#and of course even if friends couldn’t do traditionally romantic/sexual things with each other

[heartless-aro]

It is very important to criticize the “Why does everything have to by gay? Can’t they just be friends?” attitude that homophobes have towards gay characters, but it’s possible to do that without saying things like “This character literally did xyz for the other. Friends wouldn’t do that!” or “But character A says character B is the most important person in their life! There’s no way that’s platonic!” or even things like “Actually, they should have sex with each other instead of being ‘just friends.’” Whatever it is you think that friends can’t do, they can. Friends can think of each other as the most important person in their lives. Friends can go through pain for each other, risk their safety for each other, be physically affectionate, rely on each other, and die for each other. Friends can share beds, kiss, or have sex.

Friendship is not a tier below romance.

[reachgirl]

My thoughts on “Buddie”

 1. I think if Fox could realize that sometimes you can’t *plan* for chemistry, it just happens, and when it does it’s magic and you need to let it play out, they would be so far ahead of the curve of other shows and fans beyond their core audience would take notice.  The material IS there to defend it actually happening against claims that they just bowed down to the shippers.

2. On the one hand, I believe that the writers are very deliberately writing a lot of subtext and the directors are leaving in scenes where the actors are making certain choices, both Ryan/Oliver and Peter/Kenneth/Aisha/JLH. But is it just as a “shout out” to the Buddie shippers, or an actual deliberate effort to make a point of how close they are and how dependent they’ve become on their relationship?

3. I’ve talked before how I think deciding on your character’s sexuality before you actually write them out for a while just doesn’t make for believable humanity based on reality. If we’re looking at these two examples, 

Buck has been written in a way that could very well make him bi/pan and not everybody who is and is secure in their identity will go and talk about it constantly. I would also like to remind everyone that bi does not mean you have to stick to a certain quota, like keep your relationships 50/50 male/female. There are many people who are bi who tend to end up in more relationships/even just sexual ones with one gender, and that doesn’t make them less bi or pan. So just because we have only seen him have female love interests during the show, there are some scenes (”Your man crush on Eddie”/”I’m not setting you up with my brother/Hey Now”) that could be interpreted to mean that might not always have been the case, Maddie being the one who would have been there to witness it. We also see Buck not really caring about the social conventions - not only of who he dates - he is consistently written as meeting every person he meets on eye level - even making sure the guy who stole his identity to catfish women wouldn’t lose his dignity in death, but also romantically, we can see him building a connection with Abby through the phone first and falling in love with her as a person, and not caring about her being quite a lot older.

Eddie, and I’ve written about this before, is a little bit of an enigma. Again, we have only seen him in one relationship, and while it doesn’t seem like it was the happiest of marriages, in the end it really did seem like he loved Shannon and wanted to make it work. Up until Ms. Florez we have also seen him almost making a point of not looking to date (”They’re not my type”/”You didn’t set me up, did you?”), and that is pretty much all we know about him. Again, the fact that he was married to a woman and once flirted with one briefly, does not prove or disprove anything. He grew up in Texas, in latino culture, and spent a good amount of his formative years in the US Army, all of these can traditionally be quite conservative. From personal experience even I have seen many people who grew up in conservative environments fall in line with the expectations set for them by their communities (often very early, and Eddie and Shannon did get married quite young), especially if their community doesn’t provide a lot of LGBTQ-visibility or role models. Yes, Eddie does “act” straight, whatever that means and whether that is an actual concept, but the way he behaves in a lot of scenes with Buck, and I’ll get back to this in point 8., could be interpreted in other ways.

4. TV today has gotten a lot better at showing LGBTQ relationships that aren’t a) just on the sidelines b) serving as collateral emotional damage to drive the plot or c) are written in a way that is basically just taking a hetero-couple-storyline and casting two people of the same gender in it. I am worried that they think they can’t do the “coming out later in life” storyline again with Buddie because they already have Michael (which brings me back to point 1. Let the damn magic happen when it’s right in front of your eyes), and they can’t have another main cast LGBTQ character - or two - because they already have Hen (and Karen). Obviously these are not valid reasons, look at other shows like 911 Lone star for representation within the main cast, but of course, this is a double edged sword because there is a concern that they gave us 911 Lone Star to do what they wouldn’t or couldn’t do with the original. (On a side note, Owen Strand is the fairy godfather of Texas and I live for that show)

5. Parallels. This has been talked about a lot, and there are much better posts about it than this one. But writers aren’t stupid, or careless, so I do believe that to a certain extent they’re aware of how they are setting up parallels between Buck and Eddie’s love lives. We have them agreeing to “have each other’s backs” in contrast to Shannon telling Eddie that he never had hers. We have Eddie telling Buck that there is no one he trusts more with Christopher than him, while he makes it clear that while he thinks he can forgive Shannon, he doesn’t think he can trust her. We had Shannon coming back just as Buck decides to leave Abby behind finally, and we had Ali showing up when Shannon dies, and now Ana when the writers point out how single Buck is.

