Krista

Ellis, Elias is the "ghost story/light mystery," story I wrote shortly after 'Ridley.' I am seriously going to have to come up with a new Title for that story. I have confused multiple people. *Sighs* I hate naming stories. Ellis I like the name, and the name for the character and the story came before Elias was even a thought. So, my stubborn mind is telling me that Ellis cannot be changed. His name won't be, but the title of the story most definitely can be. I need to wrap my head around that and get over it.

Yeah, I tend to do slice of life stories. They come in out of nowhere, and they leave after those initial main resolutions are 'hopefully' resolved within the writing itself. I'm remembering how I ended this story. I think it is slightly different than how I typically end these writings of length that I do. I honestly forgot and didn't check how many chapters this story had. I know this story began as an Anthology that went too long and got too wordy, so I decided to keep going. Story of my life really... Ridley, this story, Learned to Lie, Elias all were born of failed Anthology attempts. That is why I don't participate in them often, it gives me 10x the work I expected.

I'm seeing that I need to go back through and fix the hidden formatting bug. It has smacked this story it the face. Those large spaces between paragraphs are irking me and I'm not even actively reading. I think I said you're well in the middle of all these soap opera/fast shooting information chapters where a lot comes to light very quickly. I think this is where I lost some readers, because the story started feeling a lot less linear and more.. bomb after bomb, punch after punch.

It had to be something trivial, an inconvenience. Although any reason isn't a good reason, to be fair. Unless you absolutely felt like you couldn't handle the situation and you would be doing the child more harm than good. Someone as privileged as they were, could have learned. Or at least kept her in their lives. Seeing her being deaf as an impassable imperfection makes them rather cruel.

I guess you're getting into the meat of the "soap opera" portions of the writing where there's a lot of information and such coming out of the woodwork. The manipulating and selfishness was fun for me to write in these characters.

Hot you say? Hmm. I like the character dynamics between them. You made the connection I wanted them to have, to be honest.

The first two episodes are a little bit of a chore, to be honest. The show finds better pacing and overall more enjoyable after Episode three, which I found middle, not bad, not good. It points to improvement heading into the next season, the show getting better as it went. Who knows though, it may regress and become unwatchable. I suck at television.

And she's mostly unapologetically blunt, correct?

I mean, I know the primary character study and most of the major plot devices and twists I pulled with this story. So, those are familiar to me, but I can't remember every little detail. The finer points and nuances that I could possibly find. But I do remember 'most' of this story, just not scenes within chapters and when exactly they happened. I know he has a perfect angel of a dog, Sadie is her name, I'm thinking.

I think I remember Tania. Tania I loved. Who is Lexi? Adam's sister, I want to say?

You wouldn't be able to behave yourself in that Cottage. (you have trouble behaving anywhere, lets be real) I need to send them your name and tell them to put you on their decline list.

I'll take your word for it, because I thought the names for this story were Rhett and Jason.. lol. Jason I remember, because I very much liked his character study. I guess it is Adam though. I want to guess on where you are in the plot, but my guess may be wrong and further down the line. Sigh... these older stories they're so forgetful for me when I've been so far removed from them. I'm happy that people take the time to read them, although by the looks of the comments, I didn't feel the need to respond to them back then. No wonder I'm paranoid about engagement now. I saw myself not engaging all over the place.

I remember the mother being a piece of work this story. This is a soap opera sort of story, the pacing isn't slow, if I'm remembering correctly. Also, I must've just made up my mind to not respond to comments with this story? Or what is this... lol.

It's been a bit of time between this story and my other ones, but I do remember the ring. The hand crafted gift, and yeah, I can see why Abigail Henry wouldn't want Elias walking around, a living reminder.

There are a couple of streaming services dedicated to just LGBTQ content. I'm not going to link them, as I think some of the content is borderline too adult and I don't know where that line is. If you're American Tubi has stuff. Dekkoo? I want to say is the streaming service Here TV -- as well. That is likely why other streaming services don't have a large catalog, even if they are smaller streaming services than the giant that is Netflix, they likely have bought the streaming rights for films for extended periods of time simply because Netflix doesn't have a vested interest. I also have no idea what either of those offer and whether or not the price for their streaming being worth it.

Hopefully it was ugly yet happy crying.

Thank you for taking the time to read this story. Glad you liked it.

