It's Just A Moist Towelette!
Glee continues to make me the opposite of gleeful! In a good way, but still. This is not fair, Glee.
'Theatricality' tore my heart into shreds and then gave me a tentative hug and started trying to repair it with Sellotape. Finn! Augh! I can understand why he was uncomfortable, but he dealt with it very badly, and Burt was absolutely right to do what he did. In fact, Burt is unspeakably wonderful and I adore him.
And Finn felt so bad afterwards! And he wanted to put things right! As always, he's an idiot, but he's a good-hearted idiot.
It's all a bit awful, really. Finn was put in a difficult situation: he's straight; Kurt is fairly unsubtly attracted to him and pursuing him in quite a conniving way; Finn never explicitly addresses the issue in order to tell Kurt it can't happen, because he doesn't like upsetting people, and so it builds up until Finn finally finds himself in a situation in which he can't ignore it and starts misinterpreting innocent gestures, like Kurt attempting to help him remove his makeup and trying to create a more comfortable living space.
Ultimately, Finn had to do something. It's not all right that he used homophobic slurs to express his issues with the situation, but Finn backed himself into a corner with his own niceness; he should have let Kurt down gently, but he couldn't make himself. His blowup wasn't based on homophobia, or at least not on homophobia alone, but on the fact that Kurt was persistently, underhandedly pursuing him in spite of Finn's lack of romantic interest. It was a horrible situation, and Finn acted unacceptably, but I suppose what I'm trying to say is that Kurt was at fault as well, and perhaps the episode should have acknowledged that.
The ending of the episode was rather lovely, though. Kurt seemed so taken aback when Finn squeezed his shoulder! Perhaps this marks the beginning of a more healthy relationship between Finn and Kurt, in which Finn can interact comfortably with Kurt as a friend and Kurt no longer attempts to make Finn fall in love with him through underhanded means.
A tiny part of me will be a bit sad if that's the case, though, because I did have rather a fondness for Kurt's creepy, creepy crush.
Here is something that perplexes me: Puck/Kurt.
The fact that people do 'ship Puck and Kurt is something I can understand; being a huge fan of crossovers, I can appreciate wanting to throw together characters who don't have much canonical interaction. I was a little surprised to find that it seemed to be so much more popular than Kurt/Finn, which has the twin benefits of being canonical (so there's plenty of material for their relationship) and unrequited (so there's room for fanfiction to bring the characters together), but tastes differ.
What confuses me, primarily, was the attitude amongst some (not all) of the Puck/Kurt 'shippers when I looked at an old reaction post to 'Theatricality' on the puckurt community. Specifically, someone said, 'I totally have this vision in my head of Puck kicking Finn's ass and then showing Kurt how amazing he is and why he shouldn't change.'
At this stage, if I recall correctly, Puck and Kurt have interacted on-screen three times, and those interactions have consisted solely of Puck throwing Kurt into dumpsters or shoving him against lockers because Kurt is an outcast. Outside the context of interacting with Kurt, Puck has made homophobic comments.
I just find it a bit odd that some people seem to be 'shipping Kurt with someone who has Puck's face but isn't Puck. Puck has potential for improvement, perhaps, but he has yet to visibly improve (EDIT: although, as culf has pointed out, he does seem to have stopped actively harassing Kurt since joining the club), and it seems strange to deride Finn/Kurt on the basis of Finn's behaviour when Puck's would have been five times worse, or to rail against Finn for being homophobic and go on to fangirl Puck in the same comment. I'd very much like to see a Kurt-and-Puck storyline in which Puck learns to be a better person, but it hasn't happened yet.
Ultimately, I'm not going to tell anyone what to 'ship, and I'm sure most interpretations of Puck/Kurt have a realistic development of their relationship. I'm not a Puck/Kurt person myself, but I know some of you are. 'Ship away! It was really just that comment and a couple of others that made me give my screen a slightly odd look.
(EDIT: jlh has pointed out that I'm being a bit unfair here in analysing comments on a 'ship community, which is a space for discussion and squee with other 'shippers of the same pairing and is naturally going to be biased, and of course she's absolutely right. The subtext behind this rambling is 'oh, dear, Riona is bitter because once again the pairing to which she is drawn is not the popular one'; please don't take it too much to heart!)
Here is a video of Kurt Hummel singing 'Rose's Turn', because it's Kurt! Being incredibly angry! With a solo! And it's amazing!
