fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #7100 ]

[ SECRET POST #7100 ]

⌈ Secret Post #7100 ⌋

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

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What's an example of queerbaiting that was truly queerbaiting i.e. the showrunners were not outright saying it wouldn't happen, and/or it did not end up with at least one queer character/romance, even if unrequited, in the end?

Honestly can't think of any really. I'm sure it exists. I just can't think of one in any of my fandoms. All the ones that get accused of being queerbaiting are very much not.

Teen Wolf. They were milking fandom absolutely

Yup. My first thought as well.

Yep, this right here!

Yep, Teen Wolf is actually the ONLY fandom my mind conjures when I think about queerbaiting. Absolutely disgusting.

One of the few examples I can think of is The Magicians with Quentin and Elliot, who did hook up in season 1 but it never went beyond that despite the show doing wink-wink nudge-nudge with them, and the showrunners alluding that 'idk maybe we'll see more of them!' to keep fans of the ship watching.

And even then I hesitate to call it full queerbait because Elliot had other guy LI's, but the show def kept making it seem like they could happen again maybe. Spoiler: they didn't.

Otherwise I think this is a term that gets thrown around a lot but is rarely ever actually legit, it's mostly shipper-bases convincing themselves a ship will happen when there's no indication in canon it ever will or the fans are flat out told no by showrunners.

That sounds more like technically shipbaiting rather than queerbaiting if other queer ships existed.

AYRT.

Yes, I think this was the term I was thinking of but couldn't remember but I'll agree with that. Ship-baiting rather than QB imo but it was still annoying as fuck to watch.

Supernatural just slides in under the wire if you do count unrequited romantic love.

I feel like the showrunners thought they were doing slash fandom a favor by putting in ambiguity, but a lot of people felt strung-along.

My related fandom secret would be that I really didn't expect happily-ever-after Destiel, but I wish it would have happened because the brotherfucker fans never shut up about "soulmates."

I don't think this was queerbating. I think Supernatural always teased fans, but it was also always clear that neither slash pairing was ever going to happen. There was winks at the audience for sure. But I don't think there was ever any actual suggestion anything would happen in canon.

I don't think having fun with the fandom counts as queerbaiting.

Destiel is a rough one because at the end supernatural IS a queer story.
Castiel is, from season 4/5 onward, one of the major characters and he is textually a queer character (people who say his confession wasn't romantic are delusional imho). The resolution of the arc is not the best and the queer love is unrequited, but the thing they teased all along (Castiel being in love with Dean, subtext from... uhm... season 8? With Metraton commenting on it and the whole closing heaven ritual which required Castiel specifical for ""UNDISCLOSED REASONS"" etc etc) was actually confirmed.
Castiel and his love for humanity (& Dean) is a major plot point and actually the resolution of more than one arc, even some character arcs that directly concern Dean. IDK for me his queerness is a central part of SPN narrative. We weren't really being baited in the end. They wrote it explicitly in the text.

so IDK for me it's not queerbaiting. Maybe shipbaiting??? But even so I don't think ship baiting really fit Dean and Castiel.

One thing I would say, the promo before the finale where Misha say LOVE ALWAYS WIN or something like that when Castiel doesn't even appear and love isn't even a central theme of that fucking finale will always be the worst piece of advertisement to ever exist. I still think about it to this day and it still makes me sick. I want my brain bleached.

(I'm a diehard destiel fan I could write about this for hours!!! ahaaa)

Quite a few manga/anime series did/do this, especially when they're not explicitly marketed as BL. The most recent example being A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation which is incredinly fruity but the author insists its totally not BL you guys!

Also, a lot of Chinese drama series but that's primarily censorship's fault.

I think there's a case for Once Upon A Time, with Regina and Emma, and for Mulan and Aurora, as well as Skins with Mini and Franky.

Generally speaking queerbaiting has to be seen in context of what was available as shows were coming out. Showrunners confirming zero intention for a same-sex ship a couple of seasons in doesn't automatically mean the previous material wasn't queerbaiting, sometimes it just means they've reached the point where it's more of a hindrance to have that ambiguity than a benefit.

Every single person involved in OUAT made it explictly clear, right from the start, that there was not, and would never be, anything romantic between Emma snd Regina. That ship could not be more the opposite of queerbaiting.

Aurora/Mulan is more of a borderline case, but IIRC there was a genuine issue there with Disney censorship.

I mean, your definition of the word is fundamentally incorrect, so...

One that wasn't truly queerbaiting but was genuinely nasty was Rizzoli & Isles. They kept putting the characters into situations where people assumed they were a couple, or they had to pretend to be a couple, so that the characters could then laugh at how weird and gross that idea was.

The Muppets (2015) and the scene where Bunsen and Beaker are wearing each other's clothes but they don't come out either. "If it happens outside of work we don't owe him an explanation". Bunsen and Beaker have been queer since their creation and this is just baiting the fandom.

I love this

Arguably House/Wilson

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[ SECRET POST #7100 ]

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