The History of the American Magic Users’ School System

It is known by Wizarding Society that North America has a school, much like the isles of Great Britain. Ilvermorny was fashioned, to a great extent, off of Hogwarts more pronounced characteristics, such as having four houses, a sorting ceremony, and teaching children between the ages of eleven and seventeen years of age.

What is less discussed is how that system didn’t work for us.

It did for a time, when there were only 13 colonies, however, as the country expanded the school became less and less convenient, affordable, and realistic. Add to that, there was a growing urge to keep family close, especially after the American Civil War. American magical parents did not want to send their children away for 9 months out of the year and some couldn’t afford to - many needed the help of their children day to day with their business, such as the bramble leaf farmers of Tennessee who needed the extra hands to separate the leaf from the blackberries as they sold the blackberries to primarily No-Majs and the leaves, primarily to Ilvermorny for potions classes.

Once thought to be the most welcoming and down to earth of the magical schools, Ilvermorny became of symbol of magical elitism to much of the American magical society.

The Alternatives

Homeschooling became quite common, which presented its own set of problems. Some children were never taught, some were taught extremely poorly, and all sets of standards flew out the window - often with physical objects as control was not well taught in general.

Many communities, If there were enough magical folk there to begin with, would transport their children to a single home where they would learn together- it wasn’t uncommon for 3-5 mothers to oversee this. The issue with this was that attention couldn’t be paid to level of understanding and as new children were born and grew, there was a constant influx of absolute beginners.

This proved untenable and so more methods were experimented with.

Out in the West, they would cast an Undetectable Extension Charm on an enclosed carriage and merely fill it up with as many students as they could reach (along with those willing to teach). It wasn’t a perfect solution, but it allowed for more structured learning. In the Midwest, especially northern states such as Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, Floo Networks were more utilized as large fireplaces were less likely to stand out, allowing for actual school buildings to be built to support the growing classes. Portkeys were used more often in the South than anything else, but the South also had a rather unprecedented number of cities founded and populated entirely by magic users.

What ended up forming were dozens upon dozens of regional schools that functioned more like No-Maj public schools than Ilvermorny. The child would attend school for the afternoon and return home.

MACUSA was initially against these alternative schools, all of which they considered unauthorized and breaking Rappaport’s Law (this was despite the fact that many communities using this alternative schooling set up were not, in fact, using wands but casting techniques and devices native to their own backgrounds. For instance, New Orleans was known for incantatory - the repetition of enchantments without a wand. It was a hybrid form of magic most notably utilized by the Afro-Caribbeans that seemed to be a mixture of the wandless magic used in Africa and the wand  incantations of Europe. Occasionally talismans or magnifiers were used to empower an incantatorial spell, but the students were taught both with and without these objects. Note: Incantatory was both considered easier than “true” wandless magic and also wildly unpredictable if performed with little control, such as when a Louisiana Creole boy was frightened by a storm, threw his blanket over his head, and chanted Lumos so vehemently that the entire block lit up. His parents were able to control it quickly enough that most No-Majs that saw it thought it was some bizarre lightning. The Chinese-Americans of the Old West were known for practicing - and teaching - medi-amplification, a technique wherein the magic user would meditate, concentrating on their magical self, and have bouts of intentory (gùhuàn) wherein intention is enough to make magic happen. Some view this as simply wandless magic, but there’s a clear distinction in how the magic is approached and because of that, spells are not actually needed.

The CASI

This divide between the MACUSA and the Unauthorized Wizarding Institutions (named by MACUSA) was one of the motivating factors in forming the CASI or the Committee for Alternative Schooling and Institutions which ultimately led to a more or less benign infiltration of the No-Maj government and formation of a Congressional CASI. To this day, most No-Majs believe the CASI to be a Committee that implements and endorses private schooling, home schooling, and religious schooling, which the Committee doesn’t dispute because it serves its purposes just fine. Of note, perhaps, is how in the 40s, as so much of the Wizarding World was preoccupied with the war in Europe, a No-Maj was appointed to the Committee by mistake. He sat on the Committee for 10 years and if asked what the CASI did, he would give a vague response that confused both himself and the one who asked and then wander off, slightly befuddled.

The CASI’s main purpose was to redirect just enough revenue to facilitate the upkeep and sustained use of these regional schools - the initial building could sometimes be finagled and land deeds could be purchased if the school/region had no grounds or no building, but that was kept to a minimum and often locales had to raise their own funds for such an endeavor.

The formation of the CASI almost caused a civil war, but MACUSA realized that numbers were not on its side. A vast majority of the American magical population was for the use of regional schools and would fight to defend their right to teach their children how they wanted. After much negotiation and capitulation - and leading to the repeal of Rapparport’s Law - the CASI was incorporated into MACUSA. A strict tenant of that incorporation, however, was that regions could form and institute schooling how they wished, with minimal to no oversight by MACUSA, thus forming the American Magic Users’ School System, or the AMUSS.

Ilvermorny is still in place and while all American witches, wizards, and magic users can attend, it is largely viewed in the same vein as private schools are among the No-Maj.

The Transportation

Today, the instituted method of arrival for regional schools involves  a strictly monitored portkey system and Extended busses. Apollo Fleet was founded for exactly this reason and you can find an Apollo Fleet office in almost every city because of this. To No-Majs, it is merely another charter bus company but to magical children, it’s their bus. Children can walk, be dropped off, or Floo to their nearest Apollo stop. There’s a checklist for each stop or registered children and authorized parents/guardians to control who can and can’t travel to the school. The children are let into the school specific waiting area, one of the several portkey rooms inaccessible to the No-Maj populace. In the morning, the school’s portkey is used to transport everyone to the secondary stop (special harnesses were made specifically to stop dropping children between the initial and secondary stops). At the secondary stop, the children in the portkey rooms - often coming from several locations - are put on an Extended bus and then it’s off to the next secondary stop - always in the area but there is a Quickening  Charm, not unlike the English Knight Bus.

Some arguments were made about this system taking too much time or being too complicated, but it was implemented after a bombing on one of the schools in the late 1920s, explained to the No-Majs as happening for political reasons but understood to have occurred when a Scourer gained access to a portkey that transported him directly to the school. After this, all schools were required to have anti-portkey charms as well as anti-apparition charms and absolutely no connections with any Floo networks. Apollo Fleet is a MACUSA run business, which means that nearly all of the employees have had Auror training - special programs were put in place to train new employees in a vein not dissimilar to the No-Maj police academies. They do not need to be as proficient as actual Aurors, merely able to defend and detect - it wouldn’t do to let in someone masquerading as one of the registered children, after all.

