shadowedhills:

But I mean, god fucking bless Laura Bailey for being a woman who clearly loves the hell out of both romance and D&D and doesn’t see any reason why she can’t combine them, because she and her friends are telling themselves a story and she deserves just as much of her own favorite type of story in the mix as anyone else does. Because it’s a lovely, public confirmation that someone like me can belong in the D&D world just as much as anyone else, that D&D/RPGs are exactly whatever you want them to be, and that there’s no one right way to play this game or tell these stories. I am so often left to feel a little bit on the outside of SFF geek culture, because my primary literary loyalty is to the romance genre, and even those people in SFF who defend romance usually do so because it makes money, not because they see any value in the genre itself. And gaming is SUCH a toxic subculture in SFF for women who don’t pull the “I’m not like other girls” bullshit, so it’s really amazing to have this now-popular D&D show that’s letting romance be one of the major ongoing storylines, where it’s just one part of what’s happening with the female character in question – but yet, something she’s allowed to be excited and enthusiastic about without anyone in-game or on-screen shaming her for it. 

I just have a lot of feelings about feeling welcome in SFF circles as a romance fan, and how much I love Laura for being utterly unapologetic for what she wants in this storyline. I adore her for it.