Let Koi Boi say Trans

Truly when I first became interested in the character I was like "I need to watch myself cuz i dont wanna be erasing the bad actions of this character just cuz he's a silly boy like so often happens in fandoms" And I listened to the CEREBRO episodes about him and was like "hm he sounds like a really interesting character that reflects realistic conflicts real humans have in politcal spaces"

And then I read Riot at Xaviers expecting to be horrified by his actions and the fascists aesthetics and all that but...Honestly on my first read I came away from it thinking "Wow. Thise adults really failed that child."

And each time I reread Riot I just feel even more strongly that it was the adults that fucked up. Not to say that QQ isnt at fault, or that he doesnt need to take accountability for the sake of his own healing and the healing of the people he hurt. But like, he was also a kid facing the trauma of being an oppressed minority that just experienced a genocide who was coping through drug abuse. Everytime I read something in the early QQ stories where all the adults are hating on him and talking about how much they want to kill him I cant help but stand there be be like..."Yall, that's a kid. Like a teenager with strong powers who can genuinely hurt people but still a kid."

There's this very insightful essay on Graphic Policy called "You Were Never My Age: Unpacking Quentin Quire’s Problematic History" written by a trans author who applies their experience as a young marginalized person to Quentin's responses in Riot. It's a super fascinating lense I hadnt seen applied before (as opposed to the usual school-shooter/alt-right kid lense) and I think it's a good read to consider QQ in a new way.

Of course I still dont think Qunetin's privilege as a white boy can be removed from his character, its just as important as his identity as a young traumatized mutant. I don't think his radical shift for violent mutant liberation is 100% a grab for attention, but I also don't think its 100% a genuine attempt to liberate his people. It's a mix of both, as I feel a lot of politcal actions are when you're a teenager. As is the case with real people, Quentin is a mix of his identities, the ones that give him privilege and the ones that marginalize him, and it isn't necessarily so easy to say he's an alt-right extremists or a radical leftist, he's just a mess. Like real people are!

I think that may be one reason Quentin can be such an intense topic for some people- Because we all know someone like Quentin. Maybe that someone is out highschool bully, or our ex-boyfriend, or our best friend, or ourselves. He acts like a realistic messy human and is therefore easy to project onto, and whoever we're projecting probably impacts how we respond to his character.

Ok ok to get back to my original point about the adults in Riot... I am always so baffled by the way they do Nothing everytime I read it. Like they figure out the kids are using drugs and beating up people (even killing one person) and their response is to give a public comment on how drug-use is bad and ban the matching shirts the gang was wearing??? They don't even talk QQ or any of the Omega Gang kids individually? They dont adress the emotional duress these kids are under as young mutants in a post-Genosha world, they just brush them off and laugh about how theyre being dumb kids???

Truly no one else had to die in the riot if inoy the adults had cared more and weren't so preoccupied by their (literal) affairs. It's frustrating but I think in New X-Men thats kind of the point, that book isnt afraid to show how it's beloved characters are wrong sometimes. I feel like the brief glimpse of AU Phoenix Quentin in Here Comes Tomorrow is decent proof that Morrison wasn't trying to make Quentin an irredeemable annoying kid we were supposed to hate, because through the Phoenix they showed us that he really did have potential and could've done great things if he wasn't snuffed out by the mix of his own bad decisions and the failure of the adults to interfere and help him.

What really irks me is that in all the following QQ appearances after Riot this trend of the adults not taking him seriously and not addressing any of his actual concerns, except this time I don't think any of the subtle critique that was in New X-Men is there. QQ is genuinely treated like a lost cause that everyone hates because he's annoying. None of the adults deal with the fact that this child died on their watch. In fact they treat it very similarly to how Beast treats Jumbo Carnation's death in the Riot arc. Because the deaths are ruled more-or-less and overdose from kick, all blame is placed on that person because they used too many drugs. Quentin's death isnt treated as a failure of the adults who were supposed to care for him, its treated as a failure on his part, comeuppance for his sins. And from then on the adults like Wolverine and Cyclops can joke about how annoying he is and how much they hate him without acknowledging that his fall happened under their watch.

This was very rambly but I guess my point is...I unironically put down Riot at Xaviers and go "wow that was awful...Logan, Scott, Emma, and Xavier really need to apologize to Quentin, not the other way around." buut that's probably never gonna happen!