Because of this, the initial and secondary stop system is considered sufficient means of protecting their schools, which to the unsuspecting eye looks like a typical No-Maj school. (Most schools are also now protected with the Fidelius Charm, but that isn’t considered sufficient as so many have to be let in to begin with).

The Ages

A marked difference to other countries’ schools, actually, was implemented shortly after the bombing incident. Nearly every region has formed separate schools for the different ages. The main reason for this was to prevent catastrophic tragedy - the bombing had nearly wiped out the entire generation of magic users in its region. The different schools - primary, secondary, and tertiary, though those terms are used almost exclusively in system and not by the students or parents - are viewed as insurance. If another tragedy occurs, it will at least be for only a single age group and not the entire 4-18 year old populace.

Ilvermorny to this day only intakes students 11 years of age through to 17 years of age, like the European schools before, but the AMUSS was specifically designed to better assist the general American Magic User and so that meant taking the children earlier. No-Maj and Magic User populations are so overlapped here that it didn’t make sense to allow children to go so long without learning some control over their abilities. The primary schools, therefore, teach some of the most basic techniques in order to give them children structure in which to develop their magic. Mostly, history and theory are taught at this time, as well as No-Maj concepts that are needed to be successful in either world - math, language arts, general American history - and as the student grows and moves onto the secondary and then the tertiary school, the No-Maj lessons lose more and more focus as proper magical theory and practical applications can be utilized.

While not technically involved in the AMUSS, the Association for Magical Child Care (the AMCC) was recently formed to provide safe daycare options for working parents/guardians. It should be noted that “safe” here refers mostly towards No-Maj children who are occasionally injured, confunded, or generally stunned by children of magic users who are far too young to have any control over magical abilities. The AMCC helps to set up and monitor magic user friendly/only daycares. Children are accepted into these daycares typically until schooling age, though some will watch children of all ages after/before school hours and on weekends. Daycares that provide such accommodations are typically allotted their own private portkey for travel to and from the secondary stop mentioned above, making them the only non-Apollo Fleet location involved in the transportation process.

The Mascots

While Ilvermorny has the different houses, the regional schools don’t. Population isn’t always high enough to support such a system but more than that, the AMUSS decided that a singular mascot could bring a school together where different houses institutionalized dividedness. Instead of having a House Cup or playing sports against other houses, competition was between other schools.

There are as many mascots as there are schools - though some do overlap. A popular mascot is the dragon, popular enough that most schools that use it prefer to pick a breed. There are several schools, mostly coastal, that have some form of mer as their mascot. But largely, there’s a regional basis for it. For instance, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, having one set of schools for the entire peninsula, had originally been the U.P. Lycanthropes in honor of the Wolf-Man of Michigan. (The Lycan Association of the Americas has been attempting to get them to change it, to no avail so far, though now only the tertiary school has the lycanthrope as it’s mascot.)

One instance of particular note are the Las Vegas Animagi - while technically being students from all over Nevada, the tertiary school is widely considered to be defined by Vegas. The students there are actively taught animagi theory and nearly all can take animal form by graduation. There were rumors that the school taught children how to become skin-walkers, perpetuated by detractors of the AMUSS, but that is untrue. What is true is that Lorraine Ashwinder, when attempting to invent a cloak of transfiguration - putting it on would, in theory, transform the person into someone else, who’s likeness was woven into the cloak - unknowingly invented a form of transfiguration that many compare to what little is known about the skin-walker legends. But she was a graduate and never taught the Las Vegas Animagi. Her cloak has since been banned by MACUSA, who believed it too powerful and convenient for impersonating other magic users and possibly evading arrest.

Magicians or Magical Inheritors

Known by many different names throughout the world, the original system for dealing with those that inherited magic but were unable to utilize it themselves was not unlike the European procedure. NOTE: The use of the term “squib” has been considered derogatory for nearly a century, with a marked trend away from the term after the 1926 Obscurial Incident in New York. There were protests and campaigns. A rallying cry of “Even Squibs Have Magic in Them” became common to hear in big cities and transfer points, anyplace with large populations.

It wasn’t entirely for the benefit of the magical inheritors, the term that was first coined by Macky Rowdes, one of the more well known inheritors who went on to publish some of the most well known socio-magical texts known to American magic users, as well as father six proficient magic users themselves and one magical inheritor. This movement was a campaign against MACUSA and what were considered endangering practices that allowed such destruction to be wrought.

It was also utilized by the CASI and leaders in the proto-AMUSS as ways to further this alternative schooling and discredit MACUSA, the only entity that had authority to lay waste to the progress being made in this school system. The CASI started pushing a new slogan, “A Squib in Every Class,” which was generally viewed as a confusing sentiment.

This fighting between the CASI and MACUSA led to actual discussion of the benefits of including these magical inheritors. Rowdes’ book, Magic in my Bones, gave one of the more poignant arguments that arose:

This movement changed how the inheritors were viewed - however accidental that was at first - and it became clear just how many inheritors in fact already attended the regional schools.

From a practical point of view, this was inevitable. The regional schools accepted any child of magical lineage and any child that showed magical abilities. Because children could attend as early as age 4, it wasn’t discovered for nearly 6-7 years if a child couldn’t utilize their magic. While there were some who were kicked out of school for this, and some who left on their own, a majority of the students remained, sidelined to theoretical studies through to graduation. Because of Rowdes work with the AMUSS, magical inheritors now are permitted access to all theoretical studies, latent ability practical studies (such as astronomy, arithromancy, etc), and a special class, often entitled wandless potions, was formed that concentrates on potions that can be made without direct spell work.

Over the years, the term has been changed to suit the community (squib was never a chosen term and is typically considered a rather low brow term). For a short time in the 1950s, the term “magin” gained popularity, but by the ‘60s someone had noticed how “magic” and “in” (the prefix of “inheritors”) nearly spelled magician. For the last 50 years, that has been the preferred term in America.

In fact, some of the countries best “No-Maj” magicians have in fact been magical inheritors. David Kotkin (known in the No-Maj world as David Copperfield) was supposed to attend Drumstrang but never got invited - it was “quite obvious” that he had no magical abilities as a child. But Hyman Kotkin, his father, believed in the No-Maj American dream and he sent David to a regional school (he graduated a proud Albany Crup).

