Hyperfixation: A Queer Fandom Podcast

We return to the Roots of Chaos series with the newest book Among the Burning Flowers by Samantha Shannon. It's the shortest, most accessible, but also the least gay book — through the bar is very, very high for this series.  Episodes We Mentioned: The Priory of the Orange Tree A Day of Fallen Night Dragon Age: Inquisition Queerness in Xena: Warrior Princess Season 1 The Vampire Lestat Sunris...

Because Cal needed to, we discuss the romance in the Kingdom Come Deliverance games between Hans and Henry. It might not be historically accurate but it holds an important place in queer video game history and received a lot of weird backlash. Episodes We Mentioned:  Queerness in Xena: Warrior Princess Baldur’s Gate 3 Republic Commando: Hard Contact The Priory of the Orange Tree Interview with the...

Hyperfixiation starts the fourth season of Xena: Warrior Princess. Gabrielle is dead, Xena makes some wild choices, and so much plot and CGI spinning ghosts are introduced in Adventures in the Sin Trade. Then we return to regular Xena for A Family Affair, one of Marika's favorite episode.  Our Other Xena Episodes:   Queerness in Xena: Warrior Princess Season 3 Part 4 (of 4) Queerness in Xena:...

Hyperfixation revisits the Interview with the Vampire franchise with Cal making Bret and Marika read a book. Lestat has a boyfriend and a weird relationship with his mom. The book recons, sets up the universe, and numerous vampires show up to monologue about their backstories. Episodes We Mention: Interview with the Vampire Interview with the Vampire: Season 2 Ep. 1-4 Interview with the Vampire: S...

Marika makes the Hyperfixation gang wrap up our discussion of Xena's third season with the gayest episode possible and the two part finale, which also manages to be pretty gay. Xena and Gabrielle are confessing their love to each other in a barn, being totally OK with dying for each other, and being too gay for a 90s genre show.  Our Other Xena Episodes: Queerness through Xena: Warrior Prince...

Thank you for attending Cal's Ted Talk about Dragon Age 2 and revolutionary media. We discuss the way Dragon Age 2 handles Anders choices throughout the game and compare it to Andor and that show’s view on rebellion and rebellious acts. Our Other Dragon Age Episodes: Dragon Age: The Masked Empire Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights Dragon Age: Redemption and Absolution Dragon Age: Inquisition

Coming to you from District 12 (probably), the Hyperfixation gang talks about Sunrise on the Reaping, the fifth Hunger Games book. Haymitch is much more chatty than Katniss was, the movie casting is great, and this book has a lot to say about rebellion and fascism. 

Literally years in the making, the Hyperfixation gang finishes the Aftermath series. Sinjir and Jas don't spend that much time together as the Empire ends while Han and Leia take up too much time. Norra acts like a doofy child, Sloane makes odd choices, and Mon Mothma fits very well into her Andor canon. Episode We Mentioned: Aftermath: Life Debt Part 3 Aftermath: Life Debt Part 2 Aftermath:...

The Hyperfixation gang returns to Xena for Maternal Instincts and The Bitter Suite, the peak but not the end of The Rift. A lot of serious stuff happens in Maternal Instincts and The Bitter Suite is very 1990s musical episodes. Episode We Mentioned: Queerness in Xena: Warrior Princess Season 3 Part 1 (of 4) Queerness in Xena: Warrior Princess Season 3 Part 2 (of 4) Andor: Season 2 The Finale Arc I...

The Hyperfixation gang actually watches and talks about Brokeback Mountain, a movie we grown up hearing jokes about but never saw. Cal explains the historical context for the film, its Oscar snub, and the need for all types of queer representation. Episodes We Mentioned: Queerness through Xena Warrior Princess: Season 2 Part 1 Patience and Sarah The Matrix Song of Achilles Andor: Season 2 Arc 2

We talk about the fantastic end to Andor. Cassian and Melshi are roommates, the hairdresser on Yavin is terrible, Kleya and Vel might be gay, and nobody knows where Saw is. Our Other Andor Episodes: Andor: The Premiere Arc Andor: The Aldhani Arc Andor: The Prison Arc Andor: Finale Predictions Andor: The Season One Finale Andor: Season 2 Arc 1 Andor: Season 2 Arc 2 Andor: Season 2 The Ghorman Arc R...

Fascists decide to fascist as Ghorman erupts into chaos, Cassian makes numerous hard choices, Mon flees Coruscant, Syril goes full incel, and the Hyperfixation gang decides to keep Liz around.  Episode We Mentioned: Andor: Season 2 Arc 1 Andor: Season 2 Arc 2 Rogue One (Recorded before Andor) Andor: Season 1 Finale Andor: The Prison Arc Andor: The Aldhani Arc Andor: The Premiere Arc The Mandaloria...

