#but they DID make the conscious choice to add that hannya mask

[goldentigerfestival]

@camillabanilla tagged in a reblog:

#i have this essay brewing in my head about yuri's character design #and how i feel that he's queer coded based on his fits and how important that is to me #my other two brain cells are like “ooo pretty” #little shit yuri is king# especially when you know he's just messed up flynn's hair and stole his notes #like “chase me flynn teehee”

I wrote quite a bit so... putting it under a cut LOL.

LISTEN Yuri is very queer imo and I love it. One of my favorite things about him is that he uses male pronouns and a male manner of speaking, but physically and personality wise, a lot of aspects about him are feminine and he's a lot more lowkey masculine compared to other males in his game. Most of his official artwork, especially for gachas (Asteria in particular), lean toward standard feminine posing or hairstyles. I love that he encompasses feminine and masculine traits and isn't purely one or the other. I could just as easily say he's one of the guys as I could say he's one of the girls (don't even get me started on ideas I've had of him in Rays with all the other girls). He's just... Yuri.

(For physically feminine things, I consider the way he sleeps to be kinda feminine, and a good chunk of his official artwork is rather feminine as I've mentioned. The positioning of his hands/fingers and sometimes legs (both in game and in official artwork) is also comparatively feminine to the other men, and when compared to the women. Basically just like, you know how there are ways guys are often drawn, but with girls, they usually have their fingers together and they're like... positioned in less masculine ways? Same with legs and general posing? It's hard for me to explain without pulling up image examples to specify on the dot, but a lot of Yuri's official artwork is either in the middle or leaning feminine. And sometimes it's not! He's not ever very masculine, but he's not always feminine, either. For me he feels more centered, leaning feminine. Also, his character design notes mention they purposely made him slender.)

I'd love to hear your thoughts on his outfits, because while I see some of them as a little more on the feminine side, I see most of them as more neutral. For me it's largely his hairstyles and the framing of his hair with his face.

Also, there's even that Asteria alt outfit he has that I know you like with the mask, which is actually a hannya mask. There are a few very minorly different but similar ways I've seen it described overall as far as the lore behind it (likely because there are white, red and deep red versions, and some seem to describe them as used for "elegant" women while others don't use that exact term. Little stuff like that), but it basically boils down to a female demon who has become possessed because of her obsession or jealousy. It also represents being sorrowful and tormented, as well as demonic and dangerous (meant to represent complex emotions). Yuri's is a red mask, so it references being less refined (the darker red is true demons, while white is for a refined character). Which, I'd agree, yeah, Yuri's not very refined LOL! But the general idea of it is a jealous woman with demon lore (and he does have that demon outfit in Vesperia for that play, so both of those reference Yuri in a demon role, though the hannya mask is a female thing), and... idk, I didn't make the artwork, but I do know they made the conscious decision to include that in making an alt for Yuri lol.

That's not to say I know for definite that Bamco is trying to say he's feminine and queer (and god knows most official non-indie companies are too afraid to admit it even if they did), but they do draw him in standard female posing a lot (I'd even argue his second TF24 and his Dress Up Collection poses are the "go to female poses". My tier list doesn't have Yuri's legs on the TF24 one, but the hair, legs and fingers definitely give me that vibe). Like, I get it, it's Bamco; they're probably never going to purposely create or admit to purposely creating a male character who is intentionally feminine and overall queer. I would like to be proven wrong someday but they've had ample time to do that and have yet to lol.

But generally speaking? When I look at all other Tales men? Yuri is pointedly more "girly" overall, and they're aware enough of it to make jokes like "princess Yuri", and putting Yuri in a dress in a drama CD and having him play a female role in a play while having the whole audience being enamored by him (and Flynn finding him in the dress and Yuri hiding his face from Flynn and fleeing at the first opportunity lol). Like, they're ABSOLUTELY AWARE of it enough to make "he's girly looking" jokes.

Also like, this one's just a thing I think of, but isn't shopping a lot/loving to spend money/wanting to go on shopping sprees all at once... generally seen as more of a girl thing? Because... LOL. Yuri loves blowing money all at once because it feels good, and at least where I'm from, that's largely seen as a female quality. It's also very fun to have that as a quality for him, having grown up poor... so when he gets a bunch of money and has a ton piled up, he wants to spend it (insert Jareth wow they're brothers after all comment here).

There's even the fact that he's got like... feminine old-fashioned gender role qualities, like being really good with kids and knowing how to handle them, and being a really good cook. Like, idk, was it an accident that they made him look feminine and then gave him a bunch of feminine qualities, too? Idk, but they sure as hell 100% know he's easy to make look feminine (another example too, his eyelids/eyelashes on his model are... very pronounced, which is not usually done with men. Also, his eyelashes are very noticeable in his laughing skit portait, which was released in hella HD recently in the Fave Face voting. None of the guys/only the girls have those "feminine style" eyelashes).

I like to poke at his child and teen self as well, because he's extremely feminine as a teen imo (his official concept art even has him wearing a more, I'd say feminine-leaning, bracelet). I do have a joke though about his whooshy girly turn around when talking to Hanks in the manga as child femboy supreme. Born to be a femboy, not forced to be anything and became a femboy.

There's also the fact that in the novel in the childhood portion, Flynn realizes it's entirely possible that the reason he's growing his hair out to be long (implying it's not what is basically "boy length"), is because he's trying to emulate his mother. Basically implying he's trying to emulate a feminine appearance on purpose because he was told his mother had long hair. And like, idk man, but one of the game writers did write that novel. So to me it's just like... yet another example where it seems to be a lot of stuff that makes me believe it's not an accident.

But I do love that he's not completely feminine and he's got boyish qualities mixed into that. He's just very non-stereotype conforming as a character, both in personality/traits and in appearance. Like... there are times I can look at him and be like... lol you're such a boy.

teehee little shit yuri changed my life and i still can't believe we got that. also, yuri didn't just take a paper from him, but he even pulled flynn's nametag over to himself, in the other artwork of them in these outfits, and crossed out flynn's role on his nametag and listed flynn as being in the same team as him LOL. flynn's nametag with the cross out and yuri writing his own team name on flynn's tag was also sold as official merch LOL.

teehee little shit yuri changed my life.

edit: oh right also corsets are usually a lady thing too quick add in after the fact LOL.

edit 2: oh yeah there's the talesfes 2009 skit with the maid outfit joke too. estelle gave yuri a maid outfit to wear so there would be more customers for karol's shop. the audience was. happy. LMAO.