Thank you for taking the time to read through my stories. I'll admit that a lot of my earlier works are roughly written and in need of edits/rewrites. Some of the themes are a bit out there as well. But I'm proud of my stories, even if some of them make me a bit anxious when I see people reading them. We all have to start somewhere though.

I wouldn't go that far, there are still a lot of stigmas that makes coming out rather relatable here. In film, book, or entertainment though, like I said the formulas tend to change. It feels heavily weighted in Coming of Age, and Coming out at the moment. There are likely elements of both in most gay or sexuality based stories/films/shows. Even in Heated Rivalry, they're both closeted, in the main storyline. There will always be factors at play for certain people to be closeted outside of their personal circles. Maybe we've shifted away from that slightly. But speaking entertainment, yes the formula right now seems to be this coming of age or coming out sort of predictable formula. We're starting to see it shift from that to... "we don't care about effin' labels..." at all, and sexuality is a lot more fluid. The negative being that we're seeing a lot more sex-driven or toxicity in relationships in film/shows. Like Matty said earlier, it seems like no one can function enough to build a healthy relationship. Some films go as far as making healthy relationships boring, there's a lot of films and shows coming out and being made in which established relationships become stagnant. Wanting to have 'open' relationships. Adding a third. Or outright cheating being so intertwined with sexuality, that it sort of blurs into one mess. Not saying that doesn't happen, it often does... but for that to be the shift, then it can become a bit unrelatable.

Yeah, I have no problem with a story ending in tragedy or non-HEA. At one time though it was incredibly rare that it happened for gay characters in film. I kind of prefer things not being so pretty and wrapped. More open-ended, I would say. But yes, at least for me, Brokeback Mountain, felt very true to form for most gay films at the time. Which is why it doesn't age well. I mean, even my Coming of Age stories aren't aging all that well anymore. The 'closet' isn't as interesting to readers a lot younger than me. So coming out/coming of age seems dated to some. I sense frustrations surrounding characters that do not cope with their sexuality well. Culturally it signals something good. Younger people are finding courage and acceptance easier and far more rewarding. Being driven by fear, closets, and such isn't as prominent and relatable as it once was. As a writer of such stories, I did feel slightly burdened by those frustrations and thinking that maybe I need to leave the genre if I cannot adapt to a more current telling of them. Which I feel is just awkward first love sort of stories, which mine are, mostly. But, maybe not growing up feeling the pressure of keeping things not so inward. Although I find those characters interesting, readers may no longer. Adapting and not becoming formulaic in your creativity sounds easily done. But comfort zones are hard to break. Hollywood lives in comfort zones. Innovation is rewarded rarely and rarely is it commercially successful enough for there to be any lasting impact. That is why Studios are on their 20th Marvel film. I think we're up to what, 7 'Toy Story' films, 6 Shreks, 3 Frozens after 2026. Find the formula that works until it doesn't. Creativity be damned.

It would fall under the category that I have for films that aren't deep, but are decently done. I only watched in one time. There are parts of it that I loved, but mostly I liked both characters. I saw it more as a friend comedy/drama. Some attempts at comedy, mostly a drama with lighter elements. Then a bit of a punching latter half that made the movie better for me. I may like this film more if I watched it more than once, things are a bit foggy for me, but I think overall I remember enjoying the film. The actor was also in, "Handsome Devil," which I enjoyed a lot more, but I've also watched it more than once.

I feel like you double bluffed me and are trolling me. Or maybe the troll is in my response, admitting that I feel trolled. And you have won. And I hate when I don't win.