Ironically, this inclusion of magical inheritors led to the founding of the Magician’s Institute, a private school that could, like the name suggests, only be attended by magicians. Unlike Hogwards and Ilvermorny, however, this school was a university and was one of the few places where one could be certified in performing for No-Majs. It was, after all, showing off magic to the No-Maj population. To this day, the United States is the only country in the world to not only to certify the exposure of No-Majs to magic but to allow that exclusively for magicians.

Reblog if you’re 30 or older

This is an experiment to see if there really are as few of us as people think.You can also use this to freak out your followers who think you’re 25 or something. Yay!

This one really does just gain momentum with every new word, huh?

My favorite part is when you realize that Mrs. Thirsty has a hollow leg and Mr. Clear was obtuse.

HOLY SHIT, IT WAS THE ORIGINAL ONE

MAKE A WISH

the first post ever on tumblr

I WAS EXPECTING IT TO BE A REMAKE OF SOME SORT HOLY FUCK

WHO THE FUCK KEEPS BRINGING THIS BACK

reblog this because it shows up every blue moon

I was expecting to scroll down and get scared by a random assed gif of some dudes popping out of a door or something, but I was pleasantly surprised.

THIS IS MY FAVORITE POST

I feel like I rebloged this before but this is really beautifl 

This was the first post? Cute

Always reblogging

Ah, well, if it’s the post that was linked to, the OP was: “We need ao3 writers to develop class conciousness. Ao3 is nothing without them. Ao3 needs them but they don’t need ao3. Labour is entitled to all it creates.”

Which is the usual delusional nonsense where people ignore that making sites is labor. Art is labor, but so is building a storefront. So is running a site. So is designing metadata structures. This type of self-absorbed fic writer ignores everyone else’s labor in favor of their own.

OTW volunteers are entitled to say that their labor is for making a nonprofit site with rules against advertising.

“They need us” is a serious misunderstanding. Everyone who uses AO3 costs it money. If it were a hundred friends posting for each other, it would be a lot easier to run. That’s not to say that you should feel bad about using it. It’s there for you to use.

But this concept of sites ~needing you~ is based on commercial sites that want to monetize your data and that are trying to extract user generated content so they can profit.

AO3 generously lets you use a service. It’s more like a food bank than whatever that other post is imagining. You aren’t doing it a favor by being there. Unlike fucking Facebook and the rest of the parasites.

I'm going to peer review myself and elevate my tag rant from my reblog of the post in question:

#AO3 is what happens when fanfic writers develop class conciousness #AO3 exists because a bunch of fans got sick of their work being deleted and went “screw it we have to own the servers” #people NEED to stop thinking of AO3 as some nebulous entity separate from fancreators #AO3 is itself a fanwork# the “our” in “Archive of Our Own” is not just for show #the name reflects that that WE wanted to host our OWN fic without outside forces trying to make money off us or tell us what not to write #you can go look up Astolat herself on AO3 if you want #the woman who founded AO3 is not a tech bro #she's a fangirl who got sick of her favourite fics being taken down

"The gift economy perpetuates the class divide" people really will just string nonsense together into a sentence and call it a hot take.

Gift economy is literally just another term for mutual aid.

The Organization for Transformative Works is a fandom mutual aid organization built by volunteer fan labor to provide free archival services, and free digital distribution services, and even free legal services for free fanwork.

Imagine having the unmitigated gall to tell a group of volunteers they owe you money for *allowing* you use the free services their volunteer labor provided.

Yuuuup

A significant economic concept anyone with half a brain cell should be able to grasp, that’s what.

Just felt the need to add, as a former but official volunteer for a position on AO3's team known as "Tag Wranglers" (with a very lengthy How To and Rules for Wrangling), that there is constant, continuous work done by people who love fanfiction and want to offer their assistance in the site they never needed to pay to use.

What's a tag wrangler? Oh well, you know how tags are the pinnacle of awesomeness when it comes to utilizing AO3 to find fic you want to read and also excluding fic you don't want to read (that is, trope wise and if tagged)? So, every day, a lot of people log in and open up fandoms and look at "unwrangled" tags. You ever click on a tag and it comes back with a page saying "This tag belongs to the Additional Tags Category." and "This tag has not been marked common and can't be filtered on (yet)."?

That's because not enough people use it yet. And by enough, rule of thumb is 3 authors or more. Once enough people use it, a decision made by a human being and not some algorithm, it gets sorted.

That means that someone is (supposed to be, they have shortages for their teams a lot because it's almost solely volunteer work, all of it, I don't actually know of any paid positions I just assume lawyers are paid but I don't even know that for sure) going into a fandom every/every few days, looking at unwrangled tags, determining "is this popular enough to be sorted?" and then sorting it.

Are you a "protective Spock" fan? Guess what, there's more than 3 of you! You can sort solely on the basis that a fic contains (and is tagged with) protective Spock. Which as of this moment has 11 tags someone has determined as synonymous with the tag "protective Spock" and means even though some people word things differently, tags of the same meaning can still find what you want.

Without these invisible volunteers doing jobs most people don't even know exists, putting in a lot of work hours to help make AO3 what it is, the site would be just like every other list of fics that is only mildly searchable.

Being a writer is hard. So is creating something as crowd sourced as AO3, maintaining it's integrity, and not placating everyone who calls out some complaint and end up disenfranchizing a huge host of authors and readers (the right here isn't a legal one, it's a promised one, that the archive will host us and not censor us). Especially since most of the people who help with the work are ficcers, being readers or both writers and readers.

One of the funniest online parenting rabbitholes I’ve fallen into is parents being irate and hysterical that their children are referred to by nicknames by their friends and family. And the kid doesn’t care or actively asks to be called the nickname. It would be slightly different if the name was something with a deep cultural meaning to the parent but usually it’s white women breaking down about their kid asking to be referred to as ‘bug’ instead of *insert white bread top 100 trendy American baby name*. They’ll get so upset about it too. They’re like “I NAMED HER MACKINGSLEIGH FOR A REASON.” not realizing that their child is not an accessory but a living, thinking, sentient being capable of choosing how they would prefer to be called. And kids so often outgrow their nickname.

On the other hand, my childhood nickname was Goo because I was a very messy child and perpetually sticky or playing in mud. I could kind of get if my parents wanted to nip that one in the bud. But they didn’t and 22 years later I get presents addressed to Goo.

I was Scary Sary and Sarah Sunshine to my dad and mom respectively so they didn't say anything if a wild nickname appeared. Although when we moved to a new school district and they got calls for "Cat," they were like wrong number until one evening they said, "do with of you know a Cat?" at dinner.