6. Themes. The episode themes in 9-1-1 are kinda like horoscopes, they’re meant to be able to work for multiple storylines and connect all the main characters through one focus. But we’ve seen a lot of themes surrounding family or trust or love that have an obvious connection to a Buddie moment on the show. Chosen Family. Home. Being able to trust your partner. Seizing the day. And even when it’s something that doesn’t immediately connect the two, the scenes are cut in a way that imply there’s a connection, like Eddie telling Chim to tell Maddie he loves her, because tomorrow isn’t promised. Chim calls Maddie to invite her to dinner to finally do this, and right before this we see Eddie asking Buck to lunch - this is probably just a coincidence, right? But we can be sure that the director, writers and cutters were aware of this, and made the choice to do it this way, for whatever reason. Because this is their exact job, telling stories through how they cut scenes together. 7. Christopher. So this might be what makes Buddie a little more unique compared to the, admittedly, dozens of other seemingly “straight bromances” that people have shipped. Most scenes we get with Buck and Eddie that are outside of work, involve Chris in some way. It’s probably safe to say that part of the reason they became so close is because Buck and Chris have a connection that I would wager goes beyond what most friends have with their single-dad-friend’s kid. We see how important Buck becomes in Christopher’s life, and vice versa, pretty much a few episodes after they meet for the first time. Eddie trusts Buck with Chris’ life, and he trusts him with any problems relating to Christopher that he needs to work through. Buck’s his sounding board for his role as a parent, which is interesting considering Eddie has other friends at the 118 that actually are parents? *cough* Chosen family *cough*

8. Closeness. As I said above, sometimes writers plan one storyline, but the magic happens somewhere they didn’t expect, and if that is the case, and you want to be faithful to your characters, you should seize that opportunity. I think we can all agree this is one of those cases where the chemistry is just off the charts. There are long looks, there is a lot of being in sync, there’s constant physical contact when they’re sitting or walking next to each other. Personal space, who? Again, this is something the director could discourage, or use a take that didn’t have Buck grab his belt buckle and invading Eddie’s personal space in his own kitchen, but they decided on this take. They decided on the take of Eddie clearly checking out Buck’s behind and Chim noticing. Now Buck seems to be pretty comfortable with closeness anyway, but Eddie isn’t the most touchy guy with anyone else, so this is noticeable. And it works.

9. Look. Somebody sat down and wrote “You want to go for the title?” and I would pay a lot of money to see the stage directions on that script because holy fuck. There’s a lot of info in their exchanges - and it implies that there are lots of moments that these two talk that we don’t get to see - Buck immediately knows about Eddie and Ana, and he knew about the situation with Shannon too (and didn’t hide his jealousy very well). When they don’t talk, it clearly gets to Eddie, who doesn’t have that many other people he really trusts and can open up to. Cue “husbands fighting in the supermarket”. But what’s also interesting to me is that their dynamic involves a lot of Eddie teasing Buck. “Exoskeleton” “Aren’t you still in that phase?” “You would have talked me into buying a more expensive one”.. and Eddie sometimes uses it to keep their conversations from getting into dangerous, emotional territory, like during the kitchen scene. And I don’t know about y’all, but that sounds like something I’ve done before when I knew there was something to get into, and I just didn’t know how or when. 

_______________________________________

Wow I could keep going but this is already so long. I’m so sorry everyone. But I figured we all now have two weeks so we have time to do a lot of reading ��Thanks everybody for reminding me about the things that do make it seem like Buddie is an actual possibility, because most of the time, I have to admit, I’m like 70/30 against the hope of it becoming reality. Long live fanfiction! In conclusion, please make it happen, or explain all the choices you have made. YOU CAN’T! 

[sexywmatsui48]

Acceptance | Chapter 1

Sequel to my previous OS.

Jurina was not any ordinary girl; that’s something Akane soon discovered when she met the 22 years old girl at the strip club. After now working as a stripper for a little more than two years, Akane could state she had met many and various sorts of clients. Shy, chatty, bold, confident; there was not one type of men Akane had not crossed path with at least once in her field of work. When she met Jurina, she had real difficulty placing her in one of those categories. Not only was Jurina a girl – a gender you would very rarely see visiting the club - she had that mysterious aura surrounding her that made her hard to decipher.

Jurina had been coming to the club for weeks, and always followed the same routine. As soon as she entered the place, she would occupy the same small table located in a secluded area of the club, and sip drinks while watching the girls dancing on stage. Never once since her arrival, had she done anything else but watch. Traditionally, clients would tip girls they appreciated the performance, or ask some private time with the one they favored the best. Jurina was one of the exceptions. During all this time, Akane never saw her calling a girl to her table, or asked to get a private show in one of the many rooms upstairs.

Her behavior was unconventional, and Akane found herself often glancing her way, intrigued by the charming yet silent girl who always came alone at the club. One day, her curiosity led her to finally make the first step and walk to her table. The girl was definitely caught off guard by her sudden interest in her, and didn’t waste time to announce she wasn’t interested in what she had to offer.

