*Minor spoilers for Lightyear, don't read if you don't want to be spoiled*
Hm, okay, so yesterday I watched Lightyear, the new Pixar film focused on the origin story of Buzz Lightyear.
I have mixed feelings about it--mostly about the villain reveal and some of the pacing--but one thing I did appreciate (and looked forward to, after hearing about it online) was the lesbian kiss. Apparently, Alisha Hawthorne--a named, main character, was going to have a wife and a kid and she and her wife would kiss. And, naturally, I was like, "OMG YES, FINALLY PIXAR IS INCLUDING SOME REPRESENTATION THAT'S NOT JUST IMPLIED OR PRACTICALLY OFFSCREEN!"
And don't worry, it's not queer baiting, there actually is an onscreen kiss. And it is wonderful, and made my little queer heart sing!
But.
The part I liked the least about this movie...
Was this.
Alisha Hawthorne and her wife... well, they die. Of old age, and peacefully. But also... within the first fifteen-twenty minutes of the movie.
Pixar's first (I think) named lesbian character dies. Like, not even halfway through the movie. And sure, she's not, like, murdered or anything... but still.
I'm pretty sure that they've succeeded in carrying out the infamous "Bury Your Gays" trope that you see so often in media.
Yay.
Congratulations, Pixar.
I appreciate the rep, and the kiss, and really hate that it is getting a lot of backlash for something that should really be normalized by now, but still.
Did you have to kill them off?
And I mean, maybe this is just me, maybe it doesn't really matter. There was rep, and maybe they died, but there was rep anyways! It's a steps forward! It's progress, and that's good!
But they still both died, and I am still annoyed by it.