How Agatha All Along cleverly avoids the Bury Your Gays trap

As a longtime fan of Marvel and a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community, I must say that “Agatha All Along” has truly been a breath of fresh air for me. Growing up, I often felt like my experiences weren’t represented in the superhero world, but this series has managed to change that narrative in such an extraordinary way.

2024 saw a grand return for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, silencing critics who thought superhero fatigue was affecting its record-breaking box office numbers. It appears that a dash of whimsy was all it took to revitalize things. While Jac Schaeffer’s acclaimed series WandaVision paved the way, the decision to center an entire spinoff around Kathryn Hahn’s Agatha Harkness seemed risky. The inclusion of a varied cast featuring LGBTQ+ actors and Aubrey Plaza’s (Aubrey Plaza) teases about it being a “gay spectacle” meant fans had to endure the customary outcry that the MCU was becoming too progressive, or ‘woke.’

I’m grateful that while The Marvels faced backlash from those who struggled with a female-led movie, Agatha All Along has proven to be an exception. From introducing one of Marvel Comics’ most significant LGBTQ+ characters and giving us the MCU’s first lesbian kiss, Agatha All Along surpassed our expectations regarding queer representation. Frankly, with a gay legend like Patti LuPone on board, it was clear the show would be flying its pride flag high.

How Agatha All Along cleverly avoids the Bury Your Gays trap

An LGBTQuestionable History

For those unaware, the term “Bury Your Gays” refers to a troubling pattern found in various films, particularly prevalent in television shows. This pattern is similar to ‘fridging’, where female characters are killed off for the advancement of male protagonists’ stories. Essentially, “Bury Your Gays” signifies the tendency of TV shows and movies to eliminate their LGBTQ+ characters, which stands out as concerning given the scarcity of gay couples on screen compared to straight ones. The high mortality rate among these characters is striking.

Significant instances of the trope “Kill Your Gays” can be seen in various shows such as the demise of Tara on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the revelation that M. C. Gainey’s character Tom was gay on Lost after his death, and the tragic ending of Lexa on The 100 in 2016, which sparked the contemporary movement against this trope. Shows like The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones have also been criticized for frequently using this trope. Notably, The Walking Dead has claimed the lives of Dr. Denise Cloyd, Tara, and Jesus, with the deaths of Tara and Jesus occurring in season 9. To give some credit to showrunner Angela Kang, she defended the deaths of Tara and Jesus to The Hollywood Reporter, stating that she aimed to avoid treating LGBTQ+ characters differently or engaging in tokenism.

Confirmed from this deleted scene, Daemon Targaryen is a bisexual king 😮‍💨 #HouseOfTheDragon
— westerosies (@westerosies) September 27, 2022

In the series Game of Thrones, a significant number of LGBTQ+ characters met untimely and violent deaths, including Oberyn and Elia Martell, Renley Baratheon, Loras Tyrell, Lord Varys, and others. Olyvar was also written out after betraying the Tyrells. By the end of season 8, Gemma Whelan’s Yara Greyjoy remained as the only openly LGBTQ+ character who survived throughout the storyline. House of the Dragon seemed to follow a similar pattern, as Ser Joffrey Lonmouth was killed off in the first season. The situation becomes more complex when you recall that the same episode omitted a scene that could have confirmed Matt Smith’s Daemon Targaryen as bisexual.

On the other side of this discussion, we find the trope known as “Preserving LGBTQ+ Characters,” evident in shows like Star Wars: Andor, The Boys, and Black Mirror’s “San Junipero.” In Andor, Cinta and Vel are the only Aldahni rebels to survive, Queen Maeve of The Boys survives a fall from a 50-story building, and “San Junipero” is one of the few episodes in Black Mirror that ends on a positive note. House of the Dragon, season 1, notably altered Game of Thrones’ narrative by sparing Laenor Velaryon (John Macmillian) from his bookish demise, allowing him to sail towards an uncertain but hopefully happy future. Given the prevalence of death in these series, it was surprising and refreshing to see Laenor escape with a potentially joyful ending. Let’s cross our fingers that the writers won’t bring him back just to have him meet an untimely end.

How Agatha All Along cleverly avoids the Bury Your Gays trap

Don’t cry for me Agatha Harkness

Regarding “Agatha All Along,” the character Billy Maximoff, also known as Wiccan, has been significantly protected by LGBTQ+ plot elements in the storyline. He’s a key member of the Young Avengers and is the son of the Scarlet Witch, making him one of the most prominent gay characters within the medium. “Agatha All Along” paved the way for diversity within the franchise, which was predominantly heterosexual in its early stages. The show set Billy on a path towards becoming an openly queer Young Avenger and even revealed that Agatha and Rio Vidal were former lovers. This becomes particularly intriguing when we find out that Rio is actually Death, so Agatha had once dated the embodiment of death itself.

The climax of “Agatha All Along” saw a significant moment when Agatha experiences a fatal kiss from her former partner, which seems like a classic television trope but isn’t. This supposed ‘death’ of Agatha actually subverts the Bury Your Gays trope because viewers aren’t ready to let her go. In the finale’s aftermath, Agatha, now a ghost, confronts Plaza’s Death and subsequently reunites with Billy. They then embark on a journey to find his missing brother, potentially setting up “Agatha All Along” for season 2. Upon rewatching the finale, it becomes clear that Agatha’s death was a strategic move to avoid the Bury Your Gays trope while still delivering an iconic lesbian kiss.

How Agatha All Along cleverly avoids the Bury Your Gays trap

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has been criticized for its approach towards LGBTQ+ characters. One example is Joe Russo, a heterosexual man, portraying the MCU’s first openly gay character in “Avengers: Endgame” in 2019. Scenes involving same-sex romances were eliminated from “Thor: Ragnarok” and “Wakanda Forever,” and “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” faced censorship in certain regions due to a brief mention of America Chavez having two mothers. Even as far back as “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” the MCU has been accused of reinforcing the Hide Your Lesbians trope by neglecting to acknowledge Victoria Hand and Isabelle Hartley’s romantic relationship from the comics. In a difficult situation, showrunners Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon told Entertainment Weekly that they didn’t want to be remembered as the people who ended two lesbian characters on the show.

Even if time has moved on, some attitudes sadly haven’t. You only have to look at the backlash and review-bombing of The Last of Us’ Emmy-winning “Long, Long Time” to make it feel like we’re still in the dark ages. Maybe Agatha All Along was simply too gay to warrant review-bombing, as at the time of writing it’s currently rated higher than Loki season 2 on Rotten Tomatoes. A new era of the MCU is here, and while the Stars and Stripes of something like Captain America: Brave New World will appeal to the old guard, it’s refreshing that other projects are trying to diversify. It’s a careful balance between fair representation and box-ticking, but Agatha All Along just about has it all. Who knew all it took was Aubrey Plaza playing an unhinged depiction of Death for the LGBTQ+ community to finally feel accepted by the MCU?

2024-11-07 23:41