#plot relevant queerness

[quantifiableme]

A big part of this argument is talking about the difference between your *main* character and your *favorite* character.

Like Zuko can be your favorite character. Hell, he can even be the more interesting character. However, the main character’s goal and overall arc also reflects the major theme of the story, which in Avatar is about Balance and Responsibility. Zuko understands both of these things inherently, but is shamed out of them by his Father who wants him to be Nationalistic and selfish. Zuko’s arc is to trust the things he already knows to be true IN SPITE of his upbringing.

It’s an awesome character, but the show isn’t about learning to trust yourself. The show is about responsibility.

Aang trusts himself too much, and he skirts out of responsibility. His arc is about embracing his role as the Avatar, and bringing balance to the world. THAT is why he is the main character.

Now let’s talk about Voltron. What is the main theme of Voltron? It’w a giant robot that needs to be manned by five people. It very easily can be a show about working together, cooperation, and the good of the community > the good for the individual.

At the start of the show, Shiro knows this inherently. That’s why he’s the leader, and must teach everyone else.

Keith also knows this, but to an unhealthy degree. He’ll starve himself for the people he is loyal to; easily giving up everything to find Shiro. This is also why the BOM arc is so perfect for him, because it’s essentially a sucicide squad of people who ONLY care about the mission. And they are WRONG. Because the show isn’t about mission > individual. It’s about COMMUNITY > individual, which includes the individual. You can’t help the community when you die, because that is killing a part of the community.

So Keith’s arc is about learning he is apart of something. And to protect that community, he must also take care of and protect himself. Again, this is a great message ESPECIALLY for kids.

But the theme of the show is about learning to put the community above the wants of the individual. Keith is a great foil for this message, but he cannot be the main character because he doesn’t learn this lesson.

You know who does?? LANCE.

Lance’s whole arc is about humility. He is the first to get a Lion because he asks “What if you just knocked”? He is friendly and social, and (like I said before) is the only character with a genuine and individual banter with ALL of the other characters. He’s best friends with Hunk, he’s like a big brother to Pidge, he’s rivals with Keith. Shiro is his role-model, but there are so many funny moments between the two in the beginning still. Even with Coran and Allura, who easily could be pushed to the side, Lance as a character works to bring them back into every scene.

Lance CREATES the community. As the comic relief, he creates opportunities for the other characters to react, and we as the audience get to see them more as people. (Note: this is as a study as a character as a tool in the scene. Lance is an effective tool.)

Lance’s arc as a character is about learning to let his ego go, and become a good second in command to Keith. YES, Keith is still the leader in this story, that’s important to Lance’s character development. Lance needs to humble himself and do what’s good for the team, which is NOT being the Black Paladin.

(Now, I do think a better ending would be to make Lance the Black Paladin later, when it is no longer something cool or fun. Instead, Lance becomes the Black Paladin out of necessity, out of responsibility. When he does not want to, but had to.)

Lance should not date Allura. Allura should reject Lance, and Lance should have to come to terms with that. Allura should not die!! Self-sacrifice is a bad message to teach children!! THAT’S WHY KEITH’S ARC WAS SO COOL!! (Shiro can die, but more as a metaphor that he is no longer needed in the narrative. He is a teacher, and they do not need to be taught. (Also this wouldn’t be “killing your gays” because we make Keith gay (don’t even have to rewrite it) and his whole arc if “You are a part of a community” becomes all that more relevant.)

Anyway, Lance being the main character makes the story better because it *focuses your theme*. Instead the story doesn’t make sense.

as a retrospective, it is a kind of tame cruelty what the writers did with Lance as a character

because I have, and will, talk again about they set him up as the perfect protagonist in the first episode. after the prologue, he’s the first character we hear speak, which is a good writing technique to imply his importance in the story. they perfectly establish his arrogance (main character flaw), and how it effects his actions. (They fail the mission because, although he had the skills to lead the team, he gets cocky and crashes the plane.) after they crash, the drill sargent guy IMMEDIATELY chews him out and brings up how Lance was only there because Keith dropped out.

i’m not saying he has to be your favorite character, but the first five minutes of the episode are like a crash course in how to write a complex protagonist. He’s charming, he’s arrogant but IMMEDIATELY faces the consequences for it, and he’s only arrogant because he’s trying to prove himself to the people around him. That’s nuance! That’s good writing! And all of it is done through Lance’s actions and the consequences of those actions.