Although they didn't have time to worry about my nicknames because my older sister was nicknamed "Spanky," which slightly concerned them.

i’ve heard a lot of people say “don’t reach out to your friends first and see how many people will remain in your life. those are your true friends” and i get it. it sucks and it’s tiring constantly being the one to message first, to initiate hang outs but don’t take this so literally. some friendships require initiation. i have lost touch with so many people who genuinely cared about me and wanted me in their life because i stopped reaching out. it’s a hard pill to swallow but honestly some people just suck at it and it doesn’t mean they don’t love and value you. i’ve reconnected with some people over the past few months and it’s crazy how genuinely happy they are to see me and how engaged they are in the conversation. i just think sometimes we’re too harsh on each other & too quick to emphasize other peoples flaws and remove them from our lives but then we’ll all be alone and what’s the point of life then!!!!

I think it’s really important also to figure out if it’s just the means of reaching out that doesn’t work. my best friend sucks at text conversations, and after talking about it we now schedule in video calls and make sure to plan seeing each other in person every few months. not everyone communicates in the same way! it’s ok!! but please please please talk to your friends about it before cutting them off. there could be a better way

@berecovered makes a good point but I’d Iike to address something OP seems to state but isn’t flat out with (for those of us bad at subtext) though I may be projecting.

If you stop reaching out to your friends, full stop, you need some situational context to expect anyone to keep reaching out to you. The fact of the matter is relationships take effort FROM BOTH SIDES.

This means that if you stop reaching out, you’ve let go of your end. Think of a relationship as carrying a couch. Sometimes one of you will have a heavier burden, maybe one or both might need a break even, but the burden only moves forward if both parties work. If only one person tries to move the couch, it becomes tiresome, tedious, and potentially damaging to the person and or their surroundings.

If you stop reaching out, you’re dropping your end of the couch with the expectation that the other person will have it covered. That’s unfair to them.

What is fair, and touches on bere’s comment, is determining how to maintain a relationship in ways non damaging to both parties. For them it was video chatting, that’s awesome, they found their niche. For others’… well, when I started down my road to understanding my psychological minefield and neurodivergencies, when I was able to confidently say to people, “I’m autistic,” without feeling like a fraud because I’m afab and don’t meet the checklist designed around white amab heternormative middle class boys in the … late ‘80s? early ‘90s? I also started to see how damaging, how toxic, some of my relationships, past and present (at the time, which was like 2009), were. I had two conversations with a person who has been dear to me since I was an 11 yo, whose family was my second family. I called his mother 'ama and his father 'apa or somethings “secondary father-like figure” because that amused him. I held relationships with all his brothers, some stronger than others, but it was like they belonged equally to me. And the family welcomed me.

I had one conversation in the dreary Michigan autumn of 2009, waiting at the bus/train station i used to commute to university, walking around and not putting near enough care where I put my feet, despite the slippery, wet foliage that used to mark Octobers here. And I told him, “I love you, you will always be special to me, your family will never be strangers, but if you can’t help me carry this relationship, I can’t bear this burden any longer.”

He’s one of the best people - nice, genuine kindness, generous - that I’ve known. But that winter I made another call to tell him I can’t hold up my end anymore. Unless he was prepared to hold the burden himself long enough for me to trust he wouldn’t drop it on me again and again and again, I was setting my side of the couch down.

It’s about balance, boundaries, and respecting both yourself and those you have relationships with. I had a similar conversation with another friend and he lifted his end and held it strong when shortly thereafter my parents separated, devastating me - I still live in my father’s home, but with my mother, they began cohabitation 10 years later until his death 2 years ago, which still has me shattered.

I found out a few years later, when he called that day that that happened and said he was in town for the weekend, did I want to stay with him for the night? … he hadn’t been in town. He had begged his grandmother or mother to come get him and bring him home, a 3hr round trip, so he could be there for me as my sister, in another state, had texted him saying I might need him. After holding up relationships one sided most of my life, which is what the initial suggestion of stop reaching out and see who stays is - it’s dumping the full weight of the relationship on the other - , he had lifted his side and I was so relieved I never even realized how special it was. How easy.

I know a lot of NDs struggle with this, especially ADHDrs. I think the statistic is 80% of ADHDrs will have trouble maintaining friendships by 2nd grade. This is what that looks like. Not one person dropping 3-12 couches. But one person holding that many and praying, hoping, maybe even deluding themselves that the other end is held too.

I’ve let go of a lot of couches only to watch them fall, completely unsupported.

I think this is beautifully written and also completely nonsensical.

The entire premise of the OP is about people who are consistently holding up the couch single-handedly, as it were. There’s this bizarre disconnect where a ton of replies - yours included - talk about the importance of Holding Up The Couch, but the issue isn’t that the person who decides to Stop Holding Up The Couch was unclear of the purpose and importance of Holding Up The Couch. The actual issue, and the one posts like yours neatly sidestep, is that The Couch Grew Too Heavy Because The Other End Was Unsupported. I guarantee you, (almost) nobody does this bizarre gambit of “Stop messaging first and see how many people remain in your life” simply for the shits and giggles or because they genuinely have too many friends to sort through the old-fashioned way. They do it because they feel tired, unappreciated, unloved.  Because the Couch got too heavy, and they can’t even see if the other person is trying to hold it up at all..

I think a lot of people miss that. For instance, I’ve seen replies to the tune of “Okay but what if the other person in the friendship is ALSO following that advice?” Nice gotcha, but they can’t, because the post is specifically about people who feel like they’re doing all the work, and decided to stop doing all the work as some kind of (arguably passive-aggressive) litmus test. Assuming they’re not completely delusional, there’s not going to be two people in a friendship going “Oh man, I’m always the one inviting them to things and I’m tired of doing that… I think I’ll stop and see if they still have any interest when I’m not badgering them into it”.

You’re absolutely right, Holding Up The Couch is important. So important that people shouldn’t assume the other person will do it all the time, and that this is an okay state of things because they have issues with forgetfulness/object permanence/insecurity/RSD/any of a million things that make it harder to reach out, none of which the Designated Initiator is necessarily spared from, either.

Signed, ADHDer who gets excruciatingly insecure when left on read and who’s had really miserable friendships with ADHDers who admit they’re forgetful about replying, especially if they clicked on the message and the notification is gone

I mentioned ADHDers because I and half my family are such. Seeing a follow up of OPs post by OP, I now know that I read into it wrong, which I did preface I might be doing. But considering enough people have read it wrong, I think my reply should stand. It's not nonsensical, it's contextually missing the original point, but it is still valid. It also goes over when not carrying the load becomes viable without being manipulative - my original reading was due to the insta inspirational "see who stays in your life when you stop reaching out 💖 those are your true friends!" posts, which is the sort of toxicity that turns this behavior into a manipulation.

