A word about Waylon Boggs

I am so surprised at these takes…it would makes things so boring and one dimensional if “evil” people had only evil traits and has never done good, and “good” people vice versa, that would just be poor character writing. Secondly, as a someone who is a minority in multitude of ways, I do an eye roll everytime I hear people angry that there exists a flawed minority character. I get why it solicits such negative response, but there is a HUGE difference between a complex and realistically written character (i.e. they have flaws) vs one who is just a simple caricature of a stereotype. Part of achieving full representation involves the process of normalization; we need representation across the entire spectrum of characters, both good and bad.

Sheep

Thank you for addressing this nonsense directly and decisively. Y'all have created such an immersive world that I have loved coming back to again and again. I was so pleased to have Waylon experience a moment of joy with his handsome soldier, even though it seems it will be ending in heartbreak. Damn dog... Much love family!

Matt Rockwood

I adored seeing Wayland's younger self. As someone who's dealt with abuse: i think it was handled well. People arent black and white. People also change. No where ive seen have you glorified or made excuses for abuse. Y'all write people as complex characters and thats a big parta why your work is so good. It irks me when people act like the only people capable of abuse have been horrid mosters at every point of their lives. Everyone is capable of abuse. And pretending otherwise only hurts survivors. Edit: i also really appreciate y'all directly shutting down this kinda stuff.

I was wondering how glory Ann wound up with someone she thought was a bad man. And this explains it perfectly. I would definitely love to hear about his slow slide into darkness.

Steve and Cam your ability to create a story with so much depth, and portray a character that shows humanity isn't just black and white, is phenomenal. Just because Waylon is killed later on and portrayed as he was, doesn't mean that he started that way. Clearly these characters have been through some shit! Glory ann seemed sweet as tea and evolved into a bad ass through the stories. Each character is extremely well written, and bring life to the stories. As a mixed race straight male with a 14 yr daughter finding her self in the LBGTQ community, I find your fearlessness to touch on so many controversial subjects a breath of fresh air. I can't get enough of OGoA, and pray that one day it becomes a TV series. Thank you so so very much for your creativity and dedication to this university! You and the staff are phenomenal and I support you fully.

I’m sitting here wondering how Waylon went from this sweet man to how Mercy describes him later, but to think of him as a monster? And….bi? How did that play into this struggle with his wife…. I am so sucked into this story

Here, Here!!

Steve and cam, thank you for not only creating complex characters, showing their flaws, but also bringing in LGBTQ+ characters while also not making the sexuality of said characters their only trait. The stories y’all tell are perfectly imperfect and it’s everything i want in a story

I love how the characters in these stories are multi-dimensional. We are all more than one thing and should not be defined by a single point in our lives (aka stories). What I'm trying to say is that the writing is simply superb.

Charity Robinson

As a bisexual woman myself who stumbled my way into that realization and fell into a relationship just like Waylon seemed to - it was such a breath of fresh air to see my experiences represented as they were ... and not as an earth shattering revelation, but just something that IS. Bisexual men exist. Bisexual women exist. Bisexual PEOPLE exist. Thank you Steve, Cam and the whole team for this gift 💗 and thank you Family for coming and surrounding us with community. Love y'all!

Katelynn

I assumed he was bisexual and was excited to see representation. There is so much erasure. I enjoy this podcast so much and have a crying on Marcy Walker who I have never seen. <3 As a bit woman I salute you

I have to say that the appearance of biphobia, or indeed any phobia at all, in this otherwise lovely, inclusive family of a fandom is a bit disheartening, but that's just the way of the world, I guess. Other than that, I think the way that Waylon is fleshed out here is waay more compelling in terms of storytelling than just having him be a born shithead, full stop. There are already so, so many running themes in the overall narrative about how those who do harm don't always mean to. All those heartbreaking instances of people who have been traumatised so deeply that they end up cracking, and harming others are so deeply embedded in this story's soul already, so it makes sense. To be clear, I also think it's good to have a couple of folks who are unambiguously malicious to offset that, like the Barrows.

Christian Friis Jensen