Despite the firm yet polite rejection, Akane refused to turn around. It wasn’t like her to be so insistent – she preferred letting other more seductive girls use that card on potential clients – but somehow, she wanted to pierce the secret that represented that strange visitor. In that intent, she decided to change strategy when she understood a direct approach wasn’t going anywhere, and opted for a more casual conversation as she took a seat next to her.

This strategy paid off.

Her interlocutor certainly didn’t prove to be one of the most talkative clients she had met. In fact, the first nights, Akane ended up doing most of the talking. Akane could tell the other girl was quite private, and was very careful with what she accepted to share about her own personal life. Nevertheless, as the weeks passed, the girl called Jurina - whom she discovered was only four years younger than her - ended up opening up to her progressively.

Since Akane started working at the club, she had established a clear line between her work and her personal feelings. Her job required of her to be flirty and friendly with her clients, and she always made sure no confusion was possible between them, and they didn’t misinterpret the nature of their relationship. With her newest feminine client, the line was sometimes a little blurry.

Jurina - who she discovered was studying architecture - was interesting, nice and sometimes even amusing. Amongst all her regular clients, she had no difficulty admitting she was the one she enjoyed spending the most time with. They talked about various subjects, amongst which Jurina’s studies, interests and hobbies, with frequent mentions of her roommate and closest friend Mayu Watanabe.

However, there was one subject in particular that made her very uncomfortable: her love life. Indeed, during all their conversations, Jurina avoided cleverly talking about it. It didn’t take long for Akane to deduce Jurina’s heart was not taken, and more than a few times she asked herself how such a thing was possible. She didn’t find anything wrong with her to justify such loneliness.

Considering how secretive Jurina proved to be, Akane ended up believing she would never discover the reason. However, everything changed that particular Saturday evening when, after far too many drinks, the beverage managed to loosen her tongue. Yes, Jurina liked to drink, but never had Akane seen her so tipsy. In fact, Akane was almost about to kindly suggest her to go home and rest, when the other girl suddenly blurted out what was troubling her mind.

Apparently, Mayu was getting really serious with someone she had met in college - a girl named Yuki – and Jurina was feeling guilty for envying her best friend’s love life so much. Akane listened to her in bewilderment, wondering why she kept repeating constantly that she was too different, and therefore would never find happiness.

Believing it was just the alcohol speaking, Akane tried to cheer her up. There was no use being so pessimistic, especially when she was still very young. She couldn’t quite recall how it happened but, at one point during her little attempt to comfort her, she felt the other girl suddenly grabbing her hand, and placing it below her waist.

Startled by the unexpected gesture, Akane was about to pull her hand away, when she felt a very unusual form underneath her palm. When she realized progressively what it was she widened her eyes and gazed back at the other girl, meeting immediately her desperate look. That’s when everything made sense.

After that night, Akane realized Jurina was even more atypical. Their next meetings could have been very awkward considering the shocking discovery she had made, but Akane didn’t find herself that bothered by Jurina’s physical difference. If you put aside that aspect of her appearance, her personality had not changed. She was still the same nice and charming person she had met a month ago.

One evening, after mulling it over in her head for several days, she decided to make Jurina an offer. It was a special service she provided to a few of her regular clients, and that went way beyond her normal activities as a stripper. Unfortunately, she didn’t make enough money just by working at the club, so it was an extra she offered to help her go through the month. No, she definitely wasn’t the only girl working at the club and providing such a service. Even though they would never advertise it out loud, it was an open secret that a few of them also accepted to sleep with clients.

Akane would always remember the baffled look on Jurina’s face when she understood what she was suggesting. She was so hesitant, that it took quite some convincing to drag her into one of the rooms upstairs. When Akane indicated her to take a seat on the bed and started undressing, one simple glance at her was enough to tell the other girl was feeling a little ill-at-ease. Despite it, Akane never felt like she was forcing her. If Jurina truly didn’t want this, she wouldn’t have allowed her to insist, and would have put an end to her advances very fast.

That night, she added Jurina to her list of special clients. It wasn’t hard to guess the latter hadn’t had many sexual experiences. In fact, she was the one who did most of it, guiding her during the process and showing her what to do. When the private session was over and they laid naked side by side, Akane predicted this wasn’t going to be a one-time thing. Despite being initially a little reluctant, Jurina had warmed up progressively and in the end, had definitely enjoyed their time together.

That night was the first one of a very long list. For the following six months, this little arrangement between them continued. Akane never had a client so inexperienced before, but she didn’t mind. Jurina was a fast-learner, and in constant search of ways to improve. The younger girl always listened to every piece of advice she would give, and was very attentive to the way her body reacted to her touch.

