#but I'd say I'm probably back in the 20s already? just eyeballing it?

[cesium-sheep]

I've always bounced back so quickly as soon as I get even the slightest bit of breathing room. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that it seems to be happening again.

I was talking to matt earlier and like. I'd be happy at 50%, that's an entirely acceptable long-term quality of life for me. (I've been below 5% all year.) but I suppose I don't have to limit myself to only 50% if I'm responding so well that it seems I might get further without significant additional cost (personal or financial).

[princesscolumbia]

...hold on, hold the FUCK on...

...an anime featuring a lesbian couple front and center for a mecha series where, and this is the part I need to be 100% clear on:

TᕼᕮY ᗪOᑎ'T ᗷᑌᖇY Tᕼᕮ GᗩYS?!?!

EDIT: After having been properly educated (by both the OP and my GF, who wasn't happy with me for getting into an argument on the Internet in the first place let alone on something I was flat-out wrong about), I've promised to give Gundam another try, starting with Witch from Mercury. I'll probably be doing a "live react" or something on a Tumblr post or something. And because it must be said as publicly as I made an ass of myself: I'm sorry to OP and I'm sorry to the fandom for running off assumptions in the heat of the moment.

(This, at least, will give me something to do instead of sit in the dark and cry over the fact that my GF is leaving going back to her hometown for a month and probably never coming back because everyone leaves me eventually and I'll probably die alone ...maybe I have issues.)

Anyway, much like my issue with Warhammer 40k, I allowed myself to be completely blinded to the actual content of the IP by dudebros who gave me a completely inaccurate picture of the property. This is the dudebro's fault for being douche-bags about it and my fault for believing them, not the fault of the actual Gundam fandom or the property itself.

Why not just delete the post? Two reasons; first, it's already escaped confinement and second I don't believe in deleting stuff I've posted just because it's wrong. It feels disingenuous to me, like I'm trying to hide it and lie about it. I'd rather people find the original straight from the source with apologies or corrections (like this one) than have a game of hearsay telephone happening with possible out of context screenshots.

I've been deliberately avoiding this series because...well, it's Gundam. If there ever was a series that was overhyped it's Gundam, but mostly because it's a progressive march of fuckboys in penis compensation machines saving the day because Reasons™ and you're telling me The Series for Cis-Het Dude Protags has two lady queers front and center AND THEY DON'T KILL THEM OFF?!

I mean, okay, okay...backing up here...maybe I'm jaded. It took me 20+ years to find out there's a playable faction of women characters in Warhammer 40k because I couldn't see past the neo-fascist fanboys who have hard-ons for a zombie emperor. Maybe all I'm seeing are the wannabe otaku who saw one (1) series of Gundam and decided it was the Best Mecha Anime Ever and are just four-bajillion forms of annoying about it.

Maybe I've been watching from the sidelines as the "Yes Lesbians!" vs. "No Lesbians!" factions lob grenades at each other without ever talking about whether these two protagonists even have a story arc.

But for the LOVE of all that is good and pure would you people start TALKING ABOUT WHETHER THE GAYS GET BURIED OR NOT?!?! (EDIT: See below) I grew up as a closeted queer in the 80s! I've had buried gays up to my eyeballs! I tune out any media that features any hint of homosexuality until it's spoiled for me with the announcement that "The Queers Live!"

The elder queers are dying of thirst here! We've gotten accustomed to drinking from the poisoned well of 'bury your gays' because it was all we had for DECADES...no, centuries!!!

Please, please say the important part out loud! Tell us up front that the sweet queer couple in the series aren't killed off or married off in some hack-writer way to get rid of the queers!

EDIT: I understand that my lack of clarity was, once again, me falling into the dudebro's traps and not paying attention to what people actually said, and clearly people in the Gundam fandom, esp. the queer parts of it, have been saying it right up front for some time. The meta-message I was going for remains valid, even if my application of it to this particular franchise was wildly off-base. Please create content where the queers live, we don't want to bury our gays anymore.

I mostly think this poll is hilarious (and some people are taking it way, way too seriously) but it’s starting to get really weird how often people on the opposite side are dismissing Gundam — a giant of science fiction that remade a genre in its image — and quite literally lying about Suletta and Miorine. I’ve seen people claim they were canonically married to men, people claim the show’s ending was rewritten by interns, claim they never hugged, and other claims regarding them not being canon.

While Bandai and Kadokawa did censor one interview, and Bandai released an “open to interpretation” statement, these no longer hold true. Official material has henceforth referred to them as married. One instance of censorship and a statement they’ve clearly walked back on does not erase the fact that the show itself heavily emphasizes their wedding rings, refers to Miorine as Eri’s sister-in-law, and makes it abundantly clear that they are married.

“I knew I was going to make an epilogue, but it was a while before I decided upon the exact number of years that should pass in-between. The ending itself follows “The Tempest,” and depicts Suletta and Miorine getting married and becoming partners.”

- Hiroshi Kobayashi

They are completely and unambiguously canon, and arguably were never decanonized to begin with given the literal text of the show.

An addendum to this: I’ve also seen a strange dismissal of the history that G-Witch pulls from.

The original Gundam inspired Revolutionary Girl Utena, with Lalah Sune in particular (the creator of an iconic Gundam archetype) serving as the inspiration for Anthy Himemiya. Gundam has had a queer fanbase for decades, and has had gay characters (with Yoshiyuki Tomino himself confirming this) since the 1990s.

G-Witch draws from Gundam’s extensive, genre-shaking history, classics like Utena and Rose of Versailles, and Shakespeare’s The Tempest. It brings Gundam and Utena’s connection full circle, and is in conversation with every Gundam series that came before it.

It’s unfair to dismiss it as just some random show, or — as I’ve seen some do — credit its open queerness to the influence of completely unrelated American media, as if Japan is utterly devoid of gay people.