*Spoilers (sort of) for Person of Interest, The 100, and The Last of Us. Also gay people. In case you don’t want to hear about them, either.*
For Valentine’s Day, some other geek-centric sites discussed their favorite fictional romances. I noticed a small trend.
Captain Jack Harkness. Madame Vastra. Bo the Lost Succubus. Clarke and Lexa. Root and Shaw. Ellie from the Last of Us. An alternate universe version of Superman and Batman.
Xena. Kirk and Spock.
Orange is the New Black.
In case you haven’t caught on, those are all gay people. I have a theory about this.
Fandoms have their own rules. Captain Jack comes from a time period where humanity has adapted to be very “flexible.” Some of the others aren’t even human, making them even more flexible.
But we watch with the predispositions of our world, with our rules. These romances are unusual, so when they pop up, they give the story the benefit of an unexpected twist, even if there has already been flirting.
The other benefit of non-traditional romances is that they’re a nice change from the lead male-lead female relationship that seems to be the standard rule. Those can be really good, of course, but from a nerd perspective it’s nice when they shake things up a bit.
Then again, we at the Correlation have to watch them from a Christian perspective. Based on a Biblical worldview, these romances are wrong. I struggle with whether or not I’m “allowed” to enjoy them. My theory about that is a little harder to swallow.
These universes are not ours. The rules are different. So are the metaphysical entities. God does not exist in these fictional universes to judge these people. And that’s not blasphemy.
Even if God exists in, say, Person of Interest, Root certainly doesn’t acknowledge Him. Ellie is a hormonal teenager in a zombie apocalypse. They’re not considering the consequences of their actions, and within the rules of the story we as fans aren’t supposed to, either.
We shouldn’t emulate these romances, just like we shouldn’t emulate Buffy and Spike or Bella and Edward. But I say we can still enjoy them.
– Noah
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I agree that the rules of that universe must be examined and then compared to our own. This sounds like a call to mindful consumption. Thanks for writing it.
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