Friday, April 22, 2016

Femslash Friday: Pam and Tara

Brace yourselves for what I'm about to say, TV people.

*whispering voice* I think True Blood was at least as good as Buffy. *end whispering voice*

I mean, we can think outside the binary here and appreciate both series, right? True Blood did the vampire thing and, set in Louisiana, somewhat made it its own. Sure, Buffy had the Whedonesque witty, fast dialogue, but True Blood had dark humor, which is always going to be my weakness. Buffy's central vampires were broody, morally gray, and had... interesting facial structures. True Blood's are darker, more sexual, more violent, and honestly I think how they zip around all over the place is both scary and cool.

In the Buffyverse, magic was a metaphor for both drug abuse and lesbianism, which I somewhat found confusing. In True Blood, vampirism was a loose metaphor for homosexuality, and honestly, I thought it worked better.

Buffy had good, complicated female characters, and True Blood had .... Pam and Tara. And also other cool female characters, but seriously.... let's focus on Pam and Tara. Although, I have to admit Sookie Stackhouse always had a little bit of Bella's (Twilight) Annoying and Very Difficult Dilemma of "All of these men who are SO HOT want to be with me. My life is SO HARD! Whatever shall I do?"  (To be honest, I think the dudes would have been down for a threeway. So way to blow that opportunity, Sookie). I mean, I'm 99% lesbian, but Eric Northman and Alcide made even me feel a little sexually confused. But I digress.

The point here is Pam and Tara. Pam is .... not a nice person. Pam Quote of the Day: "I'm so over Sookie and her precious fairy vagina." (We all are, Pam. We all are).  And, I think it's okay for a female character to be mean.

Tara is, on the other hand, a mostly good person who's had a lot of bad shit happen to her. Thankfully, for a time, she avoids the dead lesbian/bisexual character trope by being turned into a vampire after having been shot (TV writers: I recommend this plot twist of turning female characters if it means avoiding dead lesbian/bisexual trope scenarios. Like, no matter the genre).

In any event, the following clip is from when Tara helps rescue Pam, after she'd been captured by the anti-gay bigots anti-vampire forces.  What can I say, sometimes the bond between vampire maker and progeny is strong. And hot.


No comments: