne inattiva dal 2003 a seguito della conclusione di un tour controverso: in quell'anno, infatti, Tremonti iniziò a scrivere nuovo materiale con l'intenzione di formare una nuova band. Dopo aver richiamato Marshall al basso, il chitarrista decise di contattare il cantante Myles Kennedy, ex membro degli ormai sciolti Mayfield Four, conosciuto qualche anno prima durante un tour in cui l'ex band di Kennedy faceva da gruppo spalla ai Creed. Fu così che nacquero gli Alter Bridge, il cui nome deriva da un ponte, il bridge del titolo, situato presso la casa di Tremonti sulla Alter Road, a Detroit.

L’inizio è del 2004, One Day Remains, che ripulisce moltissimo il suono post grunge dei Creed e nonostante sia un buon successo commerciale è ben lontano dalle vendite della band “primigenia”. Subito però hanno un colpo di fortuna: diventano infatti un gruppo fidato della WWE, la famosa federazione di Wrestling americano. Alcune loro canzoni infatti apriranno i seguitissimi show e una loro canzone, Metalingus, è stata adottata dal wrestler Edge come musica d'entrata. Nel 2005 Save Me farà parte della colonna sonora del film Elektra. Eppure non tutto va per il meglio: la casa discografica premeva affinché si ritornasse al nome Creed, garanzia di maggiore notorietà, e anche a quel suono più sporco. La band aveva tuttìaltra idea e finirono per cambiare etichetta: nel 2007 passano alla Universal con cui pubblicano Blackbird: i testi e le musiche sono spesso a 4 mani tra Kennedy e Tremonti, l’album è molto più coeso e una canzone diviene molto famosa, Blackbird, scritta da Kennedy per un suo amico recentemente scomparso che in una votazione di una rivista inglese, Guitarist, è stata votata nel 2011 quella con il miglior assolo di chitarra di tutti i tempi (che mi sembra una clamorosa esagerazione). Succede una cosa a questo punto: i tre ex Creed si riuniscono con Scott Stapp e pubblicano un nuovo disco come Creed e vanno in tour, Kennedy non sta fermo e collabora con Slash, che in quel momento era il chitarrista dei Velvet Revolver. Qualcuno pensa che il gruppo sia alla fine, ma come un tuono all’improvviso arriva AB III (del 2010): sorta di cupo concpet album sulla fede, è un disco che segna un deciso cambio di prospettiva. Molto più heavy metal, inizia a farsi strada l’estensione vocale portentosa di Kennedy, e da strutture musicali che assomigliano a quell’interessante movimento chiamato progressive metal. È un nuovo grande successo.

Passano anni prima che esca Fortress, tra tour che toccano tutti i continenti, progetti paralleli, solisti, di musicisti che ormai sono diventati molto famosi. Per questo il disco era atteso come una sorta di prova del nove. Dato il titolo, l'album sembra far emergere l'idea che la band sia una sorta di rifugio creativo per i suoi membri, un santuario hard rock dove possono semplicemente suonare e suonare, non importa se al posto di mura possenti c’è solo qualche asse di legno invecchiato dal sole e dal vento. Si parte con Cry of Achilles, che inizia con le note di una chitarra acustica dal sapore flamenco (filone che per qualche anno colpirà in maniera stranissima tutti i grandi gruppi dell’heavy metal, richiamo solo i leggendari Opeth in Persephone, il brano acustico che apre Sorceness del 2016). Micidiale il veloce incedere del singolo Addicted to Pain, mentre in Bleed It Dry salgono in cattedra sia Tremonti con un suadente assolo, che la mirabile ugola di Kennedy. La ballata “alla Alter Bridge” si esprime in Lover e All Ends Well, dal sapore vagamente country. Sono diventati maestri nel costruire canzoni tra riff portentosi degni della vecchia scuola a ritornelli che rimangono subito in mente, come per The Uninvited. Il lavoro di AB III rimane nelle ottime In Peace Is Broken e nella toccante Calm The Fire, pezzo che esprime tutta la bravura vocale di Kennedy. Tremonti presta la sua di voce in Waters Rising, e scatena la sua anima metal in padrone nell’accoppiata Farther Than the Sun / Cry a River e nella lunga e mutevole title track contraddistinta da un pregevole lavoro della chitarra, anche qui a lambire il progressive metal. Fortress è un album trascinante, probabilmente meno creativo del precedente, ma molto più solido. La critica lo capisce e lo designa non solo come il loro miglior lavoro, ma tra i dischi dell’anno.

Gli Alter Bridge, che hanno sempre cercato di non passare per I Creed con un altro cantante, sono diventati, anche grazie alle spettacolari esibizioni dal vivo (suggerisco per i curiosi i Live From Amsterdam e From Wembley Arena) uno dei gruppi di punta di un metal non estremo, ma solido e convincente.

#alter bridge #fortress #2013 #recensione

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