don't leave me...

to put it bluntly, brian utilized freddie's point of view - a gay man, as a proxy to explore his own queerness.

Listen, I don't think I've ever said this, but... This is something I also read into their musical "partnership." It makes so much sense to me.

It seems to me that Brian, through his songwriting, was trying to blur the line between Freddie's experiences and his own. Like? If you think about the story behind Fat Bottomed Girls for more than a minute, it becomes batshit insane.

For this song to be what it is, Brian had to 1) Notice Freddie's sexual partners, 2) decide it was worthy of a song, and 3) imagine himself, in part, as a gay man expressing his desires in a proud yet necessarily obscure way.

And what would drive him to do this? He cared about Freddie, yes, but Freddie didn't know about it. It makes sense that this was something Brian did because he needed it, too, somehow. And I'm not even making that up. Brian has talked about how Ressurection was, in a way, an attempt to adopt Freddie's headspace. He admired Freddie so much that he, at times, wanted to be him. And he's been pretty open about that.

Oh lord. Brian haters stay the most unserious people on the planet, I fear. They have the critical-thinking skills of a cactus and regurgitate the same 5 talking points over and over, like that somehow makes them true??? I've been in this fandom for six years now, and I've seen so much of this crap that it doesn't bother me all that much anymore.

But it does worry me that more than 6000 people liked this... We are in a literacy crisis so grave, it's not even funny. Paired with the massive parasocial hateboner that people have for Brian.... This is what you get.

It reminds me of when I first got into Queen and Maycury after watching a simple gig of theirs and noticing the chemistry of Brian and Freddie.. I still recall the feeling of surprise when I googled their relationship and saw they apparently hated each other 😭 I really don’t know how that narrative started, do you have an idea or breakdown?

First things first: I love how Brian was the only band member who was on board with Freddie's insane video concept, lmao. You can see it in the photos from that day, too. Brian's all smiley. Roger and John look like two middle schoolers forced to pose for their mother on the first day of school. But I digress.

—

The misconceptions about Freddie and Brian's relationship are one of the biggest mysteries in the fandom, I think. It doesn't make any sense to me. It never did. I had the exact same experience as you. One of my first introductions to Queen was the Live Aid performance. After watching that, I was intrigued by Freddie and Brian's dynamic. They seemed really close to me right off the bat. Then I went online and found out that they... hated each other??? That Brian is actually a secret homophobe??? (Source: Trust Me Bro!)

The saddest Queen song (with Freddie) has to be Mother Love. It has to be. Freddie's final high note is breathtaking and heartbreaking. It just pierces you. And the whole song is tinged with this... clinging. That's the only way I can describe it. Freddie's clinging to life. Clinging to music. And Brian, as he sings the last verse, clings to the memory of Freddie by evoking the rise and fall of his voice.

It kills me.

This is a randomly deep ask, but I kinda dig it?

The short answer is: Yes.

The slightly longer answer is: Yes. But not in the way you might think. I'm not a religious person by any means, and I don't believe in any sort of biblical afterlife.

It was posted on March 7 I believe and here’s the link to a youtube short if you haven’t seen it yet :))

https://youtube.com/shorts/yOJyz2ryI7o?si=hwMrPB-em4ex1wvv

I don't know if he flinches. But, to me, it certainly looks like he's thinking, "Oh. Dear. That one? Really? Okay."

I really appreciate this follow-up, anon. Thank you <3

I understand being angry at how the movie portrayed Freddie and how audiences have responded to it. I, too, get pissed off whenever my mom suggests that Freddie was difficult to work with, and I think it's really important that we all try to counter that narrative.

I think the movie is dogshit. I think it leaned too heavily into the representation of Freddie that can be found in the British tabloid press. It's important to remember that Freddie's character has been misrepresented before BoRhap, and while the movie certainly didn't help, his character would've been continuously misrepresented regardless, simply because he was a successful gay man. Ultimately, this is not Brian and Roger's fault. But it's so much easier to be angry at them than to be angry at the systems that actually made this film a reality.

Okay, first things first. I don't like the movie, and I haven't watched it in years. I also haven't really talked about it on this blog, so here's my take:

All of the band members are written poorly in it. They're all incredibly one-dimensional. In my opinion, Freddie is actually given the most depth since he's the main focus of the film. He's presented as an abrasive, inspirational, and deeply lonely man. Your criticism of how he's presented is valid, though. His negative sides are definitely exaggerated for dramatic effect... because this is a Hollywood Film (derogatory).

Roger is a hot-headed ladies' man who's snarky sometimes. That's it.

John has like... Three lines... and he could be replaced with a cardboard cutout. No one would notice tbh.

Brian is soft-spoken and makes heart eyes at Freddie. That's his entire character.

Like??? THEY'RE ALL WRITTEN TERRIBLY. The other band members come across as accessories to Freddie, and that also allows the narrative to be so easily interpreted as "Freddie was a tyrant and the other three were angels." No. Actually, the truth is that the narrative does Freddie a disservice by flattening him and his lifelong friends into maddeningly uninteresting caricatures of themselves.

—

Now, with that out of the way, I have to be completely honest with you. I think it's deeply unserious and messed up to question Roger and Brian's loyalty/love for Freddie over this fuckass movie. It's crucial that we try to separate fact from fiction here.

Fact: Roger and Brian (and John, who also greenlit this movie btw) knew Freddie for 20 years. They lived with him. They toured the world with him. They supported him as he found himself as a gay man in a deeply homophobic era. They rallied around him when he was diagnosed with AIDS. They were his escape and his second family while he was actively dying.

Fiction: Well, um, I—actually, I think they might've secretly hated him because..., uh, the movie that... the movie that they had no real control over made Freddie look less than favorable.

I'm sorry, anon. But I'm not gonna pretend that this isn't what you sound like. It sounds like you're devaluing some of the most important and enduring friendships in Freddie's life because you didn't like a movie. Because that's exactly what you're doing. And to me it's so insanely unserious.