kurosmind:

princeofmorley:

thedosian-cabbage:

kurosmind:

kurosmind:

hot take: a character who dies in a dangerous environment/situation where the stakes are high, and that character happens to be queer, is not “bury your gays”. Especially if queer-ness was never a focal point of their characterization.
Especially if they’re absolutely not the only lgbtq+ character in the show. 
thank 

you know what, I stand by what I said and I’m gonna post also my original tags:

#I’m again tired with people throwing out these slogans because they’re sad a character died #a gay character dying in battle in a plausible manner is not the same as a gay character killed for Tragic Gay Lovestory™ drama points #let’s just say you want stories where only white cishet people #or more possibly white cishet men #are the ones to be subject to suffering/dying #and I get why you want that kind of ‘payback’ #but my friends that’s how you don’t get any kind of representation in fantasy/scifi/adventurous settings #because – shocking – drama and high stakes are what makes stories happen #and if you can’t let them happen with characters that are not white cishet then only those will be the protagonists

Sometimes characters do die because the writer is a turd like that.

Sometimes characters just die because they’re a stupid bitch and their story is winding up to the sensible conclusion.

You’re right, and you should say it.

I’ve noticed a recent trend of folks using “bury your gays” to mean “literally any time a queer character dies for any reason.” That’s not what it means.

“Bury your gays” means that a queer character was killed off:

• as a means of exploiting the audience’s emotions, where the character dies purely for shock value or “gritty realism” or tragedy voyeurism, especially if they’re the only queer character in the story;
• as a form of queerbaiting, where the character dies either before their unspoken feelings for another character can culminate in a relationship or shortly after such a queer relationship is confirmed;
• as a form of homophobia, where the character dies because they are queer, or dies in a “heroic sacrifice” to save a straight character who should have died instead, or is the only character who isn’t allowed to find happiness as a direct result of being queer.

It does not apply to queer characters who die because it’s a logical or inevitable outcome with clear ties to the story’s theme, or queer characters who die in a story with several other significant queer characters who survive, or queer characters who die in a story where literally everyone dies, or queer characters who die in a way that is significant and meaningful both to their own personal arc and to the overarching narrative of the story.

Like @kurosmind​ said, drama and high stakes are what make stories happen, and sometimes that means characters die. There are still far too many incidents of “bury your gays” in modern media, and there’s no excuse for that, but sticking queer characters up on a pedestal where the high stakes can’t touch them isn’t the solution.

The question isn’t whether or not a queer character died. The question is why and how did they die, and why did that character die instead of another character, and what misconceptions led to this idea that queer stories have to be about pain and loss, and why are the straight characters able to find love or happiness or contentment in the end but the queer characters aren’t?

I think asking those questions, and challenging the answers, might be a more helpful way to talk about queer representation and the “bury your gays” problem, rather than focusing on the incident of the death itself.

Thank you Galen for the articulate insight I will never be able to provide!