During the course of those six months, they experimented many different things. Akane never refused any request from clients, even when it came under the form of a fetishism or a sexual position she wasn’t personally fond of. However, for some reason she still couldn’t fathom, Jurina always seemed to sense her reluctance when it came to those cases, as she never asked to do it again afterwards.

Maybe that was what she appreciated the most about this specific female client. All her other clients merely paid attention to their own needs, and would only stop once they were fully satisfied. Jurina was the opposite. Not only was she very considerate, she was adamant on making the pleasure mutual.

Albeit the fact Akane was pretty much used to this aspect of her personality by now, it still managed to catch her off guard from time to time. She was providing a service in exchange of money: her sole duty was to fulfill her clients’ demands obediently. Her opinion and personal dislikes were not in any way relevant. Once in the bedroom, it was mechanical, and she simply did as she was told without arguing.

When Jurina was involved, she lost her usual points of reference. The younger girl was so different from others; she made her feel respected. Sometimes, when she was even very gentle or decided to cuddle with her afterwards, it would have been easy to confuse her touch with the one of a lover.

Which they definitely weren’t, and didn’t wish to be.

After all this time, the arrangement remained very clear in their heads, and no line was ever crossed. They knew exactly what to expect of the other. Akane wouldn’t go as far as state that they were friends, even though they shared many things about each other. Apart from those nightly encounters, they never saw each other in broad daylight and even less hang out. Never did her feelings get confused in her head when it came to her relationship with Jurina. They had a profound mutual respect and appreciated each other greatly, but no romantic feelings were shared.

    Tonight, Jurina had requested her presence, and Akane could tell the younger girl was a little stressed about something when she passed the front door of her apartment. A brief look around the quiet place told her Jurina’s roommate was currently away, which was always the case when Jurina asked her to come.

Akane followed her to her bedroom and, as they both started to undress silently, didn’t wait further to question her in curiosity. “You’re nervous tonight. Did something happen?”

“I’m passing an exam tomorrow,” Jurina admitted with a sigh. “A quite important one.”

“I see…” Akane nodded with a knowing smile. So, that’s why she needed her tonight. She did think it was a bit unusual of her to call her in the middle of the week. Most of the time, they saw each other on Friday evenings or during the week-end, as the girl was very busy with her studies during the week.

Akane finished removing all her clothes one by one, before joining the younger girl who was already laying underneath the bedsheet and waiting for her. “Then…” Akane laid beside her, nibbling onto her earlobe teasingly. “I guess I will have to relieve you from all that stress?”

The room plunged into darkness at once and their lips met in a hungry kiss, Akane soon understanding the younger girl had every intention of dominating the situation. The moment after, she was climbing on top of her and Akane relaxed, letting her proceed as she mapped her body with kisses and caresses.

Akane tangled her fingers into her dark locks when she felt Jurina’s hand cupping her breast, a moan escaping her lips when she licked her sensitive bud with her tongue. Faking emotions was very common while in bed with a client; she had done it plenty of times in the past. With Jurina, she didn’t have to because she knew exactly where to touch her to bring her pleasure. One thing was for sure: she had had a very good student. No one else but Jurina could make her body react in such a pleasurable way.  

Jurina applied the same treatment to each breast, not stopping her ministrations until she felt her hardening under her touch. Once she had achieved the desired effect, Akane welcomed the lips that were capturing hers again, her fingertips travelling down the other girl’s back as their tongues rediscovered each other.

It was during those moments that Akane sometimes thought it was a real shame the younger girl refused to let more people enter her life. Sometimes caring and gentle, some others more passionate and wild. No matter what attitude she harbored in bed, she paid real attention to her partner. Unfortunately, the fear of rejection was making her weary of people surrounding her. Her classmates still knew nothing of her physical difference, and she apparently had no intention of telling them.

As for the women working at the strip club, she applied the same logic. Once, Akane had suggested her to try it with another woman for a change – one who also accepted doing extras -  knowing she definitely found one or two other girls attractive. She received a flat refusal. To justify herself, she answered that she didn’t need to sleep with another girl of the club, as she was already plenty satisfied with her.

Her wish to be exclusive could have been really touching, but she didn’t get fooled by it. Deep down, she knew Jurina was only partially telling the truth. She didn’t want to entrust more people with her secret, because she didn’t want to take the risk of reading disgust on their face.

After a little while, the kiss was broken, and Akane fluttered her eyes open when she heard the other girl addressing her. “Are you… ready?”

The question made her pause. After all these months, it still amazed her to hear that question in particular falling from her lips. It was a pattern Jurina observed each time she was about to move to the next level. The first nights, she had to admit the question was welcomed, considering the younger girl was still very inexperienced, and had the tendency of going way too fast.

But didn’t the majority of her clients jumped immediately to the good part anyway, forgetting along the way the importance of foreplay for their partner?

“You already know the answer,” Akane whispered back and caressed her cheek, a smile spreading across Jurina’s features instantly.

