Kulturkampf

[benji]

Rubble & Crew, a spin-off of Nickelodeon’s smash-hit kids’ show Paw Patrol, has dropped an episode with the franchise’s first nonbinary character (and first confirmed LGBTQ character overall), written by Lindz Amer of Queer Kid Stuff.

In the episode “The Crew Builds an Observatory,” bulldog Rubble and his construction crew of builder pups meet human skateboarder River (voiced by nonbinary actor Cihang Ma), who’s new in town. River (who reads as Asian) loves taking photos and wants to photograph a shooting star that’s whizzing by that night. River asks for Rubble’s help in building an observatory. The crew encounters obstacles along the way, but (spoiler!) perseveres and completes the job just in time for River to grab the shot.

The episode’s writer, Lindz Amer, is the creator of Queer Kid Stuff, which launched in 2016 as an LGBTQ+ and social justice webseries, and now offers a variety of LGBTQ-inclusive resources, storytimes, and more for kids and their adults. They’re also the author of the terrific Rainbow Parenting: Your Guide to Raising Queer Kids and Their Allies

Amer explained on Instagram, “I wanted to write a nonbinary character that was aspirational and incredibly cool, someone for the pups (and kids at home) to look up to. They found an awesome non-binary actor to voice River and I’m so so happy about how it turned out.”

The motivation for creating the character came from the show’s permanent team, who then asked Amer to help. Amer told me in a direct message that they said I could share:
I was brought on as a consultant initially because they wanted to develop a nonbinary character and I let them know I’m a writer as well so I could script the character. So I did a little bit more than a typical freelance writer. Talking about what the character will be like, naming the character, looking at character design, all of that in addition to outlining, scripting, and going through notes and revisions.

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

https://web.archive.org/web/20200612190105/https://twitter.com/lindzamer/status/1271489940673769472