'Theatricality' tore my heart into shreds and then gave me a tentative hug and started trying to repair it with Sellotape. Finn! Augh! I can understand why he was uncomfortable, but he dealt with it very badly, and Burt was absolutely right to do what he did. In fact, Burt is unspeakably wonderful and I adore him.
And Finn felt so bad afterwards! And he wanted to put things right! As always, he's an idiot, but he's a good-hearted idiot.
It's all a bit awful, really. Finn was put in a difficult situation: he's straight; Kurt is fairly unsubtly attracted to him and pursuing him in quite a conniving way; Finn never explicitly addresses the issue in order to tell Kurt it can't happen, because he doesn't like upsetting people, and so it builds up until Finn finally finds himself in a situation in which he can't ignore it and starts misinterpreting innocent gestures, like Kurt attempting to help him remove his makeup and trying to create a more comfortable living space.
Ultimately, Finn had to do something. It's not all right that he used homophobic slurs to express his issues with the situation, but Finn backed himself into a corner with his own niceness; he should have let Kurt down gently, but he couldn't make himself. His blowup wasn't based on homophobia, or at least not on homophobia alone, but on the fact that Kurt was persistently, underhandedly pursuing him in spite of Finn's lack of romantic interest. It was a horrible situation, and Finn acted unacceptably, but I suppose what I'm trying to say is that Kurt was at fault as well, and perhaps the episode should have acknowledged that.
The ending of the episode was rather lovely, though. Kurt seemed so taken aback when Finn squeezed his shoulder! Perhaps this marks the beginning of a more healthy relationship between Finn and Kurt, in which Finn can interact comfortably with Kurt as a friend and Kurt no longer attempts to make Finn fall in love with him through underhanded means.
A tiny part of me will be a bit sad if that's the case, though, because I did have rather a fondness for Kurt's creepy, creepy crush.
Here is something that perplexes me: Puck/Kurt.
The fact that people do 'ship Puck and Kurt is something I can understand; being a huge fan of crossovers, I can appreciate wanting to throw together characters who don't have much canonical interaction. I was a little surprised to find that it seemed to be so much more popular than Kurt/Finn, which has the twin benefits of being canonical (so there's plenty of material for their relationship) and unrequited (so there's room for fanfiction to bring the characters together), but tastes differ.
What confuses me, primarily, was the attitude amongst some (not all) of the Puck/Kurt 'shippers when I looked at an old reaction post to 'Theatricality' on the puckurt community. Specifically, someone said, 'I totally have this vision in my head of Puck kicking Finn's ass and then showing Kurt how amazing he is and why he shouldn't change.'
At this stage, if I recall correctly, Puck and Kurt have interacted on-screen three times, and those interactions have consisted solely of Puck throwing Kurt into dumpsters or shoving him against lockers because Kurt is an outcast. Outside the context of interacting with Kurt, Puck has made homophobic comments.
I just find it a bit odd that some people seem to be 'shipping Kurt with someone who has Puck's face but isn't Puck. Puck has potential for improvement, perhaps, but he has yet to visibly improve (EDIT: although, as culf has pointed out, he does seem to have stopped actively harassing Kurt since joining the club), and it seems strange to deride Finn/Kurt on the basis of Finn's behaviour when Puck's would have been five times worse, or to rail against Finn for being homophobic and go on to fangirl Puck in the same comment. I'd very much like to see a Kurt-and-Puck storyline in which Puck learns to be a better person, but it hasn't happened yet.
Ultimately, I'm not going to tell anyone what to 'ship, and I'm sure most interpretations of Puck/Kurt have a realistic development of their relationship. I'm not a Puck/Kurt person myself, but I know some of you are. 'Ship away! It was really just that comment and a couple of others that made me give my screen a slightly odd look.
(EDIT: jlh has pointed out that I'm being a bit unfair here in analysing comments on a 'ship community, which is a space for discussion and squee with other 'shippers of the same pairing and is naturally going to be biased, and of course she's absolutely right. The subtext behind this rambling is 'oh, dear, Riona is bitter because once again the pairing to which she is drawn is not the popular one'; please don't take it too much to heart!)
Here is a video of Kurt Hummel singing 'Rose's Turn', because it's Kurt! Being incredibly angry! With a solo! And it's amazing!