Their lips connected for another short kiss, before Akane felt the younger girl maneuvering on top of her and slipping her member inside her sex. She didn’t wait very long to make a few slow thrusts, Akane’s body getting accustomed to the intrusion progressively. When she felt Akane gradually loosening up and adjusting to her member, Jurina’s rhythm eventually increased.

Akane’s arms tightened their hold around Jurina’s neck, her soft moans filling the air as the younger girl kept moving inside her at a steady rhythm. Each thrust was perfectly measured and controlled; result of all the experience she had acquired with her these last six months. The first awkward and clumsy nights together were far long gone. Jurina didn’t need her guidance anymore; she knew exactly what she was doing.

In another life, Akane was convinced she would have made a very good lover.

Akane never dared making any request to clients. They were the ones in charge; her sole role was to follow their lead without a word. However, she knew she could sometimes afford to cross the line when Jurina was involved. The latter’s wish to make the pleasure mutual was always conspicuous. Much as she limited selfish requests, she didn’t hesitate any longer slipping the demand inside Jurina’s ear when the rhythm didn’t quite suit her anymore.  

Akane knew her request got accepted when she felt the younger girl thrusting harder and faster inside her. The pace never weakening, Akane could feel her orgasm growing inside her progressively. It was now a matter of time until she would reach her peak, an information Jurina received well when she felt walls clenching tightly around her sex a few seconds later.

It was quite unusual, but this time Akane was the first to climax. The older girl didn’t try and process why their roles were surprisingly reversed tonight, instead focusing fast on helping her partner reach the similar objective. A few more hard thrusts did the trick, and the mattress stopped shifting as she came inside her.

When she nuzzled her head into her neck to muffle a cry, Akane caressed her hair with affection. Jurina rested her weight on top of her for a little while, until her member slowly softened inside her, and she lifted herself to lay beside her. A comfortable silence enveloped them, Akane’s features darkening progressively when she realized this was probably their last time together.

A few days ago, she had received an unexpected news: her father had fallen very sick. Her parents both lived in Osaka, and – even though she wasn’t on the best terms with her family - Akane didn’t wish to let her mother deal with the difficult situation alone. After all, she was their unique child. That’s why she had made the decision of leaving her current life in Tokyo behind, and move to Osaka. Would it be permanent or not? Akane still didn’t have a clue. However, she knew the circumstances were going to take her away from Tokyo for a very long period of time.

“I’ll miss you...”

Akane tilted her head in surprise at the sound of Jurina’s voice, noting her brown orbs staring back at her. Frankly, there were not many things she was going to miss from her former life in Tokyo. These last two years, she had been working as a stripper at the club. Much as she didn’t mind working there, she couldn’t say she was particularly fond of the job either.

Friends? There was no one she could call as such. She didn’t have any problem with her co-workers, and a few of them were really nice, but their relationship remained strictly professional.

In fact, much as she mulled it over in her head, she realized the girl currently facing her was probably the person she felt the closest to these last six months. After all this time, she still had difficulty describing the nature of their relationship. She wasn’t just a simple client; but she wasn’t a friend or a lover either. So, what were they?

In the end, Akane realized it didn’t really matter. During all that time spent together, she had given the younger girl what she was in the capacity to offer. More than anything, she hoped Jurina would allow herself to open up to more people once she would have left. Because, as she leaned forward and brushed her lips against hers in a tender kiss, she believed her to be completely worth it.

[meeedeee]

Final Fantasy FXV: Thoughts RSS FEED OF POST WRITTEN BY FOZMEADOWS

When I first heard that FFXV was going to break with franchise tradition by having an all-male central team, I was more than a little surprised. Final Fantasy has always been distinguished as much by its memorable – and central – female characters as by any other element; which is why, somewhat paradoxically, I never felt particularly angry about the switch, either. As a whole, video games are still male-dominated in a way that frequently sets my teeth on edge, but Final Fantasy has a strong line of credit with me: whatever my thoughts on the state of gaming as an industry – and while criticism of Square Enix’s decision in this context is nonetheless valid – I felt I could still attempt the game itself.

Thus far, at roughly eight hours in – which is, I’m aware, not very far at all – I’m enjoying myself immensely, though possibly not in a way that was intended. And in order to satisfactorily explain why that is, I first need to say a little about my history with the franchise.

The first Final Fantasy I ever played was VIII, which always made me something of an oddity among my friends: unlike everyone who started the series at VII or earlier, I had no established sense of how the combat system ought to work, and so took the VIII model, which was a widely-hated departure from canon, as my yardstick for the series. This meant I was not only frustrated by the traditional setup used in VII and IX, but irritated by the more cartoonish character designs. Which isn’t to say that I disliked either game, exactly: just that they were always less beloved to me than VIII and, later on, X and XII, whose advanced graphics and combat systems more closely resembled what VIII had been trying – with, admittedly, more ambition than success – to achieve.