I also responded as someone who has in the past year been ghosted by their best friend with zero warning despite our relationship being very transparent and is discussing every pitfall and toxic thing to crop up. That makes 4 best friends who went from daily contact to unreachable almost overnight and I dont understand why. Who is Left on Read by their cousins and sister, the only people still technically in my life. My horrible experiences colored my reading and while it isn't what OP meant, I know some people need to see this point as well and since I already made it, I'm leaving it unless OP asks me to remove it. I would respect OPs wishes.

I dont reply to argue which point has validity, obviously both do and I know now I saw some reflection of the point and went from there, not the actual point.

I also know the utter defeat you can feel as the perpetual initiator. OPs actual point is one I need to hear but just can't deal with atm. Which is a me thing.

I hate social interaction. 💀 it's so overly complicated. And I can't read social subtext for the life of me. Case in point ⬆️

This guy has a meltdown every time he sees anyone so much as mention fanfic on his dash.  Seriously, he’s reblogged people’s personal fic links with only a handful of notes screaming about how it’s “fair game” for him “to shit all over”

So what’s his fucking problem?  Oh, apparently he wrote a book that no one was interested in, and he decided this is the fault of fic authors.  Somehow.

Yikes.

The funny part is, he’s written fanfic!

He’s just claiming it’s not fanfic for “reasons.”  Totally obvious and not-at-all bullshit reasons, and if you don’t get it you must be illiterate!  Duh.  (The reason is “I hate fanfic, so therefore anything I write cannot possibly be fanfic!”)

This idea that fanfic isn't real literature has pissed me off so much. You know who wrote fanfic? Virgil, who authored the Aeneid, a continuation of Homer's works. Dante, who included real people in his self insert fiction wherein Virgil - you mean who authored the Aeneid? Yea, him - guides him through hell and purgatory and Beatrice, who was also a real woman, guided him through heaven. He wrote a mash up of Judeo-Christian themes (heavier on the Christian) as well as figures, same as mythological figures from Greco-Roman pantheon and lore. He wrote a self insert, rpf cross over fic. About religion. And Mary Sued the heaven into a real woman's facade.

Know who else? Margaret Atwood. She's famous for a lot of YA books but in this theme, she's also known and renowned in circles for the Penelopiad, retelling the Odyssey from Penelope's perspective. Rewrites from another perspective, that isn't at all a staple of fanfic collections /sarcasm.

Let's stay on this same vein, wherein things come from Homer who, regardless if it was one man or several persons, penned the oral lore and traditions of the Hellenes. O' Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) starring George Clooney is just a complete rewrite of the Odyssey in an alt universe.

How about Rick Riordan's works? Just modern set "post story" fic, arguable whether it's alt uni or not.

How can we forget Ulysses? Which is the Odyssey. Ulysses is Odysseus.

That's just a very small amount of applauded media/fiction/content/great literature that is based off the Iliad and or Odyssey. I could continue on with Shakespeare who was himself just rewriting other stories in new settings for the most part. There's probably thousands of examples of that. And Disney princesses? All based on other people's stories (some fiction, some real life stories).

Fanfiction is naturally occurring. It's fish tales, a legacy of telephone, scribes practicing their writing on clay tablets and leaning heavy on certain relationships in their copy that accidentally gets immortalized because they set the hole of clay slabs on fire (cough epic of gilgamesh cough). It's natural to retell stories. It's natural to want to change things in them. Fanfiction is normal and not lesser.

"Amendment XIV

Section 1.

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section 2.

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.

Section 3.

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Section 4.

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any state shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 5.

The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article."

If I could turn your post into a poll I'd have people vote on which section they thought ko-fi bans violated.

Ahaha! Truly, the most pressing question of our times!

(I presume it’s some “equality means me being able to post commercial spam because AO3 occasionally has a fundraising banner” nonsense, but...)

I wonder if they meant the 13th amendment, abolishing slavery for all but imprisoned persons. People conflate 13-15 as they're a triad that was voted into place under Reconstruction. Which would mean they're claiming a right to earn money for their work, without taking into account the nuance of being forced into labor without compensation vs volunteering it, which is what fanfic is. A voluntary labor of writing a story to offer to the fandom at large.

There are ways to profit from copy written material but that's detailed in laws not the Constitution.

It's time to retire the fandom term "ship".

People on both sides of the argument on censorship and harassment of fan creators have put forth the idea that we should retire the word "proship".

I don't think that goes far enough.

I think we should retire the word "ship" from our fandom vocabulary entirely.

This post is a joke… mostly. But hear me out.

The argument for retiring the word "proship" is that it has become so widely misunderstood and misused that using the term actually causes confusion instead of meaningful communication.

The argument is that "proship" has drifted so far from its original meaning in common understanding that it is no longer understood at all.

"Proship" means "in favor of shipping" but it has been misused to mean "problematic ships" so often that many people believe that to be the correct meaning. Some people even believe that "proship" is a synonym for child molester, despite originally being coined as a simple word for the fandom stance of "ship and let ship."

But what does "ship" even mean in a fandom context?

I argue that there is simply no term in all of fandom, perhaps no term in all of English vocabulary, as misunderstood as the term "ship".

I argue that using the term "ship" without spelling out exactly what you mean is as likely to cause confusion as using the term "proship."

I argue that the misuse and misunderstanding of the word "ship" is why we needed the term "proship" at all in the first place.

What does "ship" mean in a fandom context?

Originally it was simply a short form of the term "relationship". 

Originally "ship" simply meant taking an interest of some kind in what it would look like for two characters to have a romantic or sexual relationship. It was a value neutral term.

Now, in 2023, we have people who genuinely and earnestly hear the word "ship" and the baggage they bring to it is that the shipper supports a relationship between the two characters as a healthy and ideal relationship, and believes it should be canon.

The term is obscure in it's use.

If I "ship" something, am I merely interested in it in a morally neutral way?

Or am I advocating for it as a healthy and ideal aspirational relationship model?

The term is so unclear in its usage as to be meaningless, and to cause nothing but misunderstandings and fights.

Some people genuinely believe that if you "Ship" a toxic relationship you are an IRL dangerous abuser, or a person who is likely to be harmed by an abusive relationship.