After a brief pause and replacing Cal's spouse for Marika's, we are talking about the second arc of season two of Andor. This is a strange arc that started weird but stuck the landing very well despite what it did to Vel and Cinta.  Minors spoilers for the rest of season two of Andor.  Episodes We Mentioned: Andor: Season 2 Arc 1 Republic Commando: Triple Zero Part 1 Chapter Nineteen: Th...

Hyperfixation returns to Star Wars to talk about the first arc of season two of Andor. Cassian gets trapped by some disorganized rebels, which is saying something. Mon and our Ferrix crew are going through a lot. And we focus too much on our queer women and their  limited screen time. Episodes We Mentioned: Andor: The Premiere Arc Andor: The Aldhani Arc Andor: The Prison Arc (the original) Andor:...

In anticipation for season two of Andor, we are re-releasing our episode about the Prison Arc of season one of Andor from back when we were Briikasak: A Mandalorian Podcast. There isn't much queerness for how our podcast is now but Marika was still too focused on the lesbians. Our Andor Episodes: Andor: The Premiere Arc Andor: The Aldhani Arc Andor: The Prison Arc (the original) Andor: Finale...

The gang expresses our views about musicals as we talk about Epic: The Musical, an online, musical adaption of The Odyssey. Cal and Marika make lots of connections to modern era musicals as Bret has extensive knowledge of The Odyssey and Greek Mythology.  Episodes We Mentioned: The Song of Achilles Carmilla: The Web Series Kaos Patience and Sarah Queerness in Xena: Warrior Princess Season 1 Nimona...

In possibly Hyperfixation's most lesbian episode, Marika makes the gang talk about Patience and Sarah by Isabel Miller. It's a historical fiction novel from 1967 about two lesbians, loosely based on real women, in 1816 who fall in love and attempt to navigate that. There is a lot of early American history, religion, and feminist overtones.  TW: Domestic violence, sexual assault Episodes...

A theme emerges eventually but for most of the episode enjoy Cal smashing two seemingly unrelated queer movies together, Alfred Hitchcock's Rope from 1948 and The Birdcage from 1996 starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane. Rope is fun and strange. We all have strange and conflicted childhood memories about The Birdcage, but we know Val sucks.  Episodes We Mentioned: Interview with the Vampire...

Hyperfixation continues our book club moment with Cal's favorite book Song of Achilles from 2011. These Ancient Greek gay boys are horny and fighting in the Trojan War. Cal and Bret know a lot about The Iliad and Marika was a lesbian about the Troy movie from 2004. Episode We Mentioned: The Priory of the Orange Tree Queerness in Xena: Warrior Princess Season 1 Kaos A Day of Fallen Night Castl...

The gang talks about the new season of Castlevania: Nocturne. Our hero team is mostly split, but the animation is amazing, Maria gets multiple dads, our straights get together, and we talk a lot about Olrox and Mizrak despite their incredibly limited screen time. Episode We Mentioned: Castlevania: Nocturne Season 1 Castlevania: The Netflix Series The Priory of the Orange Tree Interview with the Va...

Marika finally makes the gang talk about The Priory of the Orange Tree, the first Roots of Chaos series book by Samantha Shannon but the second one the gang's read. The excellent world building continues. There's an old sad gay man, queer women Marika are obsessed with, and another ace/aro character. TW: depression, alcoholism, miscarriages, and mentions of suicide Episodes We Mention: A...

Cal makes the Hyperfixation gang talk about A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows from 2022, a fantasy romance with the most trigger warnings. Marika and Bret find the audiobook bad, there is a rather violent rape rather early on, but eventually the books gets to good queer world building and fun fanfic troupes. Trigger Warning: Rape, sexual assault, and suicidal ideations Episodes We Me...

After mentioning The Priory of the Orange Tree about 100 times, Marika makes the gang talk about A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon, the other Roots of Chaos series book. We are here, we are queer, we are raising kids, and we are fighting wyrms. There are numerous sapphics, an ace/aro character, and some background gay bois. Episodes We Mention: Fallout: The Amazon Series Dragon Age: The Ma...

The gang talks about Dragon Age: The Masked Empire, the tie-in book for Inquisition that also includes a lot of the lore that appears in Veilguard. This series is good at morally grey characters and interesting lesbians. Celene might be the average mainstream American Democrat at the moment and it makes all of us sad. MAJOR spoilers for Dragon Age: The Veilguard (because Bret wouldn't shut up...

The Hyperfixation gang returns to Xena for some terrible ancient Chinese mysticism, but also a lot of very textual queerness in the two-parter "The Debt." Marika loves these episodes and Lao Ma despite all these problems. Cal is uncomfortable with the Asian mysticism and Bret had finally decided to stop caring about history because it's Xena. Episodes We Mention: Dragon Age: Redempt...