armanya

Day 8
In your own space, share a favorite piece of original canon (a TV episode, a song, a favorite interview, a book, a scene from a movie, etc) and explain why you love it so much.

I deliberated over this one for quite a while. There are so many canons that have shaped my experience of fandom - from my first finding The Sentinel fic, to me first writing LotR fic, to watching Star Trek TOR because it's where slash fandom has it's roots and genuinely falling in love with the characters. Plus a whole bunch of other books, shows, and movies where I have laughed, cried, loved and lost with the characters. Honestly, musing on what my favourite canon(s) may be made me want to revisit a whole bunch of them, and also made me excited about finding new things to be a fan of, about getting to know new characters and worlds. (I'm currently following Star Trek Discovery and The Orville, and yes I am falling hard for some of those characters. I'm also rewatching Babylon 5 and falling in love with those characters all over again.)

But I do have a very favourite piece of canon, and it's probably the one I have consumed the least fanworks of because I love the canon so much that I don't need anything more added - Queer as Folk (US). It admittedly has its issues (as a bi woman I will feel forever cheated by the bi invisibility alongside the - realistic - biphobia displayed by some characters), but it also did so much right in the myriad of issues it adressed, and I doubt that I will ever feel so much for a TV show ever again.

And then there is Brian and Justin. There is a quote going around about their relationship being "the most realistic, touching, honest way of love, ever portrayed on television", and I feel like it could be true - their story arch broke my heart a hundred times over yet I couldn't stop rooting for them. Also I kind of love that Justin is so much younger yet he teaches Brian so much.

On a good day I could write a longer coherent piece on all the reasons I love this show but I'm sick and sleepy and more likely to just babble on incohorently about my love for the characters. Instead, I am going to rec a couple of my favourite QaF fanvids, and let them speak for themselves.

CW: These videos contain canon-typical homophobia, harassment, abuse and violence.

Watch on YouTube