It's time to retire the word "ship."

This post reminded me of the time I tried explaining the original actual meaning of shipping and an anti came up and told me that anyone using “ship” the way I did needed to find a new word cause the meaning they used is the “supports it and thinks it’s healthy and fine” and if people used the word “ship” in both ways then people might get away with shipping Bad Things.

I know you’re joking and I’m with you here but like. Yeah I was legit told to find a new word when I explained what the word ship actually means. Like no we were here first. YOU find a new word.

I will go down with The Ship. I refuse to let people appropriate a term that was coined to be a simple way to state that you either can see chemistry or wish to explore how two or more characters fit together. It has never been a ideal thing. It has never been a corrupt thing. It just Is. And while it has changed - platonic shipping (such as BroTPs), crack shipping, etc - it changed to be more inclusive.

Can it mean you support something? Only if you intend for it to. People like to make jokes like "I ship (woobie) and (some form of comfort)" or "I ship (character) with self esteem/etc" or 3ven "I ship (myself) with (sleeping/etc)." Which is awesome. And people who get shipping understand these statements for what they are, putting high concept thoughts into "low" concept terminology. Shipping a character with self esteem is stating that you like and or are interested in exploring the character with that mindset.

Shipping is so fundamental in fandom. Playing off all sorts of relationships, even platonic (character+character or character&character are distinct from character/character), is the majority of fic, of fandom. We explore the feelings, psyche, curtain conversations that the content typically avoids.

I'm not just proship. I'm pro Ship. The concept of The Ship is how so many of us travel from strict content/canon. May no one every sink Her.

Taking these phrases away from the Aro and Ace communities until they fucking learn to behave themselves and act normal about Non-partnering, Repulsed, Loveless, and Aplatonic ppl.

Bonus phrases being taken away that I couldn't put on meme without it getting crowded include: "But Aros and aces can still enter QPRs!!!" "Aromantic ppl can still be in relationships!" "Asexuals can still have sex!" "We're not all heartless freaks!" "We can still love our family and friends!" and other phrases that ignore non-favorable and non-partnering groups of ppl.

and I REALLY shouldn't have to put this but y'all really like reading shit that's not there but : NO this is not saying that there isn't a time or place for these phrases. this is saying that this shouldn't be the only response given because it ignores the existence and validity of repulsed, non-partnering, loveless, and aplatonic people! by only defending favorable experiences you are saying "Its ok to still attack the experiences your attacking but just know that not ALL of us are like THAT so WE shouldn't be attacked"

DO NOT DERAIL THIS POST!!!! THIS POST IS NOT ABOUT FAVORABLE, PARTNERING, OR ALLOPLATONICS!!! DO NOT RESPOND WITH "But favorable/partnering people -" or "but platonic love-" THIS POST IS NOT FOR YOU.

I hope that I always express this alongside my other explanations of aro/ace issues. I myself am self-sex repulsed (is that now what is called non-favorable?) and non-partnering, at least I believe myself to be at this point in my life. Then again, I once thought I was cisgender and completely hetero. In ten years I might change or learn new things about myself.

Anyway, the main reason I'm reblogging with commentary is that I know I've explained the various ways asexuals can be in sexual relationships and aromatics can be in romantic partnerships, but I hope I always remember to inform that they can also not be. They, we, can never want any of that. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with never wanting those relationships or those experiences. Not wanting is just as important to recognize and validate as wanting is. Dislike is just as important as like or indifference.

Some of us fit stereotype and cliche a lot more than others and that's just as good and valid as everyone else. Alienation isn't and as a joint community of broad spectrum aros and aces and aroaces, we should know better than to further alienate our own ranks.

Thank you, OP, for underlining this point. I truly hope I never forget to convey it in my explanations because for some reason people listen to me on this topic.

i’ve heard a lot of people say “don’t reach out to your friends first and see how many people will remain in your life. those are your true friends” and i get it. it sucks and it’s tiring constantly being the one to message first, to initiate hang outs but don’t take this so literally. some friendships require initiation. i have lost touch with so many people who genuinely cared about me and wanted me in their life because i stopped reaching out. it’s a hard pill to swallow but honestly some people just suck at it and it doesn’t mean they don’t love and value you. i’ve reconnected with some people over the past few months and it’s crazy how genuinely happy they are to see me and how engaged they are in the conversation. i just think sometimes we’re too harsh on each other & too quick to emphasize other peoples flaws and remove them from our lives but then we’ll all be alone and what’s the point of life then!!!!

I think it’s really important also to figure out if it’s just the means of reaching out that doesn’t work. my best friend sucks at text conversations, and after talking about it we now schedule in video calls and make sure to plan seeing each other in person every few months. not everyone communicates in the same way! it’s ok!! but please please please talk to your friends about it before cutting them off. there could be a better way

@berecovered makes a good point but I'd Iike to address something OP seems to state but isn't flat out with (for those of us bad at subtext) though I may be projecting.

If you stop reaching out to your friends, full stop, you need some situational context to expect anyone to keep reaching out to you. The fact of the matter is relationships take effort FROM BOTH SIDES.

This means that if you stop reaching out, you've let go of your end. Think of a relationship as carrying a couch. Sometimes one of you will have a heavier burden, maybe one or both might need a break even, but the burden only moves forward if both parties work. If only one person tries to move the couch, it becomes tiresome, tedious, and potentially damaging to the person and or their surroundings.

If you stop reaching out, you're dropping your end of the couch with the expectation that the other person will have it covered. That's unfair to them.

What is fair, and touches on bere's comment, is determining how to maintain a relationship in ways non damaging to both parties. For them it was video chatting, that's awesome, they found their niche. For others'... well, when I started down my road to understanding my psychological minefield and neurodivergencies, when I was able to confidently say to people, "I'm autistic," without feeling like a fraud because I'm afab and don't meet the checklist designed around white amab heternormative middle class boys in the ... late '80s? early '90s? I also started to see how damaging, how toxic, some of my relationships, past and present (at the time, which was like 2009), were. I had two conversations with a person who has been dear to me since I was an 11 yo, whose family was my second family. I called his mother 'ama and his father 'apa or somethings "secondary father-like figure" because that amused him. I held relationships with all his brothers, some stronger than others, but it was like they belonged equally to me. And the family welcomed me.

I had one conversation in the dreary Michigan autumn of 2009, waiting at the bus/train station i used to commute to university, walking around and not putting near enough care where I put my feet, despite the slippery, wet foliage that used to mark Octobers here. And I told him, "I love you, you will always be special to me, your family will never be strangers, but if you can't help me carry this relationship, I can't bear this burden any longer."

