Legend Of Korra Fans, You Can FINALLY See What Happens Next To Korra And Asami, Thanks To Dark Horse’s

I never was good with decisions.

I'm a genderfluid, pansexual and polyamore.

I never made a decision in my life!

So I just saw a tik tok about this and I agree a 100%. I know we all laugh and joke about the "am I gay?" quiz Nick takes but what stood out for me about that scene was the fact that Nick was crying, not because he might be gay but because of all the articles he saw.

Finding out you're queer and it being immediately followed by articles about conversion therapy, suicide rates amongst queer youth and hate crimes is so overwhelming in so many levels.

He realized what is unfortunately linked to the queer experience and I believe he also got a better understanding of what Charlie had gone through.

This scene was so impactful for me and I was sobbing because of the sad reality of what being queer involves.

I’m sorry can we just appreciate how fucking incredible the translation of heartstopper was from comic to screen. I was watching it and I could have sworn I was just watching a colourised version of the book. This show was absolutely incredible and I cannot wait to see what else they do.

Also I love kit Connor so much lol

charlie spring being out as gay. nick nelson being bisexual. tara and darcy being lesbians and being proud to say that they are, not just using the word gay. isaac being aroace confirmed by alice. girl in red being played in a tv show. casual homophobia in british schools being portrayed in an accurate way and being condemned as actual homophobia not just the lads banter.

this show is something that most teenagers who grew up on this goddamn app never had in tv shows. we just got shows that queerbaited us and I’m so glad the new generation get to have actual representation. heartstopper is everything. watch it please

Heartstopper is different because it takes pleasure seriously

Since I watched Heartstopper, I've been trying to figure out what about it made it feel so different from other stories similar to it. When you just describe the plot of it, it sounds like something straight (har har) out of Glee or Sex Education or Elite or SKAM or Skins or Degrassi, or...you get my point.

But it felt so different to me, and I realized yesterday what it was. Hearstopper takes the pleasures of queer romance and eroticism as seriously as it takes the pains of it. By which I mean, it gives an incredible amount of screen time to the excitement of it, the thrill of it, the visceral good feelings of it. Pleasure drives Heartstopper, in a way that is still incredibly unusual in mainstream queer media.

In most other stories like this, the pain and the angst and the ambivalence and the negative social ramifications of the premise take up like 90-95% of the screen time. The pleasure aspect typically exists as minimally as possible to catalyze all the negative or difficult parts that are the 'real' story. And while Heartstopper doesn't shy away from those things, it gives a roughly equal amount of narrative and screen time to the two leads getting a lot of pleasure out of their relationship, too. The amount of time the show invests in showing Nick and Charlie enjoying each other romantically -- throughout the story, not just at the very end -- is just absolutely decadent (and I mean that 100% positively).

The first kiss is a perfect example. In any other TV version of this story, the boys would have kissed that first time for less than 2 seconds, and then IMMEDIATELY been interrupted by the other boys. Instead, Heartstopper lets them kiss once, take a breath, and then have a second, very extended kiss enhanced by animated embellishments designed to emphasize just how incredibly enjoyable this is for them...before finally disrupting it again with Plot™.

And the amazing thing is, from a pure narrative standpoint, you don't need the second kiss. It's completely unnecessary to the plot. You could completely eliminate it and the plot would hold together exactly the same. The second kiss is there exclusively to emphasize the intense pleasure of this experience for them. That's all it does.

Heartstopper is serious about foregrounding pleasure, and how important pleasure is in all of this. Which frankly, is a thing you usually only ever see in romance novels and fanfic.

***

One of the reasons I was hesitant to watch this show initially is because I have limited tolerance for coming out stories that are so focused on the unappealing parts of the experience. It's not that those things don't MATTER. But there is such a cultural allergy to making the pleasures of the experience a serious focus, particularly (yes I'm going to say it) the sexual pleasures of it.

Hearstopper, blissfully, refuses to shy away from pleasure, and from making it important.

