Hah, what a coincidence. It was pretty low on my list but a friend recommended it last night so I’m actually watching season 1 right now, I paused an ep just to answer this. 😀
Hi – Long time fan and lurker, especially about how you expound on Juliantina. Just wanted to see if you could extrapolate if you can) ontwo things I’ve recently noticed after my 45th view of their scenes: 1- That car scene after they’ve slept together and they’re on their way to the Valle House. I always laughed at the fact that Juliana mentioned that Val dressed her, and that Val immediately replied that she picked those clothes (which – if no one remembers – ) 1/2
2/2 and I got a very sexual undercurrent under everything in that convo. Was this what everyone was seeing before? Because as I watch it now, I see Val blushing because she knows she’s being caught out but Juls who KNOWS dressed her like that to see more skin. Also -the restaurant scene near the start of their love-. If you look in the wide shot, Juls looks uncomfortable but Val looks at her for a good 10 seconds until Juls looks at her and smiles. Worthy of a gif!
1. Oh, yes, the convo in the car. There was definitely teasing there, although I took it to mean more as Juls teasing Val about the whole rich girl thing, whisking her off, dressing her, but not really the latter, because I do think poor Val’s “you picked it!” was true, but the strongest undercurrent in that scene to me was the “you like it?”, referring more to the night before than the outfit, if that makes sense?
2. Awww, how did you spot that? It’s such an adorable touch. Definitely giffing that, anon. And I love that you called it the start of their love. What a pretty way of referring to it. ^_^
I noticed you were one of the few juliantina blogs that didnt freak out over maca’s photo shoot with bridget. What did you think? It legit made me sad bc it felt like a betrayal (not to juls, but Barb) and I hate seeing the fandom tease her about being jealous that the photoshoot wasn’t with her. I get that maca’s career is further along, but I wonder if the tables were turned and everyone started shipping barb with someone else, how maca would react…
Ah, actually, anon, I did like the photoshoot. As you might have noticed, I usually just post original gifs, not many reblogs or pics. If you look at my likes, that’s the real indication of my interests and those were full of the photoshoot. I actually thought it was a really fun collision of a bunch of things and good for both fandoms.
And when you think about it, its very existence, a wlw conducting a photoshoot with a queer actress from a f/f ship from a Netflix show and an actress from a f/f ship from a Mexican telenovela, that would have been unthinkable just a year ago. In fact, it happening now is amazing. That’s the kind of thing to look at. The actor dynamics you’re looking at, those will evolve and change in time and aren’t for the fans to be concerned about.
Even now, you sent this some days back and I assume Barbara being open with fans yesterday probably already made you feel better. But really, anon, don’t think of it that way…at all. Especially in terms of jealousy and like…shipping? Wanting more on Barbara’s behalf, not wanting her to be teased, that’s a nice show of empathy, but don’t go too far and read into it when it’s not yours to read into. Whatever your suspicions, which might be more wishful thinking than anything else, doesn’t it do Barbara and Maca a disservice to not take them at their word? It is 100% true that sexuality is complicated and heteronormativity exists and all that, we all have our experiences and we’ve watched these stories in fiction, but it’s so not a fan’s or even a friend or family member’s place to insist on that when it comes to a real person. I would suggest taking quite a step back and focus on what they’ve been generous enough to share with us and not go beyond those lines.
I love how you always stay away about the drama and just post beatiful gifs of our girls. Thanks
You’re welcome! Though, some of these asks/answers, I don’t know if you’ll still feel the same way, heh.
u know the zimbio poll got me feelin nostalgic about older ships (have i rly done the great migration so many times??) and of the rly popular f/f ships on US tv i don’t think we’ve ever been treated so respectfully as with Shoot.. like yea it was angsty and harrowing, but so was the show. amy and sarah just be having that chemistry and we were like “they in love” and the writers were like “dang u right”, and it was the 2 female leads!! and the writers/fandom got on so well.. miss them
I don’t share the same opinion on the ending as a lot of the fandom, but that aside, you know, I think you’re probably right. I JUST finished posting about subtext vs canon ships and what Shoot was at the start, that particular evolving connection between two central women, has been such a mainstay of f/f shipping. That it became canon and in a way that respected the characters and the show fulfilled something that we’d been waiting such a long time for.
