[ SECRET POST #5661 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5661 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.



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02.
[SIX, a musical about the wives of Henry VIII]


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03.
[Supernatural]


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04.
[Agatha Christie]


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05. [repeat]



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06.
[Charlie and the Chocolate Factory]


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07.



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08.









Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 16 secrets from Secret Submission Post #810.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Oh hey, I was going to make a very similar secret myself, but now I don't have to.

I completely agree with this secret.

Personally, I found the way it was handled not just abrupt but also very unsubtle. It definitely felt like a Teachable Moment to me, which is always something that rubs me the wrong way in fiction, no matter how vehemently I agree with the values being espoused.

It’s not that I wanted any of the siblings to refuse to accept Victor or be deliberately transphobic or anything like that, but it felt like they were all being very pointedly written as Exemplary Allies, and IMO they are WAY too messy as people and as siblings to be Exemplary Allies to one of their own about basically anything ever, and I just don’t think this specific development would’ve been an exception.

I just felt like it was both abrupt and also very unnuanced and obviously prescriptive.

I get that some people will be glad it was so prescriptive, and won’t care whether it fit seamlessly into the narrative, because positive trans rep is important. But I hate feeling pandered to, and I hate teachable moments in fiction, so personally I wish they’d handled it a bit better.

Notably, I still have three episodes left to go in S3, so if anything occurs in the next three episodes that counters what I'm saying here, then my bad. I was waiting until I was done S3 to post my secret on this, but since OP beat me to it with a similar secret, I'm just gonna comment here and scrap my secret.

[tabaqui]

I dunno - they never seem to care about Klaus cross-dressing and having a same-sex 'soulmate' or whatever, so they're obviously pretty tolerant people....

Edit: cross-dressing isn't the right word, actually, but I dunno what is. Let's say short-hand for wearing what is typically perceived as 'female' clothing without incident other than Allison being all 'YOU ARE WEARING MY CLOTHES WITHOUT ASKING!' which is totally fair.

[(Anonymous)]

I often feel that characters are written as more accepting of trans and other LGBTQ people than real people like them probably would be, but I also think it usually makes sense from a narrative perspective, because if the story isn't About bigotry, a character being transphobic or homophobic (or racist or anything else) would mean there should be time taken out of the real story to address the issue and that would disrupt the flow. The only other way to not disrupt the flow would be having the character be a bigot and get little more reaction than "ok you're an asshole moving on" and that would... not go over well with audiences. I think we can suspend our disbelief for the way it's done, like we do for other unrealistic things on TV (and not just the supernatural ones. Developing relationships, people's ways of talking, etc. They're all streamlined differently to fit narratives or flow better.)

[(Anonymous)]

The thing that makes it jarring to me is that the narrative so actively goes out of the way to thoroughly and clearly address it, and then does so in a way that feels like a teachable moment. I would've much preferred if Victor'd just shown up with cut hair and been like, "It's Victor now," and they'd been like, "What? But you-- I mean--" and then Five or someone had walked in like, "The universe might be ending; you can ask Viktor how he spells his name later, if we're still here," or whatever.

I feel the exact same way about literally all social justice related stuff in fiction: either skate over it with flare, or address it with subtlety and nuance.

if the story isn't About bigotry, a character being transphobic or homophobic (or racist or anything else) would mean there should be time taken out of the real story to address the issue and that would disrupt the flow.

I don't disagree with you, per se (I think your entire comment is solid really), but I do think this isn't necessarily true, if the writers are good at what they do. I mean, the first place my mind went when I read this was the first episode of Shameless, where Lip discovers that Ian is gay and has a very believable but not ideal reaction to it. And the scene where they actually talk about it and Lip gets his head around it and they reconnect again is like a minute and a half long, and still manages to feel nuanced and in character for those specific characters and their situation. TUA takes time out of the main plot to address Viktor's coming out anyway, so it's not like they couldn't have used that time more deftly, is basically what I'm saying.

I genuinely DO hear what you're saying, and I think your points are extremely valid. But I think my argument is, that's not simply the unavoidable nature of film media; it's the nature of mediocre film media, which is a lot of film media--but not all.

[(Anonymous)]

>IMO they are WAY too messy as people and as siblings to be Exemplary Allies to one of their own about basically anything ever

What gave you the impression they would care about Viktor transitioning? They seem to have no issue with Klaus wearing female clothing or being bi/pan. They had no problem with Vanya being with a woman. Why would THIS be the thing that bothered them?

[(Anonymous)]

Because it's new. Klaus being Klaus isn't new. If ever there was a time in the past when Klaus was closeted, then I highly doubt they were exemplary allies about it when he came out, either. I mean, I personally doubt Klaus was ever in the closet, by the point stands.

Victor being with a woman was different because, for one thing, it's a lot easier to imagine the siblings may have always had their beliefs about that--as siblings often do--whereas Victor coming out as trans is overtly established as being a surprise to all of them. And for another thing, Victor having a GF was handled very different, by basically being skated over completely by the siblings, where-as by comparison, Victor coming out as trans is something all the siblings are shown having a reaction to and addressing directly within the narrative. If the narrative had carved out time for Victor to specifically come out to them about Sissy, and they'd all been exemplary allies about it, I would've found that OOC too.

[(Anonymous)]

I mean, it's also narratively a time when they finally have the chance to actually get to know Viktor, as the first season showed how much they very much didn't know or care about him, and they were all separated again in season 2. Maybe a good chunk of their acceptance of this is a "oh, well, maybe we just missed that too along with all the neglect and trauma we missed with you. Anyway."

Like, it's not like they paid much attention to Viktor before season 1--that was a huge part of his plot--how would they even know?