Even now, XII remains my favourite Final Fantasy. The writing and voice acting were both incredible, and even though Vaan, rather than Ashe, was the POV character, I loved the departure from canon that made him a non-romantic participant in her narrative. By contrast, XIII was a clusterfuck, so much so that I quickly set it aside as unplayable: the writing was naff, the voice acting melodramatic (with the single exception of Sazh), the premise confused and the combat frustratingly garbled. I couldn’t understand how the best aspects of XII had been so thoroughly disregarded, and as such, I never bothered with the sequel, which makes XV the first new Final Fantasy I’ve played since 2010.

Aesthetically, then, XV is paying a great deal of homage to my favourite games in the series – VIII and XII – which predisposes me to love it. The opening premise of an invading empire and a missing heir to the throne is evocative of both Galbadia and Archadia, with Noctis’s early quest to recover lost weapons from ancient tombs running a close parallel to Ashe’s quest in XII. The fact that Noctis, Prompto, Ignis and Gladio spend the game driving around in a sports car might seem ridiculous on the surface, especially if you’ve got a preference for the airships of VII, IX and XII, but only if you’ve forgotten the convertibles and jeeps of VIII, where driving on the worldmap was also a feature, and where fancy cars were a staple of the more dramatic cutscenes.

In fact, there’s always been something of a roadtrip vibe to a lot of the Final Fantasy games, and not only in terms of the main party journeying thither and yon across multiple fictional worlds. The many flashbacks to Lord Braska’s pilgrimage in X show him broing it up with Auron and Jecht (to whom Gladio bears more than a superficial physical and vocal resemblance), while their decision to sphere-capture their adventures is a clear forerunner to Prompto’s photography. VIII didn’t lack for female characters, but the initial SEED test features a grumpily all-male party, with Squall, Zell and Seifer forced into a temporary alliance. Squall and Zell were always something of an odd pair, but delightfully so, and their dynamic has been revived – and, I’d argue, improved – in the byplay between Noctis and Prompto. Likewise, Ignis’s dry drawl and dryer expression are more than a little reminiscent of Balthier, though his dutiful priorities make him a closer equivalent to Auron and Basch.

In other words, the four protagonists of XV are themselves a homage to the male relationships of previous Final Fantasy games, and quite clearly so. Together, they interact much as you’d expect of a quartet of twentysomething men, joking and snarking at each other in equal measure. The writing and voice acting aren’t as good as XII, but they’re nowhere near the abysmal mess of XIII. I’d peg them as being on par with X: naff at times, but somehow endearingly so, and overall engaging. Granted, the background plot is complex – it helps to have watched the prequel movie, Kingsglaive, and there’s also an accompanying anime series – but part of what makes the quartet watchable is how clearly established their friendship is: we’re getting to know the characters by how they know each other.

As far as the gameplay and levelling systems go, I’ve got no complaints thus far. Even without being able to run through the full tutorial for fighting – my version kept glitching when it came to learning how to warp – I’ve still found it intuitive to use. It’s a dissimilar combat system to most FF games, in that it’s not turn-based, but neither is it as blindingly fast-paced or poorly-designed as the system used in XIII, and the ability to warp to targets makes for some engaging tactical options. It helps that I’ve just come off a huge Dragon Age: Inquisition jag: my preferred approach to combat in both games can best be described as “running in headfirst with a large sword and hitting things until they fall down,” with magic and projectile weapons left on auto until or unless I’m specifically forced to use them. Players who favour different tactics might have more complaints to level here, but for my purposes, it works just fine.

But what I’m really loving about XV is the extent to which – I assume unintentionally – it’s both hilarious and heavily queercoded.

I’ll deal with the latter first, because it’s arguably the more contentious point. Let me be clear: I’m not for one second giving Square Enix props for deliberately creating queer representation here, because I don’t think for a second that it’s what they actually meant to do – or at least, if they’re trying to muddle vaguely in that direction, then they haven’t had the guts to confirm it. Culturally, the lines we draw been homosocial and homosexual behaviour tend to be as historically arbitrary as they are fiercely policed, with any overlap subject to argument on both sides. But cultural differences is, I suspect, a large part of why XV reads the way it does: the game is originally Japanese, and in trying to cater to both Japanese and Western masculine ideals, Square Enix has wandered into what plays as a rather spectacularly queer compromise.

First and most obviously, there’s the wardrobe issue. Clearly, the all-black leather aesthetic is meant to look Manly and Cool and Deeply Heterosexual In A Traditionally Masculine Way, and if the designs were simple, functional and militaristic, then that would probably work, even given the youth and beauty of the characters (more of which shortly). But Final Fantasy, like a great many Japanese properties, is famous for its distinctive clothing designs, which means the characters look less like soldiers and more like scene kids en route to a metal concert. Specifically: Noctis and Prompto look like they shop at Hot Topic, Ignis is wearing Cuban heeled boots, driving gloves and seme glasses (seriously) and Gladio consistently looks like he’s posing for a Grindr photo. Like. I’m aware that he’s meant to be the most hypermasculine  straight male self-identification fantasy of the four, what with the scar and the tattoos and the devastatingly Japanese mullet, but generally speaking, ripped guys in open leather shirts and tight leather pants are more visually reminiscent of Mardi Gras than the military. I’m just saying.

