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just my humble 2 cents but like. i know ppl like to have wlw ships and happy wlw endings and those are wonderful things. but also queer ppl exist,,, outside of romance? if that makes sense. and can still have wonderful, rich, diverse stories and have that be great representation. like my life is not any less gay for not being in a gay relationship

That’s a totally valid way for you to look at media, anon, but I’ve got my way too. And I could say, well, it’s relevant how this discourse only seems to come up for same-sex and interracial couples, who’ve had to fight to exist and be represented, and the lack of media romance and happy endings for them is for a reason. Or that to have representation of characters with AND without romance/happy wlw endings, we kind of have to still have the happy wlw endings and we’re quite short on those. Or that we don’t have to be in real life what we want to see in fiction.

But none of that’s needed as a justification because at the end of the day, I like romance. I like happy endings. I want to see them. And that’s fair too, and for others who want that.

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I was so excited for The Half of It. But after watching the trailer my excitement kinda lessen by half. Of course I will still watch and support it. I just had different expectation of it in the beginning. Now I just want to support it without having any expectation, especially if the crush ends up with the guy. I hope Alice Wu gets to make more movies in the future. Saving Face was truly nice and hopefully she can make more and better. Also I wish Netflix would make more lgbtq romcom series.

Yes, exactly, please, Netflix, make more queer romcoms! Or…any? 

But this does show, I think, how much the expectations around this are affecting the framing. I still think, as someone who would have preferred it to be more classic romcom, that it’ll be a fun watch. I don’t think the crush and the guy will end up together, unless things have changed in the extreme, but even with the focus away from the romance, you liked Saving Face and a lot of it was also about Wil and her mom and even, separately from Will completely, the mom’s romance with the young guy and how the community was maneuvering around that. 

I think a lot about this is the execution and I feel like it’ll be well done enough that we’ll still be happy. Even though the focus won’t be on Ellie and Aster, their moments will be sprinkled around in such a way that we’ll still be repeatedly reminded of them.

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So it’s kind of like the Life Partners movie. Where Leighton Meester’s sexuality wasn’t really the main focus but the friendship between the two women. I get it’s at least two women in the forefront of the film so maybe that’s why a lot of ppl were okay with it? Or were ppl not okay with it? No clue lol

Lol, I have no idea either. To be accurate, I”m seeing more of the defense of THOI than I am the actual negativity, so it might have been a similar reaction back then, just more amplified now. I do think the era makes a difference too, this is six years later. Now everyone, not just f/f fans or even fandom in general, is so much louder and…MORE on social media. But I’d also say that, as loud as the outcry over things like Willow/Tara and Glee (in general) were, the f/f community specifically has become more vocal about what it doesn’t like and why. And every year, every movie that brings along another unhappy ending just adds to how much people are waiting for one.

I think maybe also what would have been different for that one is that while people would have groaned at the initial premise of Life Partners, it did seem like a friendship between a straight girl and a lesbian from the offing? So it was more a muted “oh, this again” from the start, instead of what we got here, people getting excited over thinking THOI was a f/f romcom in the vein of TATBTILB and then being disappointed.

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Hi! I need your help. I want to make gifs for this web series I’ve been watching but I’m not sure how to do it. Do you have any suggestions?

Sure, what part are you stuck on? If you’re looking at it from the very start, there are three major steps, I’d say:

1. Obtain the episodes: You mind find rips of it online, if you know where to look, possibly with 720p/1080p or mp4/mkv in your search terms, or you could try to download it directly, using various tools.

2. Clip the part you want: I actually use Xilisoft’s free trial to get the part I want, since the only limitation on the free version is length and I never need more than three minutes, but there’s Handbrake and VLC Player and a variety of free tools out there.

3. Actually creating the gif: I use Photoshop CS5, import the clip, do whatever modifying with Curves and add text if necessary, and then Save for Web. 

There are a variety of gif tutorials out there, everyone has different methods for literally each of these parts, so you may want to try different approaches, or come off anon and I could help you more specifically.

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Of course Alice Wu isn’t supposed to fix years of misrepresentation, but she’s someone who has been to hundreds of festivals and met fans and she knows how the community is waiting for a romcom and she gets a chance with Netflix and makes a movie about a friendship between a girl and a guy? that’s disappointing tbh even in the comments everyone missed the point of the trailer and are shipping the lesbian and the guy.

