During the “Imp of the Perverse” episode, are we meant to think that “Madam” Spellman and Mambo Marie are still lovers in this alternate universe? That they run the art school together, but are also, you know, more than just colleagues? Because I got to thinking… I don’t know just how far the writers intended to go with the World War II metaphor, but from 1933-1945, gay men and women faced persecution from the Nazis and were sent to concentration camps, too. Any books about human sexuality, and homosexuality in particular, were burned.
Is Madam Spellman’s art school even more of a target because Zelda Spellman is/was publicly known to be sapphic before Emperor Blackwood’s regime took over? When Blackwood then targets her for “degenerate art,” does he mean homosexual art? Am I reading too deeply into yet another poorly-executed storyline by RAS?
(that last question is rhetorical).
I had the same thought when watching Zelda and Marie interact in the alternate Blackwood universe but I honestly thought I was just reading into it too deep. I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought of it, but honestly we give RAS too much credit.
Resistance!Lilith listening to Resistance!Hilda talking about making soup from a rock and having them all eat it to help them remember they’re witches with powers. Like you do.
So put a finger down if you had a long going ship where one them died and then you expected them not to be endgame, but then the other drown themselves where they would be endgame.
caos part four in summation was about as bad as i expected. however, the specific ways in which it was bad made me genuinely angry and frustrated and sad. for a show that had so much potential, it’s such a fucking shame. they sort of riverd*led out at the end. i wish they had done more with the mythologies and magick lore. it ended up feeling cheap. i wish sabrina had more actual character development after part one. i wish zelda talked to somebody (hilda!!) about her fucked up “marriage” and her mountains of other trauma. i wish ambrose got some appreciation and closure in the form of exploring and learning like he wanted to. i wish sabrinas mortal friends had less screen time. i wish the whole baron/marie reveal never happened. i don’t understand how after everything, they just said fuck zelda let’s pile on top of her trauma and make all her worst fears come true. i wish zelda got to proudly watch prudence dismember bl*ckwood. i wish the writers knew their fucking audience better. i wish lilith didn’t have to go through such a nonsensical fucked up ordeal to finally get what she wanted. also, for a show about witches, you’d think they would put more weight and nuance into the female empowerment aspect. instead of using actual misogyny as a dramatic plot device and covering up the mistreatment of female characters with pre packaged girl boss esque one liners about being “unapologetic feminists” and “can it with the casual misogyny”.
Zelda fell in love with a woman who is gender fluid
Just because that woman has the ability to shift appearances, doesn’t mean that Zelda is any less bisexual nor is their relationship any less gay.
What we lesbians are NOT going to do is invalidate any of those truths. Nobody ‘lost’ a lesbian relationship because both of the people in that relationshiparewomen.
When you make the argument that a ‘man deceived Zelda about his identity’ you are saying by extension that trans women are deceiving their cis partners by not coming out immediately.
I understand it can suck to have your ship break up but lets not go full t*rf about it.
Baron Samedi is a male loa. Appearing in the glamour of a human woman does not mean he identifies as gender-fluid in…any way, shape, or form. Or does Lilith appearing as Edward and Adam to talk to people mean she’s gender-fluid now, too? Marie was not a chosen presentation. This is not a situation of her saying “yes, I am also Baron Samedi, but I like this form and feel comfortable in it and want to be known this way, too.” Marie was an alias he created to be welcomed into the coven and be able to fulfill the task he came to complete. When that task was complete, he went back to his own form, and wasn’t necessary if he had wanted to remain in Marie’s.
It was a lie—not just about gender but about Marie’s entire identity. Mambo Michele Marie LaFleur is not a real person—not a Vodou witch, not a high priestess, not someone whose met-tet called them to Greendale. Male or female, Marie was a loa in disguise, and people have every right to be upset that her character and relationship with Zelda was invalidated by that lie.
Maybe instead of attacking other fans for their reactions to this, we should acknowledge that the actual transphobia is in the fact that RAS and his writers thought revealing a queer female character to actually be a male entity in disguise was acceptable plot choice for a self-proclaimed “feminist” show. We should be angry about that,because THAT is actual terf rhetoric.
reblogging this addition. the whole thing was very abrupt and confusing and i doesn’t see a reason for it to happen. it did not push the plot forward in any way. admittedly i’m not very knowledgeable about this type of deity. i wanted to bring up a plot hole though. at the end of part three when they resurrect hilda, the circle around zelda is distinctly female only. all the males are sitting off to the side. “marie” is part of that circle. i don’t understand how that would have worked if marie isn’t actually a female witch. to be fair there are much more glaring inconsistencies in the series but it’s sort of bugged me.