The fact that you can customise their outfits (to a degree), and that picking a new wardrobe changes their stats, isn’t a new development: in fact, it’s something the franchise first introduced with dress spheres in the all-female X-2, which makes its presence in the all-male XV a subtly pleasing symmetry. And yet it runs up against a standard of masculine gaming: changing your armour is one thing, because armour is Manly, but changing your clothes – which, stat bonuses or not, is what we’re functionally talking about – is something else entirely. It’s a truly strange demarcation, because there are plenty of instances where video game characters change outfits of their own accord, in cutscenes or for plot-specific purposes, or where the change represents a specific, all-over upgrade. But the option to alter the appearance of male characters for largely aesthetic reasons – to change how they look to you, the player, in clothes that are recognisably modern and fashionable – is not, I suspect, a common feature of games aimed at heterosexual men, nor is the in-game implication of the characters toting around a bunch of fancy matching outfits a particularly straight-coded thing.

And, okay. Even though we queer folk often telegraph our identities through fashion, there’s a degree of reductive stereotype inherent in judging sexuality on the basis of clothing choice, and if that were the only issue here, I wouldn’t have brought it up. (Except, of course, to point out the truly delightful ridiculousness of watching four goth boys run around the countryside in full club gear, often while complaining about the temperature. It’s like they’re headed for Glastonbury with monsters.) But the queercoding of XV is a package deal: it’s not just the clothes, but the clothes in combination with the characters themselves, the dialogue they’re given, and the way the four of them occupy the game.

Specifically: Final Fantasy is a gaming franchise that’s well aware, historically speaking, of its very large female fanbase. Even though the majority of the games have male protagonists, they’ve traditionally been designed for a straight female gaze – and more, I would argue, a teenage female gaze, given that the characters are usually in their teens or very early twenties – in line with aesthetics more Japanese than Western. Former heroes like Cloud, Squall, Zidane, Tidus and Vaan might be formidable warriors in-game, but they’re never beefed up: they’re overwhelmingly built lean, with much longer, more stylised hair than you typically see on masculine Western characters. They wear jewellery – often visible in their base character designs, and not just as a hidden accessory slot – and offhand, aside from various weird lines around Cloud crossdressing in VII, I can’t think of any real instances of sexism or misogyny from those characters that aren’t actively shut down. In fact, the number of female characters in the earlier games ensures that, in addition to any love interests, the leading men also have platonic female friends – something that’s still damnably unusual in most forms of media, let alone in video games.

All of which, thus far, holds true in XV, too: Princess Lunafreya, Noctis’s intended bride, is his childhood friend, as is Gladio’s sister, Iris. When the game begins, Noctis and his friends are travelling to meet Lunafreya before their (politically arranged) wedding; when everything goes awry because betrayal and empire, they’re forced to regroup and end up hanging out with Iris, who has escaped to the city of Lesallum. That’s where I’m up to so far, and what immediately stands out to me, as someone who spent a not inconsiderable portion of their adolescence and early twenties hanging around single straight guys, is the fact that the quartet barely ever talk about women at all. And the thing is, I can see why it’s been done! Final Fantasy has a heavy female fanbase, and in any case, they’re not the sort of games where the male soldiers sit around reminiscing about sexual conquests. But contextually, because of the way the game is presented – four friends driving and talking shit in real time, mocking each other, while initially on the way to see one of them married – the lack of talk about sex or romance of any kind is jarring.

Which isn’t to say the subject of women never comes up at all; it’s just that, when it does, the overwhelming impression is of dialogue written with a female audience in mind, but without any awareness of the queercoding implications of its delivery by these particular male characters. This means, for instance, that there’s a scene where the boys find a magazine article about Lunafreya’s wedding dress, and all of them start cooing about how beautiful it will be; Ignis notes that the dress is bespoke, designed by Vivienne Westwood, and Prompto starts enthusing about how pretty Lunafreya will look in it. In Hammerhead, the buxom mechanic Cindy, whose character design is clearly meant to please the straight male players, is someone who, in real life, you’d expect a bunch of straight boys on an ostensible stag trip to talk about. Except that they never do; and instead, the one time there’s a reference made to Gladio “chatting someone up,” it turns out to be a grumpily endearing scientist who wants you to go catch some frogs as penance for interrupting her research.

And then there’s Noctis taking a tour of Lestallum with Iris. Throughout this mini-quest, you’re given a set of binary conversational options to either encourage Iris in her enthusiasm for the town, or to disapprove. Then, at the end, she coyly suggests that being on the tour was almost like a date – an assertion you can either play off lightly, or outright deny: pointedly, there is no option to agree. If you deny, she laughs and says “you could at least play along for once,” suggesting that Iris knows Noctis isn’t interested in her and is willing to tease him about it – an odd thing to include, if you don’t want the audience to wonder about his preferences.