(We could also talk about how he is the only character who has a genuine and unique relationship with ALL the other cast members, which also makes him a perfect POV character for an *ensemble show*. That’s why Zuko is the FOIL for Aang, but Aang is the main character.)

On top of this, it worked! Audiences LOVED Lance, and they related to him. He’s insecure and want’s to prove himself, which is a goal a lot more relatable than anyone else’s. The popularity of Langst, or fics where Lance was put through extreme situations to test his perserverence, or have other characters appreciate him more, is a good signal that audiences want more from this character. It’s like the kid that imagines his own funeral to think about how people would miss him. It’s fucked up, but its something a lot of teenagers who feel ignored or under appreciated do. (It’s STRONG EMOTIONS)

So, with the knowledge that this is the audience that relates to this character: teenagers who struggle with identity and validation. Teenagers who feel like they always have to help others, but feel abandoned in the process. Teenagers who struggle with insecurity, but are ultimately ambitious, even though no one sees them as capable. What do you do with this character?

You take away all of his lines, give him a love story with a character who spends the entire show making fun of him, kill her, and then make him a hermit.

[lunamond]

The actual problem with the Alyssa/Daemon sex scene is NOT the mother/son incest BUT the fact that they went for the boring and cowardly "what if this emotionally stunted manchild has mummy issues" option when the "what if this emotionally stunted manchild is mad he didn't get to fuck his brother" option was RIGHT THERE.

[project-sekai-facts]

How are we feeling about ensekai’s emu3 translation!!! (I’m mad)

(if you remember the 3 whole posts i made when asahi got de-gayed on EN you'll know i am mad too and that this is probably going to get long)

i don't like to be too cynical but it was so obvious that they were going to change that line, i had a feeling since the event first released on JP and after the incident with Asahi where I went through and tracked down multiple other examples of EN removing queer subtext it became clear to me that in no way shape or form was "emu-chan really loves nene-chan" making it to EN without getting changed. what i didn't expect was them changing Nene's line after Luka's comment, which actually makes this whole situation far worse than many of their other instances of toning down queer subtext.

for anyone who isn't aware of what happened, in chapter 5 of the current Emu event, there's a scene where Nene, Rui and the Virtual Singers are talking about what would cheer Emu up. The vsingers all talk about how much Emu loves spending time with Nene, leading to the following exchange

If you look for them, any fan TL of this scene will be something similar to this:

Luka: ...Fufu. Emu-chan really loves Nene-chan, doesn't she? Nene: Th-that's nothing special...

EN's official translation is this:

So what's the issue? I'll start with Luka's part. In the original text, she uses the word daisuki, which can mean to "like a lot" or "love". It's a word you will see frequently in the idol/idol-adjacent genre of games, due to its ambiguity in that it can be read as either platonic or romantic when used towards a person, and often will be used in ambiguous situations so that it's harder to confirm the writers' intentions either way. so here, fans of the emu/nene ship could view the fact that emu loves spending her time with nene as more on the romantic side, but people who don't like the ship could view it as platonic and move on.

while they didn't translate daisuki directly, Luka's line still works, and still contains the ambiguity that works as ship tease in the original text. it's a perfectly fine localisation that still conveys the original intent. despite that, there is something to be said about EN's consistent refusal to translate daisuki as love in most instances when it's not used on An/Kohane (but then again, EN has literally teased An/Kohane on their twitter account so is it all that surprising?).

Here's some examples:

Aibou no koto ga daisuki de / he loves his partner -> he cares about his partner very much (The Power of Unity chapter 7 when Kaito is comparing Arata to Akito and Toya)

HARUKA-CHAN, DAISUKI DAYOOOO!!! / HARUKA-CHAN, I LOOOOOVEEE YOU!!! -> You're the best!!! (Dear Me, As I Was Back Then chapter 4 when minori is at an ASRUN concert. this one isn't actually that great of a localisation)

Honachan no koto daisuki dakara. Kore de iinda yo. / I love Honachan, so this is fine. -> I want what's best for her. And this is it. (Leo/need main story chapter 14 after Saki tells Honami she won't bother her anymore)

Minna daisuki de - taisetsuna tomodachi na no / I love them all - they're my dearest friends -> They're all amazing, and very dear to me. (Leo/need main story chapter 17. this isn't good either)

What's particularly amusing about that last one is that there's a second official translation for it that I assume was done by JP staff (since EN never promoted doing the Journey to Bloom subs like they did back when they provided subs for Petit SEKAI) that actually keeps the word daisuki as love.