Nooo, they’re not! Are they?? Nooooooo. Surely it’s just a teeny tiny group of people.

But leaving those people aside, it sounds like you do still kind of think Alice Wu should have made a different movie? Even if all that is true, it’s still not her responsibility. She wrote what she felt inspired by and this is the story she wanted to tell. I think all the choices she made were important to her, not just that it’s f/f, but that it’s in small town Americana, that it’s a white guy she befriends and who begins to understand her, that we can find commonality with anyone. She was inspired to write this after the 2016 elections, there was something more here than just “let me throw something down”. The choices here weren’t a platonic m/f friendship vs a f/f romance, it would have just been this movie or none at all. If anyone’s on the hook here, it’d be Netflix and Hollywood as a whole, who’ve made so few lighter-toned f/f movies that this one has to stand for them all. 

I totally get being disappointed by it but two things can be true: 
1) I wish this were different
2) Alice Wu can make what she wants

Neither negates the other. It just means you and Alice Wu are different people and like different things, which is totally normal and healthy and fine? It’s only when it goes from “I like something else” to “I wish this was something else” to “this creator should have made something else” that you get near dangerous territory. And honestly, even that last comment is pretty mild, it’s just, when you consider your audience, which is Anyone On the Internet, we want to be a little more careful because often that’s not where it stops, it goes to “this creator is stupid/selfish/bigoted in some way for not doing this instead”. Not saying that’s what you’re saying! Not at all. But I think we all know how things can spiral, or even be open to misinterpretation.

I went to my friend and said actually much more extreme things, because I know she understands where I come from, what exactly irritated me, what I meant and didn’t mean, and most importantly, I knew she was on the same page. Aside from not wanting this to spiral out, I know people are excited about this, I don’t want to ruin it for them. My priority in answering these asks is trying to make sure everyone feels heard but I especially don’t want to take this good thing and bring anyone down.

Which kind of hilariously takes me to literally the very next ask:

And another anon:

alrighty so originally the only things i knew about The Half of It was GAY and alice wu but now having seen the trailer is see that its a little less gay and more about friendship (which is fine). Heres to hoping they go nancy drew-esque in that the guy is like Ace and is more than ok with being friends instead of getting the girl. Either way i will watch and keep any and all negative opinions to myself cause Alice doesnt need or deserve that shit

I do think the guy will be fine, I think it is very much a story of Paul and Ellie’s friendship winning out over everything, not just small-town racism or homophobia but the more focused “relatable”–at least in fiction–issue of liking the same girl. But you know, exactly the same as above except in reverse, you can have your preferences and not like something and not have it be an attack, heh

And another anon:

the ironic thing is alice wu HAS made a romcom with a full on happy ending with saving face years ago but that movie gets so overlooked and underappreciated

She has, she absolutely has, but even if she hadn’t, it wouldn’t have been on her to provide one now. 

Although on the other hand, I also don’t think the existence of that or IMAY can be used to stop people from wishing there were more happy f/f romcoms in general. It’s not even like there’s been a jump in the number in the last few years, even though sometimes people act like the lack of rep has been addressed. And that’s aside from the generational differences. Someone who wasn’t born when Saving Face came out could be old enough to be the target audience for this teen movie.

And another anon:

I’m not sure but the trailer looked good. And I like the platonic side

That’s good, anon! I think it’ll be uplifting and even many people, like myself, who wish for something more romance-centric, will like it.

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how do people know the ending of the half of it already?? was the script leaked or smth

And another anon:

Hey, I was wondering where the supposed “leak” of the half of it is? I would like to read it

A whiiiile back it was up on reddit (and probably other places?), I found out through this post which summarizes much of it: 

https://morningmightcomebyaccident.tumblr.com/post/182073207613/if-you-want-to-read-the-script-for-the-half-of

It’s been removed since but it should be reinforced that we have no idea what the actual ending or even movie itself are like now, anything could have changed from that script to actually being shot. For what it’s worth, the ending as it was written was open-ended but hopeful for the f/f pair.