Yeah, going through other ships, let’s see, I know Brittana had that joke and then became canon, but that wasn’t after years of developing an integral relationship. Lost Girl had a ship introduced at the start that became endgame but there wasn’t the same buildup and there was the on/off nature (and plus, it was Canadian). Also, it is kind of important to this discussion that they did start off as an intentional ship. That isn’t bad, at all, in fact, the opposite.
I remember this as a small debate a while back, endgame ships vs unplanned ships based on chemistry. People were like, I don’t really care that much about endgame ships, give me something where their dynamic is just so good and their chemistry so undeniable. But that was mostly because people were realizing the endgame ships were the same old white m/f ships that often paled (lol) in comparison to underrepresented subtext ships. There were substantial f/f fandoms built on exactly that, Swan Queen, Bering and Wells, Faberry, aside from the big ones of the ‘90s and ‘00s (and earlier…Blair/Jo, anyone?). And also Shoot, until, one day, the writers went there, and with care, not simply a one-off or fanservice, they made it a part of the main plot. That was so particularly satisfying in a way I’m not sure people who weren’t part of old school f/f shipping can understand. To feel as if it’ll never happen, to know it, to have experienced that again and again and again, knowing all the reasons why it won’t. And then it DID.
And to be clear, I know that Doccubus wasn’t actually supposed to be endgame, it was always canon but only later became endgame, which is also very cool in its own way. But the jump from never gonna happen subtext to canon is still–OH. Korra! Remember that feeling? That’s what I’m referring to, lol. Hmm. Pam and Tara on True Blood also? I didn’t watch but I remember my dash celebrating and it’d been quite unexpected. Funnily enough, Gail and Erica on The Last Man on Earth is one of the only cases I can remember where two first season characters get together later on. But Shoot’s treatment, until the end, did stand out.
As much as I love that feeling, much of it comes from the belief that a f/f ship can never happen, which is not a great feeling. Ideally, I would love to see more intentional endgame f/f ships, with thought and care behind them, of course.
I don’t get WHY people voting for a ship in which the show as explicitly portrayed both characters as straight?? When there’s a ship that is actual representation? One of the actors from the Supercorp ship has been vocal about her aversion to said ship. While, both actors from the Posie ship, an actual queer relationship, are supportive of the relationship. Why are people picking something that isn’t actual representation over ACTUAL REPRESENTATION?
Well, they’re not voting for best rep, they’re voting for their favorite ship. If you were truly voting for best representation, would you actually pick Posie? Actually, lemme go see what the other ships are, I have no idea.
Okay, right, you could say some of these are better than Posie on paper? More screentime, more story, etc? So then you realize how little sense it makes to go by the metric of Better Representation? That’s a never ending and totally pointless competition. Totally pointless.
Those conversations are super relevant, absolutely, but on a more macro level, discussing trends and stats. Why do people as a whole gravitate to this thing or that thing. People will like what they like. Why they like them, again, tackle that on a macro level, but you can’t just use those arguments to say one specific ship is better than another specific ship because…does that ever work? Will somebody who’s invested in a ship suddenly drop it? Well, that depends on if your goal is just to declare your ship better or if it’s your goal to actually reach people.
We’re basically continuing the same ship wars as always, just with different vocabulary. This ship is better because it’s canon, because it’s got POC, because it’s same-sex, because the actor is queer in real life and on and on. Certainly there are traits in characters and ships that are rarer and that make them naturally more valuable to us, since they’re usually rarer because people deliberately were not writing them but again, trying to tell someone what to ship will never work.
And anon, I think you must not know me at all, because I have a ton of subtext ships. I could talk about the historical significance of subtext ships for underrepresented groups or why a dearth of screentime and plot still pushes people toward them even in the presence of canon ships but at the end of the day, people will like what they like, and this is surely the one space where they can be allowed to?
