Fandoms can be a beautiful thing. Under the best circumstances, there is nothing better than binding on a shared love for your favorite movie, show, game or book. Knowing that there is a society out there with like -minded people who are eager to discuss, create and transform an imaginatively fictional universe into something bigger.
On the back, modern fandom can also risk being extremely toxic and expected, and takes an irrational ownership of fictitious characters and riots when the original creators divert the internal expectations they have trolled. When I talk to a showrunner, I can't help but be empathetic with all the pressure they have to wear as shepherds of creations so many people have come to claim as their own.
With regard to the Knights of Guinevere, creator Dana Terrace has come under fire for ridiculous accusations of transphobia after confirming that one of the show's main characters is a CIS woman, rather than transgender people that many fans have hoped for and internalized.
It is too early to draw conclusions about the Knights of Guinevere
The first episode of Glitch Production's new show was broadcast earlier this month and has been looked over 11 million times on Youtube at the time of writing. It is a hit and already has a number of expanding goods along with thousands of fans who dissect each individual frame of the pilot for further information. This also means that viewers fall in love with characters and hope so desperately to learn more about Frankie, Andi and the Titular Guinevere.
Such excitement is contagious, and I can't wait to see more from this show in the coming months and years. But as I said before, investing myself in fandom has already proven to be tired after an unnecessary controversy has developed this past week. When she asked Terrace if they thought Frankie would be perceived as TRANGERS, she replied with the following: “Frankie is cis, she has only many nicknames. I have friends who call me Dan, Dbo, Danny.
At least this seems to be a pretty definitive and non-bumping answer to me. Frankie was not intended to be a trans -sex woman, but is instead a Cisgender Butch woman who voluntarily spits for feminine conventions. Unfortunately, the short nature of this response had serious consequences and sent small subgroups of fandom that spiraled to negativity thanks to their headcanons suddenly turned out to be false as their excitement to see a trans character star in an animated show this popular was spread.
I would not be surprised if the Knights of Guinevere introduces a queer character and/or story in future sections. Should we not instead celebrate a role that is already extremely diverse?
Some chronic online -tumblr posts draw incredibly unreasonable assumptions about Knights of Guinevere's story and characters after only a single section has been sent. They believe that everything that has happened to Frankie so far indicates that she is trans, and all developments that do not deliver the promise are proof of transphobia. It is a laughing view to accuse someone like Dana Terrace to be great for writing the story of a character that we know nothing about what was covered in the pilot.
Frankie is not trans, but that doesn't mean she can't be a brilliant character
This discourse seemed to develop over fandom for a number of days, with mountains with false information that has been disseminated about both Frankie's character and the intentions of the terrace. Late last week, Terrace looked to respond to the controversy at Bluesky and sat down to the wild drama that had just appeared because Fandom expects too much from showrunners for viral success:
“I feel that my answer to a question was very incorrectly interpreted. I think it is fantastic to see her as a trans is fantastic, I see the connection when PPL talks about it, and I have never in my career been against HCS, why would I start now?”
Terrace added: “I am sorry if my answer came over as too short or relaxed answer. It may not have been my intention, but it is an absolutely valid and amazing interpretation to see Frankie as trans. I love to see what people remove from stories and that will always be the case. It is the beauty in fiction!”
Like Terrace, I understand the beauty of Headcanons. Many people have comfort characters that they grow particularly close and develop a deeper identity for what has little impact on the Canon definition. Many LGBTQ+ people saw Frankie in the pilot and saw some of herself in her, whether she is how she looks, speaks or the things she has gone through in her life. These are valuable things and how the actual show shows that her character should not remove what that headcanon means to you.
Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch once tweeted, “90% of the problem with Twitter treats fictional people as they are real and real people as they are fictional,” and I will be condemned if it does not summarize the knights in the Guinevere situation right now. People develop emotionally deep relationships with fictional characters and attach such parasocial meanings to them that it is easy to forget real people are responsible for their creation. So if a future section dares to notice Frankie as something that fandom has already decided that she is not, or takes her story in a new direction that dares to ask uncomfortable questions, I worry about this that will happen again.
Terrace and Company just launched an extremely successful indie pilot that tells a dark, mature and introspective story that we should celebrate. Instead, a high minority of fandom has decided to demand ownership over the Knights of Guinevere even though there is a single pilot to pull off. Unfortunately, this attitude in Fandom is unusually common, with random discourse that appears time again that inevitably pulls in their well -meaning creators because they are incorrectly labeled for things they never did.
While he was at Disney, Terrace and her team spent several years pressing on queer representation in the Owl House, so it feels upbringing and illegal to accuse her of transphobia all because Frankie is not the trans character you trolled up in your head. As a trans woman would it have been a row as hell to see Frankie assume such an identity, but is it the end of the world that she does not? Hell no.
Knights of Guinevere is a fantastic show with lots of unused potential, and it sucks to see some bad eggs in fandom dominates discussion with bad faith arguments like this. All the people who are responsible for doing the things we love deserves better.