A little earlier in the game, Prompto asks Noctis what he ought to take more photos of: apart from declining, the only options are “me” (meaning Noctis), Ignis or Gladio. Again, there’s a gameworld logic to this – the photos are ultimately viewed by the player, who gets to pick which character they want to record the most – but in terms of the impact in setting, this is not an outstandingly heterosexual moment. Very possibly, there exists a group of straight bros whose designated photographer is happy asking, “Hey bro, which of our friends do you want to see more in pictures?” in an established No Homo way, and if so, more power to them. But if you want to find a context where that sort of exchange is an everyday thing, then look no further than the queer regions of Instagram. (Plus, it’s kind of conspicuous how often Prompto, when assessing the day’s photos, comments on how good Gladio the Perpetually Shirtless looks.)

And then there’s the occasional quirks of dialogue and voice acting: choices that, again, would be minor on their own, but which collectively become suggestive of something specific. Early on, Cor sends Gladio, Prompto and Ignis to make a distraction at a military blockade while he and Noctis sneak inside: the gambit is successful, and when the group reunites afterwards, Gladio says cheerfully, “The Niffs couldn’t keep their eyes off us!”. To which Ignis quips, in reference to Noctis and Cor’s arrival, “You spared us their attentions.” Offhand, I can think of about a dozen different ways to word that exchange that don’t remotely brush up against innuendo, and which are far more colloquially and contextually apt besides. The eyes/attentions combo is the kind of thing you’d expect a pair of femme fatales to say after seducing the guards and knocking them out in an action movie. (The fact that we don’t actually witness the initial distraction only adds to its ambiguity.) And yet, this is what they’ve gone with.

Other examples are smaller, but they all add up. Whenever you find new ingredients for Ignis to cook with, he stops to announce, with particular vocal flamboyance, that he’s just thought up a new recipe (exclamation mark!), and whips out a notebook to jot it down. (“I’ll taste test for ya,” Gladio says, in a playfully growling tone that always seems to have one eye on the bedroom.) And then there’s Prompto, who I’m inclined to think of as a confused bisexual puppy, whose voice turns dreamily fanboyish when discussing Cor’s exploits, and who gets just as excited on receiving Cor’s praise as he does at the prospect of seeing Lunafreya in her pretty wedding dress.

Put this all together, then, and what you have are a bunch of young men who are, by Western standards, more pretty than handsome, dressed in fashionable clothes and accessories that are more evocative of queer or queer-friendly subcultures than not, and who care enough about their appearance to have multiple outfits on hand at any given time. (You can, if you’re willing to sacrifice an accessory slot to aesthetics, buy hair gel for them to use.) These men are knowledgeable about fashion, have a platonic concern for the women they encounter, are constantly photographing one another for each other, have zero comments to make about the stupidly hot female mechanic unless they’re praising her competence, and whose idea of “chatting someone up” apparently means “talking to the grumpy frog lady about the local wildlife population”. This isn’t me leaping to conclusions, here: in the immortal words of Buffy Summers, I took a tiny step and there conclusions were.

All of which is a way of saying that, thus far, I’m delighted with Final Fantasy XV, though not in the ways I’d expected. The characters and setting are a homage to my favourite games in the series, and while I worried the absence of female characters would grate on me, our quartet of bumbling chocobros is stupidly endearing. At this point, Noctis is functionally useless as a prince: even when he’s recognised, the local yokels have no qualms about asking him to take their deliveries or run their errands, and while random sidequests are an RPG staple, they’re usually somewhat tailored to the protagonist’s perceived status. In FFXV, everything is rendered hilarious by the fact that Noctis is a prince, and is seen as a prince, and is still being asked to catch frogs in a swamp and grab shit from some random marketeer’s broken van.

(He’s also gloriously introverted: in dealing with people, his responses usually vary from monosyllabic to resigned disinterest, but when you come across a stray cat in need of feeding – a tiny sidequest that’s a deliberate throwback to Squall doing likewise in VIII – he talks to it at greater length and with more enthusiasm than he otherwise displays with anyone.)

As far as I’m concerned, FFXV is a magic road trip with a bunch of queer boys who have their wardrobes together, but not their shit. I can identify. And so, I suspect, can everyone else who’s fallen into the trashpile of this visually beautiful, thematically mishmash game. I honestly don’t care about the random anachronisms, like the fact that they’re carrying smartphones and fighting magic robots, but still using paper maps and newspapers, to say nothing of using a fucking dog as a messenger for vital correspondence through a warzone – or rather, I do care, but only because the clear discontinuity of it somehow plays as a feature instead of a bug. The entire thing ought to be ridiculous, and it kind of is, but pleasingly so, like a cat in a Halloween costume. The characters don’t take each other seriously, which frees the player up to do likewise – to laugh with them, rather than at them. And frankly, I’ll take that over XIII’s self-important melodrama any day of the week.

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