religious anon here! yes, I didn’t realize that as well after watching and rewatching it. It only sank in with me because I had an epiphany this morning lol. for me, I think why I didn’t realize it right away, is because of how comfortable they are in their own skin that I didn’t question it. that all this talk of sex is just another tuesday for them; it’s normal and it’s okay. sex is such a taboo in a conservative religion that a fresh take like this feels like a miracle, at least for me.
sorry i have so much thoughts haha and, like, even with their eventual coming out, whenever that happens, it doesn’t hang onto the idea that God might smite them and send them to hell. It’s just a very real fear of people judging them or shaming them or, as in April’s situation, her bigoted father. i mean… is there any other religious show where they tackle sexuality and sex in general but the religion isn’t in question? (½)
(2/2) I have lots of love for this show and i deeply regretted that i judged tbh before i watched it. oh and btw, i like The Fellowship. It’s both endearing and ominous. haha
Yeah, I think we didn’t make a big deal because they didn’t make a big deal. It really is so unusual, I’m trying to think of the religious LGBT stories I’ve seen and it’s actually not that many, since I avoid the unhappy ones and that’s most of them. For the non-Christian characters, there were Muslims like Rana on Corrie and Adena on TBT, with varying levels of devoutness, and they actually seemed to be okay with it, but in both cases the show just genuinely never even brought up how they navigated the intersection of religion and sexuality, it was just…a fait accompli. 😛 Sydney on Saving Hope was devoutly Jewish and man, it WAS a huge deal for her to work through, something it took a long time for her to come to terms with. I really liked her story, but that’s exactly what you meant, right, where religion was something to Process, although that’s also very important rep in its own right.
There are obviously way more stories with Christians but I cannot remember a single one of them now, lol, I feel like most of them were people with religious family who’d judge them, that was the angle, they themselves weren’t seen to really think of it much or need to reconcile things, like Rana and Adena. All this to say that yes, I’ve not seen it done like this, where a religious person was immediately like, yes, I’ve accepted myself and I think God has too. As you said, it’s powerful!
I’m kind of curious at what exactly you were prejudging it for, but at least you know better now. 😛 And lol, the Fellowship. The Tolkien connotations would have been too strong, but I still think we can do better than Stepril. :[
what does sterling means by “but people change back” with luke? is it bout april become her enemies back?
Oh, you know, that’s a good question. I didn’t take it that way but I guess it is kind of hazy, let me work out how I immediately took it and moved on.
Let’s see, if you remember the conversation in ep 7 when Sterling and Blair were on the stakeout with Bowser he implied Michelle could have changed and things could work out this time and Sterling latches onto that and is like, does he really think people can change, in the context of April. And then of course after that, for a brief few days it feels like everything has changed and is so perfect. So when Luke says, if you gave her a chance, you’d be surprised, people change, I think to Sterling, it reminded her of how she had actually experienced all that, but now it was all over. To me it was about the situation changing back, that April had “changed” back into how she was before, too afraid to even be in a relationship.
And also, since Sterling’s next line was about missing Luke and then kissing him, you could almost see her trying to will herself to change back into the person who was happy with him. Ultimately, I read it as a lament that she’d gone on this whole journey and things were back to her and April not being together and was all that change, forward and then back, worth the hurt.
One of the things I noticed after watching TBH for the 10th time (I know, I’m obsessed) is that, before their first kiss when April goes off about liars, Sterling really goes out of her way to make sure she never does it when it concerns her. First example is when they plan to meet up at Fun Zone and Sterling tells her how she told Blair she was tutoring that girl. She states that she did it for 10 painful minutes so that way it wasn’t a lie. Same thing with the water bottle she left behind.
Omg, you’re right! Awwwwwww, that is the cutest. Because she WAS lying a lot more freely earlier, but in front of April, she took pains to make sure even the white lies weren’t lies. I didn’t put that together at all, but I’m genuinely awwwing out loud here, anon.
Is it just me or was one of the TBH writers a Gilmore Girls fan and April and Stirling their shot at writing that Rory Paris fanfiction come to life they always dreamed off
To be honesttttt. Maybe?
I mean, really, the good girl with the great family who everything seems to fall in place for, including the academic accolades, and then the strident rich girl with the loveless home trying to compensate by being super ambitious and overachieving who people don’t warm to and who resents the other girl for seemingly easily getting everything she had to work so hard for? I don’t know of any screenwriter for a girl-led TV show now who wouldn’t have at least watched Gilmore Girls, soooo. I mean, we’re joking, but like, it’s possible, it’s so tropey and fun and right there. I cannot believe the journey they went on, canonically.
You know what I wanna see in season 2? Jealous!April. I SWEAR, let’s hope a girl flirts with Sterling and April gets fucking jealous
Noooo. Why! In ships we tend to want someone to get jealous so they see what they’re missing and act on it but like, April already knows and can’t act on it! She’s the biggest victim here!
Oh, wait. Unless you mean they’re already together and April sees some random girl trying to cozy up to Sterling and marches over and eviscerates her. I wouldn’t mind seeing that, lol, and I feel like neither would Sterling.
Why people believe that all of this is April’s plan to get back at sterling
I…have no idea. Who does? The beats of her arc are so clear, it’s–no. That would just not be a thing they would write, the implications of it would be so homophobic.
