#like 'saeran shoi is baseline kind'

[itsdrawingmen]

Zen CANONICALLY DOESN'T LIKE MEN, he remembers that he thought it was DISGUSTING that a SPECIFIC MAN came to his house. It's not homophobic but expressed disgust at the idea of ​​a man being interested in him, look up the data in the game if you don't believe me. This isn't hate, I just don't like how they drastically misinterpret the characters. This is something Zen would NEVER do.

Well hello to you too!

Where to even start with this one? It's been years since I've gotten an ask like this.

I'll probably start with stating the obvious: the mysmes canon is all over the place. Half of it is utter trash and Cheritz's badly written wish-fulfilment self-fanfiction. Half of it is inconsistent and self-contradictory. Half of it is obvious fanservice in every direction. And by nature of a game like this, it's different for every route. The canon is a mess. And you can draw different conclusions from it depending on how you read it, and how you want to read it. I could pull screenshots for you where Zen gets all flustered because of Yoosung, says he'd be his type and even says shit like 'gender doesn't matter' (even though, even in my books, he would NOT fucking say that).

Second of all, Zen's disgust over any closeness with men is DRAMATICALLY overexaggerated. Like, it's taken to the extreme and constantly highlighted. I have never seen anyone behave like that when they're *actually* confident in what they say and what they are. Rather, it reads to me like masking and desperate coverups. And as absolute horror of allowing himself to be human. And also as trauma response. I don't think I'm misinterpreting him at all. All of the conclusions I made about him as a character are firmly rooted in text. I take his reactions and analyse them. And my interpretation is, well, this. There are definitely others to be made, but mine is this.

And third of all... you are free to interpret him however you wish. I'm not the authority on how to interpret Zen. I'm sitting in my corner of the internet spinning my stories. You can sit in your corner and spin yours. Power to you! This fandom has always liked yume more anyway. Which is, well, understandable, really.

Hope you're having a good one! And I have yoozens to write and more yoozens to draw 💖