Casey and Danielle already had stellar photos and concepts. My main task here was to put some comps together with a handful of title treatments and see what resonated with everyone. Sometimes, it's as easy as that!
Every time I see someone use queerbait in place of queer coding it makes me wanna rip my hair out
Like as a specific example that's been bothering me, the patrochilles parallels with Clarisse and Selena in the percy Jackson books are not *queerbait*. It is, if anything, queer *coding*, not that I'm declaring any intent on Rick Riordan's part. There was no marketing surrounding the books promising queer characters, there was no big statement by the author that those two were for sure gonna get together or even teasing at it. THAT is the definition of queerbait. It's about the marketing, luring in a queer audience with false promises. That's not going on with Clarisse and Selena.
What there is, is subtext; that's not "bait", that's writing a story. Especially writing a middle-grade story for Disney in the 2000s before gay marriage was even legalized. While it sucks, that's just how it *was*. And, again, that's assuming it was intentional queer coding and not subtext that sure looks kinda gay in hindsight. Because that can also happen! Again, I'm not assuming intent to queercode, even if it isn't unlikely. Just pointing out that Rick isn't always as good about mythological accuracy as people like to think and he is a straight guy who very well could've missed or ignored any homoerotic overtones in the Iliad and interpreted it as a couple'a besties.
Fandom is insatiable and I can guarantee that if Clarisse and Selena DID become canon before Selena's death — awesome as it would be — the piss-on-the-poor website would be up in arms declaring it a case of dead lesbians/bury your gays, just like people are now calling it queerbait. Patrochilles aren't really a happy-ever-after love story.
Rick definitely has his faults, especially when it comes to wlw characters, but I think we can safely say this isn't one of those cases. There's plenty of actual flaws with his writing without bringing up unfulfilled headcanons to pad out the already extensive list.
I’ve been letting the later books get to me a little bit too much. Clarke himself sort of hand waved the inconsistencies with “they’re all different universes” - there’s no set ‘canon’ beyond 2001. It’s the root of all the others. He quite literally invites you to pick and choose your own canon.
Idk I got a little too upset with it all and maybe he was right about hand waving. I feel at peace lmao. To me it can just me 2001 and 2010 with some backstory from 3001 but that’s it.
oh my why did I have to see "trans queer kris discourse" on twitter jesus christ some people are pressed...over.... fanart???? gurl... the amount of low-key transphobic/queerphobic rhetoric for this fandom is kinda like..... read the room....jeez god forbid we do anything these days some poor feckers will clutch their pearls.....
It’s genuinely wild to think that Roman is operating under circumstances where it would be a good idea to like, drop or even resist Mencken. This is beyond Roman’s individual ambivalence toward his politics too because he’s operating as a CEO of the Racism Factory. Meaningfully resisting Mencken from Roman’s position would, at the very least, require the absolute destruction of the Racism Factory (which Roman cannot realistically do) and even then, what’s done has been done. The existence of the Racism Factory alone provided the chance for Mencken to even get this far and not only because of how Roman got him in but because of how Waystar itself provided an electorate primed to like him, similar to how Logan created Roman who is primed to be attracted to Mencken. It’s a closed loop system. Capitalism and fascism reinforce each others’ existence through multiple channels.