An ambassador from Just Like Us talks about the power of feeling seen on screen
BY MELANIE PATEY, IMAGE BY DISNEY
This article includes spoilers from Agatha All Along.
This week, Agatha All Along’s Kathryn Hahn was nominated for Best Actress at the Golden Globes. While this is incredible news for fans, for many of us, the series has already won when it comes to LGBTQIA representation.
Following the two-part finale of Agatha All Along, fans were left in shock as the MCU pulled something we could only have dreamed of just a few years prior – the first sapphic kiss, between the show’s main witch Agatha Harkness (Hann) and her unusual “ex” Rio Vidal (Aubrey Plaza) who is revealed to be Death in episode seven Death’s Hand In Mine.
The witty witch was introduced in Marvel’s Wandavision in 2021 as nosey neighbour Agnes, and fans were immediately hooked and ready to find out more about her backstory. In Agatha All Along, fans were not left disappointed with how the show gave us a great insight into the witch’s tragic past.
Fans were teased throughout the series, with Agatha and Rio’s intense eye contact and flirty dialogue, and who could forget the almost-kiss in episode four finally confirming the relationship? But finally, as the series came to an end with a final epic battle, we were finally given the heartbreaking and fulfilling scene we’d been waiting for.
The kiss couldn’t have been better, though some fans wished it was under better circumstances. Some fans on social media expressed disappointment that Marvel appeared to have fallen into the “Bury Your Gays” trope, where sapphic and gay relationships ultimately end in death. However, I, and many others, took it in a much different way. It was a beautiful scene that held so much emotion, and only just added to the tragedy of Agatha’s story.
Additionally, did anyone think falling in love with death herself was going to end well?
Screenwriter and producer Jac Schaeffer, in an interview with The Ringer-verse, later described the kiss as “a rush, like a reflex, that there’s an element of emotion, attraction, and reflectiveness”. Schaeffer added: “It’s not just Agatha saying I want to save Billy, it’s that she has to kiss this woman in this moment, and it means all these other things.”
Agatha All Along has been Marvel’s first to show a sapphic relationship on screen, and it marks a major step in the portrayal of queer relationships and characters in mainstream superhero media, with authentic representation in multiple leading roles. Billy, otherwise known as Teen (Joe Locke), brought another remarkable LGBTQIA performance to the show, and in episode five we are introduced to his boyfriend Eddie.
It is not the first time Marvel has shown LGBTQIA characters – there have been America Chavez’s two mothers we get a glimpse of in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Sylvie bringing up conversation of sexuality in Loki, and Deadpool characters that were recently introduced into the MCU.
But Agatha points to an exciting future when it comes to LGBTQIA representation, which is quite remarkable for a fandom that can be associated with stereotypes of toxic masculinity. Before the release of Agatha All Along, MCU fans were commenting that no one asked for the series, and that no one would watch it. These critics have been emphatically proved wrong, as the groundbreaking show has been claimed as Marvel’s best, even passing Loki’s second series, and a Golden Globe may now be on the horizon.
As Joe Locke said in an interview with Paul McGuire Grimes, Marvel isn’t just for “straight white men”. I hope that the future for Marvel continues to create magical moments like these, and we can only hope to see Agatha grace our screens again in the future.
Melanie is an ambassador for Just Like Us, the LGBT+ young people’s charity. For more information, sign up to their newsletter.
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