Thank you for putting it nicely that I am a bit of rambler when I write. Love you for it. I may or may not be currently working on a 10K+ word count chapter for Ellis at the moment to further prove your point. -- We also have to realize how Hollywood treats stories like these. If you look across film and time, Brokeback Mountain was a victim of the rule. It doesn't make it stand out as something bad, because it was still groundbreaking in the fact that it was so available to a massive audience. The star power in the film putting more eyes on it as well. It opened doors and got more "Yes" from studios than, "No," for later films to be be made. And who stars in them. It was also coming out in a bit of a renaissance for films in America. It pre-dated the Remake bullshit we're in now, but it was also along the timeframe where we leaned more heavily on telling nuanced stories with elements of art and reality. Memoirs of a Geisha comes to mind as well, made within the same year. That film also hasn't aged well. Before that, the message were AIDs and Hate Crimes in general. Either the story had to be where the gay characters could not have a happy ending. Or happily ever afters were rare and they were never true romantic elements shown, they were just gay and you were to believe them because the film told you to. Romantic and happy was overshadowed by social, health, and religious overtones that dominated the actual 'humans' and the negative human elements were often portrayed over the positives. Even if those characters were gay. You saw more sex workers, or sexually promiscuous than you did gay people who date, or only have sex with one person. Hollywood treated gayness somewhat like a fetish. Like others have said homosexuality was mostly meant for the shadows. Whispered about, not shown. All romantic elements behind closed doors, in the dark with poor lighting. It wasn't loud, it wasn't colorful, and it wasn't happy. Fear, anger, hate, mental illness, sexual elements, were the 'normal' compared to the characters just being human. It was as if they are GAY and then human. The distinction wasn't equally weighted. To the point where it felt to be gay is to be in fear, deviants in society, you can't be religious, and you will most likely die. You will die from AIDs, suicide, or brutally attacked/murdered. Usually alone and shunned by society, your family, and with little to nothing. Like I said though, those stories brought to light and made people aware. So, don't take this as me belittling the past and the importance of those films. Not my intention. Hollywood has always been: That gay people can only be human in a certain world, a certain way, with a certain outcome. And it all became formulaic. -- They haven't learned their lesson with this by the way. It is just the formula has changed. And Brokeback Mountain kind of leaned into that idea. They had to be secretive. They had to be closed off with one another in public. They had to be quiet/seen and not heard. They had to live in an unaccepting world, they had to ruin their marriages to women, and they had to suffer a tragedy. So, the film felt older than it was, even if the setting, story, and plot were strongly written for the setting and time it is based. And all that formulaic sameness is what made it boring. The difference now with 'Heated Rivalry,' and "Red White and Royal Blue,' alongside other more modern films and television - is that filmmakers and showrunners are starting to be more seamless with sexuality. It isn't something that's stigmatized, tropes, or flat-lined messaging with no other life support to carry the film or show forward. We are able to see that Gay and Human are of equal standing and to be honest, in doing so has made it more inclusive to a wider audience. But let's also admit to ourselves that half the reason, 'Heated Rivalry' blew up is because all four dudes the show is focused on all have nice asses too. The plot isn't the most groundbreaking thing on earth. The Main storyline is engaging, but it has been told, it doesn't break a special sort of mold. But the other thing that makes the show stand out, and what I feel is more important than the round butts and hockey are the two dudes are written as being very average in being human. So they're relatable. I think modern audiences are starved for that notion in entertainment. They're not these people that can only be understood by two percent of the population. They are people that you can meet walking alongside you on a crowded sidewalk. That and all Hollywood can seem to predictably produce are 3rd, 4th, 5th level remakes of the same damn garbage and shove it down our throats. Or lifeless live remakes of nostalgic animated films. I do not like Hollywood, I've made that clear numerous times. I pay a lot more attention to independent and/or foreign, or mostly foreign 'and' independent studios. They make better films across the board.

Hush your face Steven. As for the film it was a decent film for a one-off watch for me. And no, I didn't write it. The most interesting parts of the whole film were glossed over with not much depth, sadly. I think that was the entirety of the film, it introduced these small nuanced things and if you were blinking or not paying attention you missed them. Exploring a few of them slightly better and with more depth would have made a better film. Don't get me wrong though, I do like nuance and subtle clues in film, it's just when they sort of include the main plot, you might do better to flesh them out a little bit more. Anyway, I've only watched the film once, I may watch it again to see if I like it better now that I know what to watch out for as far as the nuance and subtly goes. A Film about a gay football player that shares the same name with the main character to a story I wrote. Similarity number one. I think the main character even prefers to go by his last name/a nickname, similarity number two. Has issues with his father - which is main conflict. Trying to come out from under his father's shadow... similarity number three. Coming of age story where the character is somewhat afraid to come out, explores his sexuality more, similarity number four. Seemingly only playing Football to appease his father and to springboard it into a future via college, but not really in love with the sport because his pushy father and lofty expectations from everyone else ruined that for him ages ago. Similarities numbers five and six. It was enough to make me go... "huh..." If there was a scene where he and his best friend -- who everyone thought he should be with, since she's pretty and female, similarity number seven. Finds abandoned puppies and he adopts one of them, then I would have mostly definitely cried foul and got me a lawyer. Mind you a lot of that isn't ground breaking and there are likely stories out there. A dime a dozen, really. So all the above is just me being cheeky and reaching as a joke.