Omg ur totally right! I don’t think Val would even notice if someone’s hitting on her girl also bc their intense history together conditioned her to give at least 95% of her attention to Juls at any given situation lol. But what about Juliana? I mean obviously Val turns heads when she enter a room for a lot of reasons so do you think she’d notice or get jealous if she sees someone hitting on Valentina? I feel like she’d be the type to feel it, but never say or act on it
Oooh, now that’s a much tougher question. Because she’s already lived that with Lucho, for a much longer time than Val had to deal with it, but also, so much of that was tied into their class differences? She’s always been so aware of that, all the ways in which she’s lacking, what other people could offer Val that she couldn’t.
I’d like to think that when they finally got together for real, her accepting that she wanted to be with Val whatever the cost, she also understood how much it was her that Val wanted. Val’s shown it in a million ways, but to go on national television and tell a whole country? How could she not feel confident in Val’s feelings for her?
So taking that into account, if Juls stumbled onto a similar situation, someone being overly friendly with Val and Val not really taking notice, you’re probably right, Juls wouldn’t do anything about it, it’d be Val naturally draping herself all over Juls that would send out a clear signal.
Hey. Sending hugs to you tonight because even though I have chosen not to watch it, it’s still breaking my heart ? #kana
Thank you, anon! That genuinely means a lot. I didn’t watch either but I was following reactions and then the subsequent arguments that sprung up and have been stewing in my own anger and hurt since, so your gentle sympathy is very welcome.
There’s no point in repeating all the reasons it sucks, we all know them already, but the worst is always all those people who jump in to claim we’re overreacting and to get over it. And then we have to go back to the rest of media that’s filled with het. Usually I’m fine with that and feel so pleased and lucky every time I see new f/f, but right now, I’m the opposite, just resentful at the imbalance in quantity and quality. How we have to scrounge for every bit of subtext, make excuses for poor writing and no screentime, celebrate the tiniest things.
At least we’ve gone through it enough to know it’s just a temporary state?
ooh i feel like Juls would be pretty reserved and serious at work too, so ppl would be like ahh Stoic Creative, but then when Val rocks up Juls gets all soft and all her colleagues are like WHO is this soft bean. is orange tree good btw?
I agree with that.
Juls with everyone else:
Juls with Val:
But really, she does warm up a lot to people she knows and I bet she’s beloved at work, but the way she is with Val is next level, you can’t even compare it to Lupe. Val just opens up something in her and allows to be in a way that nobody else does.
I actually have been enjoying Priory of the Orange Tree a lot! It’s very traditional epic fantasy, you got your dragons, you got your magic, you got your magic swords, you got your detailed worldbuilding, and it’s well-written enough that I’d have enjoyed it just on the basis of that but I cannot deny that the f/f really elevates it. A legit slow burn between the two most interesting and important characters, who happen to be women? I loved them and I loved the romance. And it was a slow burn, I’ve heard people say the romance doesn’t start till halfway through (which, it’s an 850 page standalone) but the dynamic starts noticeably changing much earlier than that, in such a delicious oh-you-two-have-no-idea kind of way.
How do you think a jealous Valentina would play out? Imagine her visiting Juls on the set of a magazine photoshoot for her designs and seeing some model being a little too friendly with her chiquita lol
Ooh, I kind of don’t love strong jealousy plots, I don’t like what they say about a character or relationship and I definitely don’t like a character I like feeling hurt and upset and poor Val’s already gone through it with the whole Sergio fiasco, as messed up as that all was for the three of them.
But if we’re considering it in a light-hearted playful way, then I don’t even know if Val would notice? She’d probably be like, well, obviously everyone loves Juls and happily bound up to them and it would be the model who would see Juls light up in a way she doesn’t for anyone else and she would Realize and slink off and the other models would all be like, told ya.
Even if Val did notice, things would probably play out similarly, except her approach would be a bit more deliberate, maybe a handhold or shoulder squeeze and there’d be just a hint of a challenge as she met the model’s gaze and of course Juls wouldn’t have noticed anything and she’d brightly introduce Val and the model’d know she had no chance.