Posting this here because I want to rant but would rather not accost people over tumblr
Also, nobody reads this, so it's perfect.
Warning, if you are somehow reading this, this is all Glee/Darren Criss related. You've been forewarned.
This my navigation through a fandom I'm realtively new to and my interpretations as an outsider, for the most part.
Okay so this all started around April-ish this year, when Sophie had previously spent a good season and a half trying to sucker me into watching Glee with her. By this I was not amused. Sophie lured my in by telling me to "google Blaine atleast, he looks like Brendon Urie" - I motherfreaking love Brendon Urie, so I did. Turns out this Blaine kid is played by Harry Freaking Potter, I honestly had no idea. (I spent a good year dodging Glee completely including Season 2 and the Darren Criss hype). So I google Criss, and confirm, yes, he is Harry Freaking Potter, just dressed in a different costume now. And Criss-as-Blaine does look remarkably like Brendon Urie too. So I ask my Sister "does he sing like B. Urie too?" she says "Watch and find out."
I watch the end of "On My Way" with her, but naturally cannot follow it, I really only catch the regionals and Finchel's wedding stuff, which I'm bored by. Sophie tells me I'm watching to wrong episode "No, listen to him sing 'Love Shack'" she says "You'll love it I promise, or watch the episode where they finally get it on - that sounds like you" (my Sister knows me all too well) and my response is "Wait, there's gay sex on Glee? They let Kurt be sexual with another person?" (keeping in mind the last episode I'd seen in full was "Preggers") and Sophie says "No, they don't let you see anything really, it's all implied, which is dumb because the last thing I wanted to see was Finn and Rachel doing the dirty and they showed that" /Roxy goes on rant about gay visibility on TV and Sophie drops the subject, not wanting to start a riot.
So, between "On My Way" and "Big Brother" Sophie makes me watch "Love Shack" to try and wean me in, it doesn't work, I can't see Brendon in him at all. Still in the hiatus period Channel 10 puts on a Glee Season 2 Marathon, Sophie declares we are watching it and I will be in love with Blaine by the end of the night. This much was true, I all but wanted to marry Blaine Anderson (much like Kurt on the staircase) by the end of the night. So I watched the end of season 3 with Sophie as it aired and found a very different Blaine in those last 8 or so episodes. I think my Blaine stanning stems from two different people I've been and how I know I am, as a opposed to what the world knows me as. I'm Blaine, in the sense that I am, and have always been very liminal, never one thing or another, often both and shifting between. I'm needy in a different way and defnitely full of self-deprecation and loathing, but most of all, Blaine really is a boy incarnation of me from the ages of 16-18. When I was 14, something happened to me that required me to put on a mask, to act for the sake of others and also for the sake of myself (think Sadie Hawkins, but the scars are more metaphorical) facing people after something sense-of-self-shatteringly large has happened to you is never not a painful experience, Blaine runs, I stayed, and sometimes I wonder what would have happened did I leave? Would I have felt less controlled? Would I have felt like I could talk about what happened sooner? Maybe ask for help I didn't realise I needed so badly? I don't know. But the similarities and parallels I can draw between Blaine and I are slightly harrowing to watch, but it definitely does me some good to watch them. I'm waiting for him to come out on top - I want a happy ending for him as much as I want one for me (which in itself is a step forward, considering I've never actually rooted for myself before). I also know what its like to feel invisible, to always be a team player, to have people misinterpreting all of your signals, constantly. I know what its like to hurt people you love and wishing you could hurt yourself instead. I know what its like to feel completely alone and think this is how you deserve to be. I also know what its like to find people who listen to you, people you legitimately connect with, to find your family - comrades. I'm still watching Glee because I want Blaine to find his proper comrades, people who strip him bare and know what he's like on the inside, underneath the mask and they still love him for it.
So, there's my Blaine Stan backstory - but I'm also really interested in the way Glee deals with characterisation and development.
How much do we actually know about Blaine Anderson, and how much of this is given to us via dialogue or acting choices made deliberately by Darren Criss? Alot of Blaine's actual backstory is assumed fanon, going off throwaway lines. And in fanfiction theres a lot of assumed things that become tropes that kind of bother me, because they become fanon, like this is the only way it can be interpreted and any other interpretation is wrong, or OOC or AU. I'd like to point out how long it takes Glee to give us proper backstory for the characters, bar Finn, Kurt and Quinn who all had their parents introduced very early on in Season 1. It took us 3 Seasons to meet Rachel Berry's Dad's, despite her being the central character. We still haven't met Mercedes, Artie, Brittany or Tina's Parents, and they've been prominent characters (bar Brittany) since Season 1. I think seeing how a character reacts within their family and the different dynamics in place there is just as interesting, if not more so, than how they react withing their group of friends. Family tells us so much about why characters are like they are and how they came to be the person they are, and if I could, I'd like to meet all of the Glee kids Parents/Siblings/whatever withing canon, but with a show like Glee it's not really possible. But I think some characters are being done a great disservice by not having a proper arc in regards to their family and the role they play within their families. Blaine, for instance, I don't think he'll ever develop properly without us meeting his Parents, I'm really interested in meeting Tina's Parents - and Brittany's, I've always wondered how they handle her/what their reaction is to her being held back a year. So, on that note, we assume, because it isn't given to us in canon, and this is what we get:
I'm going to use Blaine as my example, purely because I play the most attention to him and becuase I notice alot more in regards to his character. So what do we definitely know about Blaine?
- Kurt is his first boyfriend, but not necissarily his first sexual experience. (He lost his virginity to Kurt, but that doesn't mean he has absolutely no experience whatsoever).
- He has a stilted realtionship with his Father, they don't communicate very well. He's "in awe" of Kurt and Burt.
- He has a ridiculous Brother, of whom is very critical of him.
- He's trying so hard to be seen as somebody else, somebody everyone can like.
- He has communication issues in general, in regards to Kurt, his friends in New Directions, asking for help from anybody or talking about how he feels.
- He bottles up his feelings, taking them out on a punching bag rather that confronting the actual antagonist (unless, on rare occasions he just loses it, [Finn and Sam])
So we take these tidbits and run with them; Blaine's comment to Burt about building a car with his Dad immediately translates to 'his Dad is homophobic, Blaine is a disappointment'. Another interpretation could be, maybe his Dad doesn't mind that he's gay, it's more the fact that he was gay-bashed is what he's concerned about. Maybe, like Blaine, his Dad isn't great about communication either and his Dad wanting Blaine to act straight or whatever translates back to Blaine as "he wishes I was straight" but really means "I want you to stay safe"
Until we meet Blaine's Parents onscreen, my personal headcanon is going to be that Blaine and Cooper are half-brothers, a ten year age gap between full siblings is pretty rare (granted my Brother and I have a similar age difference and are full siblings, BUT we have a sibling in between and besides us, I've yet to meet another set of siblings with a ten year age gap that aren't half-siblings) and that they have the same Dad, this explains Rachel's "vaguely Eurasian" comment to me as well as Matt Bomer being Blaine's brother. (I think it also explains a lot of stuff about Blaine and Cooper's issues too, actually).
Although, I thank Glee for putting that relationship on television as I'd really yet to see siblings with a gap like me and my brother to be perfectly honest. A lot of TV shows (bar Modern Family) don't really explore issues regarding age gaps, half-siblings and the dynamics involved there. I'm hoping this will be properly explored, but you know, am doubtful.