Quote Originally Posted by Icefanatic View Post
I get all of that, I even agree with almost all of what you said. But for me, some of that is also way too close to those people arguing that 2 + 2 doesn't necessary equal 4, that maybe it's 3 or 5, literally waging war on objective reality. People are certain things, characters are certain things. Not everything is mutable. We don't just rewrite reality because of people's feelings.

I'm not sure why I typed Lev, I intended Lorna. That was a deep-cut brain fart. And the last thing I wanted to do is offend anybody, be they marginalized or not. If I hurt anybody's feelings I apologize.

I don't blame the fans on either side of the divide. Ideally, I would wish so many people wouldn't have gotten so invested in trying to make a fictional, actually-straight person gay. That Marvel would have flat out said Iceman was straight instead of trying to play to both sides for so long that it became some massive thing. I can think of several TV shows that have done the same thing, but most of them generally quickly dialed it back or manage to go off the air before having to deal with the fallout from fans. Marvel somehow did the dance for twenty years. It's ridiculous they managed to sustain it for so long.
That’s cool that there are parts you feel similar about, and don’t get me wrong, I understand the opposing side too. It is what it is, and I don’t think either our intentions are bad, people tend to be very passionate about the characters they love.

Narratives and themes, and how readers engage with them are not math problems and neither you or I have the authority to dictate the correct way to engage with that. Fiction doesn’t exist in a vacuum. People do not consume stories, themes and characters as value neutral agents; but as emotional beings who have various ways of engaging with these concepts. Bobby was objectively straight but the possibilities of how his narrative exists and the possibilities within how that can be developed, to many readers is not fixed.

We are also talking about comics here. Magneto was objectively not a Holocaust survivor for a decade plus. Gambit was objectively not in the Mutant Massacre. Jean was not objectively supposed to be alive in stasis during the Phoenix saga. Moira was objectively not a mutant. I could go on and on. These “rules” about what constitutes right and wrong or “correct facts” based on what the reader is consuming at that given moment; does not consider the fact that stories can be engaged with and interacted with via multiple perspectives. Even what is featured in the canon can be interpreted differently within the context of the canon. Some might interpret Storm’s love for gardening as something she picked up while in Kenya, others may interpret as something she does in the Mansion to remind her of home. It’s an objective fact of the character that can carry multiple meanings and possibilities. There is no one right. Objective reality can vary based on context and yes, feelings can play a role whether people like it or not. A character who is objectively straight can objectively come out as gay later in life just like people in the real world objectively do. It may not be what it was and that’s true but to say that it ends there is not actually representative of both how people engage with fiction and develop in the real world.

I guess it’s valid that you feel that way, I for one, couldn’t be happier and I’m glad they engaged with something marginalized fans felt for so long. To me, that’s rare and meaningful. It’s not going to be for everyone, but that’s reality.