He's one of the best people - nice, genuine kindness, generous - that I've known. But that winter I made another call to tell him I can't hold up my end anymore. Unless he was prepared to hold the burden himself long enough for me to trust he wouldn't drop it on me again and again and again, I was setting my side of the couch down.

It's about balance, boundaries, and respecting both yourself and those you have relationships with. I had a similar conversation with another friend and he lifted his end and held it strong when shortly thereafter my parents separated, devastating me - I still live in my father's home, but with my mother, they began cohabitation 10 years later until his death 2 years ago, which still has me shattered.

I found out a few years later, when he called that day that that happened and said he was in town for the weekend, did I want to stay with him for the night? ... he hadn't been in town. He had begged his grandmother or mother to come get him and bring him home, a 3hr round trip, so he could be there for me as my sister, in another state, had texted him saying I might need him. After holding up relationships one sided most of my life, which is what the initial suggestion of stop reaching out and see who stays is - it's dumping the full weight of the relationship on the other - , he had lifted his side and I was so relieved I never even realized how special it was. How easy.

I know a lot of NDs struggle with this, especially ADHDrs. I think the statistic is 80% of ADHDrs will have trouble maintaining friendships by 2nd grade. This is what that looks like. Not one person dropping 3-12 couches. But one person holding that many and praying, hoping, maybe even deluding themselves that the other end is held too.

I've let go of a lot of couches only to watch them fall, completely unsupported.

It'd be cool - instead of arguing - to discuss why there's so much overlap between lesbian and aroace headcanons for female characters.

This might sound crazy, but perhaps there is a real, existing overlap in the way aroace women and the way lesbian women experience heteronormativity.

For example:

The pressure to engage in heterosexual relationships and/or marriage.

The pressure to produce children in a heterosexual marriage.

The pressure to be sexually and romantically available to men.

The pressure to cast aside personal desires for the sake of a male partner.

The devaluation of their relationships with other women.

etc.

Taken for Rubies, ch. 7/20

Will woke before Hannibal the next morning. He looked at the slack mouth, the closed eyes, the momentary absence of Hannibal’s terrifying intellect, and wanted to kiss him. Instead, he slid out of bed and went to shower. And to shave.

(This is the necklace Hannibal buys him.)

@emungere did you happen to save a pic of the necklace or the name? Or can you put the link so I can see if waybackmachine has it? Mobile won’t let me copy link address and when I click i get https://www.tiffany.com/jewelry/?fallback=true so that’s not helpful. I just really want to know what it looks like and how much it cost. The Bone collection bracelet was I think 26 grand? Hannibal would totally drop that cash to bring Will closer.

Btw found the perfect necklace to symbolize their relationship

You certainly did, wow! That is some necklace.

This is the original URL: https://href.li/?http://www.tiffany.com/Shopping/Item.aspx?sku=31041392

I looked for Tiffany spinel necklaces and I think this one looks familiar, but also comes in under $500 (at least where it’s being resold), which is pretty modest for Hannibal. I do remember it was less than that bracelet, but…man it has just been a really long time, sorry! I think that is the best I can do.

I couldn't get the pic to load but it was $450 and I got the name. The only dif is the lengths. Thank you for that.

I guess Hannibal has to work up to the 26 thousand dollar jewelry :p

Beautiful story. Hannibal has zero chill. Very in character.

Taken for Rubies, ch. 7/20

Will woke before Hannibal the next morning. He looked at the slack mouth, the closed eyes, the momentary absence of Hannibal’s terrifying intellect, and wanted to kiss him. Instead, he slid out of bed and went to shower. And to shave.

(This is the necklace Hannibal buys him.)

@emungere did you happen to save a pic of the necklace or the name? Or can you put the link so I can see if waybackmachine has it? Mobile won't let me copy link address and when I click i get https://www.tiffany.com/jewelry/?fallback=true so that's not helpful. I just really want to know what it looks like and how much it cost. The Bone collection bracelet was I think 26 grand? Hannibal would totally drop that cash to bring Will closer.

Btw found the perfect necklace to symbolize their relationship

I love when baby gays are clearly still unlearning a lot of biases and like every couple of months try to find a progressive reason to explain why men wearing dresses makes them uncomfortable. Like obviously transmisogynistic caricatures are Bad but if it's just a guy irl who wants to do drag or something that's literally fine. This has been a thing longer than you've been alive

Also like I need you all to understand that historically the line between gnc & trans people has always been way less distinctly defined than you want it to be. And for a lot of people that's kind of the point. Drag in particular is about radical self expression it's about taking gender performance and turning it into a literal show and it rules

To the people in my notes talking about "it's okay if gnc men make you uncomfortable as long as you don't police anyone <3" no it's not actually. You need to think about why that is and deconstruct it. Lol

Everytime I get into arguments with people about clothing and what men should and shouldn't be allowed to wear (imo? Everything, conformity is sooooooo boring), i bring up the Greeks and them looking at Persian man in pants and calling him thulakos (literally a sack usually for meats... they called them slang for scrotum).

Then there's the invention of heels... for noblemen.

People tend to not bring up gender topics sound me. I have too many examples that if I climb them, their little reasoning can't survive the fall. Pants, shoes, leggings, stockings, makeup, jewelry...got historical receipts. The only consistent conformity is the ever changing nature and geeze does that make people mad too point out.

i’m so sick of people saying hannibal is bad queer representation because he’s a villain.

queer coding villians is a problem because their queerness is written to be the reason they’re evil. it’s an adjective used to make them more lecherous, more sinful. this is a huge problem, but if you conclude that problem by saying ‘villians can never be written as queer and the only good lgbt rep we can have are pure, morally perfect characters’, you’re completely missing the point.

hannibal is a fantastically written queer villian because his queerness has no influence over his sadism. him being evil has absolutely nothing to do with him being queer. he’s evil because he murders, manipulates, and cannibalizes people. he’s queer because he’s in love with a man.

as opposed to classic queer coded villians, hannibal being in love with will is seen as the only truly good part about him - that he’s capable of love, rather than simply violence.

let us have queer villians. queer antiheros. queer morally-gray characters. queerness in fiction being accepted only when it’s in relation to absolutely perfect gold-hearted characters is ridiculous. ‘good queer representation’ isn’t isolated to morally good characters. good queer representation is when a character’s queerness has no hold over their moral compass at all.

