#I was talking to my friend vampares about this since we’ve both read the book

[aro-ace-from-outer-space22]

Hey, PSA-Spoilers!

So, Netflix is releasing a new movie in four days (October 20, 2022). It is called ‘The School for Good and Evil’, and is based on a book series by Soman Chainani. It seems to be only covering the first book, though I imagine that there will be some kind of follow-up since literally everything this man has ever written is a New York Times bestseller. It’s a similar concept to Ever After High and Descendants, very well written, and I highly recommend that you watch it once it comes out.

the thing is

The thing is, there are two female leads. They are childhood best friends even though one of them is beloved by their village and the other hated, even though they are sorted into separate schools and taught to be enemies, even though there are so many people telling them to hate each other.

The thing is, at the end of the first book, one of the girls kisses the other one on the mouth. It is a kiss of True Love, something that already failed with her male love interest. It sends them home.

The thing is, this book, being that it is written by a queer author, has queer themes.

The thing is-and this is the spoilers-the girls are twins.

This is a plot twist from later on in the series. It’s something that’s wrapped up in a very complicated plot in the book it’s in. It is very unlikely that they could or would reveal this early. I feel like Netflix is likely to continue the movie series, and even if it isn’t, I feel like it would be fairly easy to get the books and read them yourselves for a….significant amount of people.

This book was written in 2013. By a gay man. I would like to participate in this fandom without the absolute shitshow that I know this will incite. Especially since the author is of Indian decent. Especially since one of the girls has been cast as black. Especially since this is so soon after the mess that was First Kill.

This was not queerbaiting, this was a gay author making a choice for his story. And maybe you could argue that he was forced, by his publishers, by societal expectations, but regardless; this man has been out-socially, if not publicly-since 2001. This was not an act of malice on his part, this was not a trick he played on you to deprive you of lesbian representation. Please, please be normal about this and leave him the fuck alone.

EDIT:

Okay, so some people are reading this as ‘don’t criticize this man about anything ever’, so I’ve decided to clarify: this is me, as someone who read the first book at about the time it came out, telling people to try to not be racist about this, letting them know that the author is queer-which in my mind at least reframes a few things-and trying to let people know that Sophie and Agatha are twins so they hopefully don’t get too caught up in the ship and then get disappointed/upset. I’m also trying to give this man the benefit of the doubt, but I’m definitely not trying to say that he’s never done anything bad ever, or that you can’t criticize him or his work. Just, please be normal about it.

#My stuff #the school for good and evil #Psa #Hey. Hey; can you all be normal about this? Please? #I was talking to my friend vampares about this since we’ve both read the book #(he was actually the one to tell me that they’re twins; since I’d only ever read the first book) #and we both agree that this is going to be an absolute nightmare #a drama that will have video essays made about it in ten years #and it will ABSOLUTELY be at least lowkey racist. So please. Please. Prove us wrong