Tag: LGBTQ fantasy
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LGBTQ+ Themes in Fantasy: Beyond Romance to Identity
For a long time, LGBTQ+ presence in fantasy followed a familiar script: a central romance, a tragic side couple, or a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to queerness. Representation often began and ended with who loved whom. But for many readers, especially queer readers, identity is about far more than romance. It’s about belonging, safety, power, and the…
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When Beauty Aches: Finding Yugen in the Broken Places
You know that feeling when something hits you so hard you can’t quite find the words for it? The Japanese have a term for that. It’s called yugen. It’s not just beauty—it’s the kind that makes your chest tight. Moonlight filtering through the clouds. Or when you look up at the moon and you see…
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Walking in the Light Because You’ve Lived the Darkness
You know that feeling when someone tells you to “just look on the bright side”? Yeah. That one. It lands like a slap when you’re standing in the wreckage of something that broke you. When you’ve been betrayed by the people who were supposed to protect you. When the institutions you believed in turned out…
Janessa Keeling 