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Who are your favorite fictional LGBT characters?
The question follows the lead of our community name: LGBT in the title refers to the LGBT umbrella and isn't limited to the identities represented by the initials.
The character can be from any media source: shows, movies, anime, books, comics, videogames, even song lyrics, or anything else I've missed. The only criteria is that they have to be fictional.
- Who is the character and how are they portrayed?
- What do you like about them?
- Do they resonate with your own experience or those of people you know in any way?
The entire Sense8 series (at least the 1st season; haven't seen the 2nd yet) is great. The primary plot-line is typical creepy-cool Wachowski sci-fi, but as sort of a secondary/background theme, it explores all kinds of aspects of human sexuality and identity.
But esp, I loved the story about Lito, the closeted gay Mexican action movie star. Really well-developed character, nice sub-plot, well-acted by Miguel Silvestre.
Jeez, I completely forgot about Omar, from The Wire. To this day, one of my all-time favorite characters anywhere, any medium.
The Wire was such a great show (although the last season jumped the shark a bit, IMO), and Omar is one of my all-time favorite TV show characters too, LGBT or otherwise.
Even though I know it's a pipe-dream at this point, I would absolutely love to see a Better Call Saul like prequel spinoff (or even a death retcon reboot) centered around Omar.
David Rose from Schitts Creek - Schitts Creek gets a lot of praise for never using homophobia as a plot line. I like that this show is fluffy and feel-good, and I like that David gets to have a standard rom-com story line. I think a lot of millennials probably relate to David and his struggles with loneliness, connecting, and trust.
Dave from homestuck - homestuck gets a lot of flack (some of it deserved), but it is full of iconic queer characters (other favs are: Rose, Roxy, and Karkat). Dave is my favourite, because he had one of the most unexpectedly satisfying character-arcs I've ever read. It was a really good breakdown of toxic masculinity back before many people were talking about it.
Dr Frankenfurter from Rock Horror Picture Show - I don't think this icon needs to be explained.
Korra from Legend of Korra - Great show, great character. I like it when they take the standard love triangle trope and resolve it by making the two rivals gay together haha (see also: Dave & Karkat).
Schitt’s Creek is one of the best shows on television. It’s a hidden gem that everyone should watch and I can’t give it enough praise. Go watch it now if you haven’t. It should be the next show you watch. Do it. Now. Go. Go watch it. Watch Schitt’s Creek. DO IT.
Homestuck is one of those things that I intermittently aspire to dive into, both to understand for its own art/existence and to try to understand the flack behind it...but every time I have, I feel like it's far too expansive and vast for anyone to really pick up at this point. Almost feels like I'm doing it wrong? Considering that it's "over"(?), It seems like it should just be compiled into an ebook/graphic novel, or that some sort of "guide for new readers" should exist.
(I mean, I fully understand the subtext of what I'm saying here—that just advancing the next button/etc is a bit intimidating, but also, this was a work put out over a long time. A good guide should sort of be compiled with meta-context surrounding the community discussion/events/hypotheses over time, and I feel like I'd lose that context if I just read through the story front to back. Perchance such a guide does exist, and I just don't know where to look?)
Yes, it should be obvious I haven't read much of it.
I first read it after it had peaked in popularity, but when it was still being released (2013 onwards). The friend who got me to read it was a mega fan, so she explained anything I missed to me. A lot of the context is just general pop culture/internet culture from around 2011-2012, but there are a couple of deliberate nods to the community discourse in there.
I get what you mean, the fan culture was a big part of the 'homestuck experience'. The fandom was so big and active, it was almost it's own separate thing (and in fact, became kind of disconnected from the actual comic towards the end).
That said, I think the story stands on it's own and you don't necessarily need to get the references to get the story. It takes a long time for the actual story-line to become apparent through all the noise and jokes - but it is there, and most of the random events do get tied together into something coherent eventually. One of my favourite things about it is when an event that originally seems like a dumb slap-stick gag unwinds to become a major plot point.
But yeah, it's long, and meandering, and there are too many characters, and sometimes the author very deliberately trolls you by making it even longer and more meandering and throwing in more characters. The ending isn't even very good, and a lot of the character arcs just kind of get dropped halfway through without any resolution. I kind of love it for it's audacity, but it is very imperfect.