Let's not forget the range of queer expression in the series. None have clean hands but who tf does on the show? Every main character except for the least (or most, she's polarizing) liked character has legitimate blood on their hands (and she arguably has blood once removed).

Hannibal - We have I'm literally the Devil in an Ugly Suit That I Look Sexy af in But You'd Look Like a Couch. The original villain of the show, and like Satan, he tempts, he twists truths, and he does not make those horses drink even if he led them to the water. He finds what can be corrupted and plucks that string like he's playing his harpsichord (or therimen omg the nerd). He puts people into situations just to see what happens. He sends Will after a serial killer (arguably to punish him, and if so for A: rudely interrupting his dinner, B: kissing Alana Bloom, or C: all of the above including the see what happens bit) then mourns his possible loss, pettily killing his patient to punish the serial killer who wanted to kill him (no one liked poor Franklin) before openly killing the sk and calling in the FBI as a victim who fought for his life. He has tears in his eyes when he sees Will didn’t die. He's a complex character that Mads' plays as legitimately Satan in a person suit, pansexual (with a description attached that sounds demi but is not explicitly stated so is imo atm), and genuinely in love with and attracted to Will Graham. If you take Word of God (WoG from here on) then you also have to accept into canon that between Will turning him away in season 3 and the hours he spent outside Will's house in the cold, he was crying. Mads and Hugh also wanted to kiss pre swan dive and Bryan had to be the "reasonable one" and say I think it's overkill (pun intended). Because to the cast and crew, it was officially out in the world in season 3, Will just had to accept it. (Also tangentially connected: because Hannibal is played as a fallen angel, Mads also played him as not being a cannibal. He is the inverted Tantalus, a demigod feeding men to men. He is a hunter and farmer, feeding his carefully chosen prized hogs with feral swine he himself hunted and took down. Hence all the pig comments.)

Will Graham - he's an odd duck. I've personally heard no word on if he's bisexual or if he'd even identify as anything. Bryan Fuller used queer to describe most of the aspects of the show; as a gay man, he uses queer as the umbrella term for whatever orientation that's non normative. You have to watch unrelated Bryan interviews and speeches to get that much, as he's been fighting to get just one out out gay couple for 20 odd years. I believe ST:D was his first gay kiss on screen, though Hannibal might have had his first official queer couple (and no it's not Hannigram). (I just realized ST:D's initials are std...) Between his on screen attractions/ actions/ known relationships, we have no proof of former mlm relationships. He has romantic feelings for 2 women during the show and sexual attraction for 2 (Alana was confirmed as romantic, Molly was confirmed as both, Margot was presumed a sexual attraction - at the very least, she was a willing hook up on both his and her ends). He probably is sexually attracted to Alana at least in season 1 as well; he called her desirable, but that was also in/during an admitted bid for normalcy. I think he mentioned qn ex girlfriend at one point but I'm not positive. Hannibal is his only confirmed male prospect. All that being said, if you asked Will to label himself, I think he'd get annoyed and leave the conversation. He has a very pronounced dislike of labels, and it feels like it could spread to most hard to define corners of his identity. A much more common identity than many in community give credit too, btw, I know several "Im just me" orientated individuals. A queer Gen X woman I'm friends with defined herself as that but said queet can be used for simplicity. Will is interpreted by a lot of straight viewers as canonically straight and then they get confused and or surprised by season 3. The whole series was a courtship with a lot of weird break ups. Hannibal has a couple retaliatory relationships while genuinely having feelings at the same time (one must never forget he's a hedonist as well). Will's morality is odd, coming and going like the tides. He's autistic by admission, and maybe he's other things as well. He has intrusive thoughts that his job is to dive into. Over time, his distress over his intrusive thoughts recedes and he takes more interest in them. Perhaps this is an expression of Folie a Deux as Hannibal as a concept seems to be the blanket that covers his distress over said thoughts.

Margot Verger - possibly the only on screen verbally confirmed labeled character. She's a lesbian, easy as that. Let's address the accused lesbophobia in the room: yes she has sex with Will Graham. The show and Bryan Fuller received some criticism for this, but the fact is, if a lesbian chooses to have sex with a man, isn't it important to be supportive of that and not police it? She appreciated Will as a friend and thought him a good man (considering her alternatives especially). He used him to get pregnant in a way that wouldn't alert her controlling, abusive, monster of a brother, thinking him off the radar enough. And she almost got what she wanted (Hannibal was determined to take away every child Will ever had, that's a different story). Besides, that entire sexual kaleidoscope scene was pretty much an orgy, crisscrossing relationships between current happenings, past desires, and future outcomes. Her morality is fairly consistent. She wishes to protect innocents, but she's willing to put off doing the "right" thing (in her mind at least) until she is not ruined by the outcome. It isn't even a lack of integrity as she is up front about her motive (except to her brother and occasionally to people she wishes to use, which she is not sorry about because it leads to her greater purpose, such as using Will). She justifies the murder of her brother and frankly so does the audience. However she doesn't turn a blind eye to murder indiscriminately, wanting to save Will. She also helps free Hannibal because he gets her and Alana what they need and want (the means for IUI/IVF - I'd personally guess IVF - and Will's life). Once she has her son, she leaves it all behind an seems to live a normal life aside from her marriage.

Alana Bloom - two on screen relationships, one a tryst with Hannibal that ends in attempted but ever promised murder, one the results in her carrying her wife's nephew and son to term. The Vergers were weird. In the beginning she has unwavering morality and fights tooth and nail for what she believes. This leads to unfortunate blind spots sometimes. She most likely has the most societally acceptable morality and integrity in the first 2 seasons (discounting the lab rats, who I'm not getting into here) and it's only changed by the traumatic experience of near death, brutal rehabilitation, and a deep, twisting betrayal. Her transfigured morality extends to her partner and later wife, Margot and Margot's vendetta against her brother (again, most view this vendetta as completely justified). Her trauma led to her plotting murder, manipulating Mason Verger to utilize his resources - greater than hers and lacking scruples - committing murder, she claims purgering herself to give Hannibal a solid insanity defense (so she could keep an eye on him), and ploting and conspiring to commit/orcastrate premeditated murdering a dangerous bid that endangered law enforcement.

So we have 4 major queer characters that vary morally (as much as the show allows), two with shifting morality. It's limited to a degree but also greatly varied in expression, reaction, and characters.

For a murder show that had to get so aesthetic with murders as to be on prime time network, that's a good chunk of representation. Hopefully abstract more than literal, but still.