In my earlier essay about the Sapphic fantasy film, when last I looked at Terminator: Dark Fate, I wrote this:
It’s fairly obvious, on that note, that the “mommyzoning” scene, as fandom calls it, was a late addition to the script. It’s like someone at the studio got spooked that the palpable connection between Dani and Grace looked so absolutely romantic, so they threw in a clumsy last minute “no homo.” It didn’t really work, if the fandom (and the actresses) is any indication; the powers that be couldn’t stop us from rubbing our greedy gay* hands all over Dani/Grace. (And for that matter, either or both plus Sarah.)
Now, it was drift partner’s birthday this week, so at her request we watched Dark Fate again, because it’s a great movie and she loves it aggressively. I couldn’t help but look at the whole movie specifically through the lens of that conspiracy, that the scene where Grace (Mackenzie Davis) tells Dani (Natalia Reyes) that in the future “You saved me and you raised me and you taught me to hope” was a late addition designed to tamp down the potential gay vibes, and I have decided to collect the evidence in a post.
I have no way of knowing if this is true, but I genuinely and wholeheartedly believe it. It’s something we’ve seen time and again. Take Sailor Moon. In the original Japanese version, Michiru and Haruka are lesbians. This is mostly implicit in the third season, but when they return in the fifth it’s unavoidably obvious. I knew this as a child before the third season even aired in America, thanks to fan sites, and I remember my mom wondering how they were going to handle it when the third season’s airing was announced. Clumsily, is how. They decided to say that Michiru and Haruka were cousins.
Full story here.