It's not just that my tolerance for queer pain in media is limited (although admittedly that's true). I also grow so weary of popular culture treating queerness as mostly a political identity upon which we simply moralize about tolerance, and engage in self congratulatory yarns about ~being yourself~ and loving yourself. It's not that I think any of those things is BAD. But a) I've seen that story many times before and b) there's an ENORMOUS piece of this experience that we're still mostly skirting around the edges of because we're still very chickenshit about it, to be perfectly frank.

We, as a culture, are still scared as fuck to really say, very bluntly: queerness feels fucking good.

In the midst of this, Heartstopper does something wondrous. It says to the audience, in no uncertain terms: Queerness feels fucking good...so, let's spend some time actually talking about THAT for a while.

One of my favourite things about heartstopper is just how explicit it is that being closeted isn’t bad. Ben isn’t awful to Charlie because he’s closeted, he’s awful to Charlie because he’s cruel and insecure. And everybody tells Nick at every opportunity that he shouldn’t have to come out if he doesn’t want to, especially Charlie because he knows how hard it is to be out and he cares more about Nick being safe and happy than being open about their relationship

The closest anyone gets to telling him to come out is during the conversation he has with Tao. And even that’s just him saying that Charlie deserves more than to be the guy he kisses sometimes on the downlow, but it’s fine if he can’t give him more than that and that Charlie would never make him come out if he isn’t ready. He isn’t telling him to come out, he’s telling him to consider what Charlie would be feeling. And it feels more like he’s telling him to make it official than to actually come out, it was Nick’s decision to come out because he wanted to make it official

I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever seen a queer story be this kind to closeted people before. They aren’t treated like cowards or liars or burdens, they’re treated like people in situations where they may not feel comfortable/safe enough to come out. Because in a lot of cases, that’s what they are. And they’re treated with as much kindness and understanding as they deserve and I just love that

It’s November 8 2016. Election Day. And you didn’t vote. You knew that trump is evil “but Hillary is just as bad”, you said. You hate both of them, so you refused to vote. “Neither deserves to win”, you said and by the way, it’s rigged anyway, right? You refuse to play that game and you feel quite good about it. You’re a rebel. It’s your kind of protest against the corrupt system!  

You come home from work, with a smile on your face. It looks like your protest works: Some of your friends also didn’t vote or wrote in the name of a third candidate. You feel really good. Maybe you and your friends are enough to change the system! And if not, well, you’ve seen presidents change before and it never had too many consequences in your life. 

You sit down in front of your tv, reach for the remote and your phone buzzes. It’s a text from one of your friends, the weird one who begged you to vote for Hillary - and your smile falls off your face “It looks like Trump will probably win. I’m so scared. My sister is crying.” 

You suddenly remember that your friend’s sister is trans. 

You turn on the tv and you can’t believe your eyes. The third candidate one of your other friends voted for is at 4%! That’s great, isn’t it? But wait.. Hillary is currently behind Trump? By 6%? Oh. You didn’t expect that. 

 Another text. A co-worker. “Two people called in sick. I think it’s because they’re scared to go outside in case Trump wins..” 

One of your co-workers is black, one is Muslim. 

You stare at the tv and you can’t believe what you hear. “Trump won.” It was a head-at-head race and Hillary almost won - but only almost. You can’t believe it. None of your friends were going to vote for him! 

You want to go outside to think about something else - but you stop as you hear your neighbor crying on the phone. “I’m so scared i’ll lose the custody right when our marriage gets annulled”. 

You suddenly remember that your neighbors are a gay couple with a cute little daughter. 

But Hillary would’ve been just as bad, right? 

James: Do you think we’re soulmates in every universe?

Regulus: I definitely strangled you in one

James:

Regulus:

Regulus: To death. Not in the other way.

Reblog if you're gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, transgender or a supporter.

My recommendation no one asked for:

The taste of Țuică

By fluxweed

R: Explicit

It’s quite one thing for your best mate to casually tell you about all the sex his boyfriend wants to have. It’s altogether another to have him bring up the time you snogged him in a shitty Central London park.

Draco Malfoy/ Harry Potter/ Ron Weasley