Yeah. I love all my friends - and they mean the world to me.

It's a better localisation than the official EN team one.

Questionable localisation choices aside, Luka's line is fine and is actually in line with the original. The issue with this localisation very much lies with Nene's part, because that is an entirely new line.

In the original text, Nene's "that's just normal" or "that's nothing special" or however you choose to TL it, is meant to be her questioning Luka's statement, since all the things that the other vsingers said that Emu liked were pretty normal things like going shopping and playing video games with nene. To Nene, these things are normal activities for them to do together, so she gets embarrassed by the fact that Luka concludes from that information that Emu loves Nene. When I dissect it like that I think you can really tell what the writers were going for here lol.

"That's just us being friends" does still convey the idea that Nene thinks these activities aren't anything out of the ordinary and she isn't sure why the vsingers are picking these out as some of Emu's favorite things to do, but it's very different from the original line. "But those are just normal things we do together" is something I just came up with on the spot, but it's a lot closer to the original text and still conveys the same meaning. The fact they changed the line to "that's just us being friends" is, honestly, not even subtle that they're covering up queer subtext. The original scene was very clearly written in as ship tease, and EN mentioning "friends" for no reason, especially since the word nor anything close to it was not used in the original, is instantly a red flag because it's like the go-to for queerbaiting and censorship. This was intentional. There was no need for them to specify that the relationship is platonic, Luka's part is ambiguous for a reason so that fans can view it how they like.

Just to top all this off, here's Rin's original line just before that Luka+Nene interaction:

Oh, and! And! She said that playing games with Nene-chan is also super fun!

And here's Rin's line from the official EN translation:

That's not the same thing, but even more weirdly, the incorrect part (super fun->really loves) is a correct translation for the part changed in Luka's line. So, they can do it, they are willing to say "really loves", just not in the right places. Maybe because Rin's part is less personal than Luka's part? It's strange actually, this isn't the first time they've done this either. Off the top of my head I can think of an example from Shiho's Varied Kindness 2* story where they translated the word "suki" as really loves, despite that being much stronger than the original word used (and the fact that daisuki is used a lot in the Leo/need stories and it's incredibly rare if not entirely unknown for them to translate it correctly).

It's not subtle that they're trying to remove implications of the characters possibly being queer, they did it in curtain call and they did it in walk on and on, and multiple times before then too. And considering some of the content in this year's events and the amount of times they say daisuki alone, it's gonna keep happening. honestly i hate the fact that i keep trying to justify the translations in these posts. these translations are intentional. what happened in the curtain call translation back in october says enough. when a character who uses explicitly romantic language towards another guy passes as a straight character in the translation you know they're doing it on purpose.

oh and once again, it's only the EN server that has this issue. The scene in question was translated almost word-for-word on the TW and KR servers.

read fan translations. they're better than what EN gives us and people put a lot of effort into them.

[felixirr]

he doesn’t know what the fuck you’re talking about

[id: digital doodle of dream smp character jschlatt. he is wearing a suit and tie and is drawn with ram horns and ears. his face is scrunched up and he's asking, "what did you just say? cis...cishet??? what?" the gay and trans flags are next to him at a low opacity. end id]

[bugbrews-creations]

I listened to Epic and needed to doodle something after hearing a BANGER cover of Suffering that reminded me of Varna LMAO No context on who the ginger harpy the siren's mimicking is.

[prince-liest]

I’m reading Witch King by Martha Wells, and now that I have read more than one (1) series by this author, I have been suddenly brained with a two-by-four sharpied over with “realizing that I really enjoy novels by Martha Wells because they live in the specific niche created by the intersection of casually and thoroughly queer casts and non-romance storylines”

I am as ever a sucker for non-human main characters struggling with their very human feelings, which is why I jumped on Witch King the moment I saw “the author of Murderbot wrote another book with a main character that’s non-human,” but I live in this dichotomy where I can really enjoy reading queer romances but I don’t really identify with non-ace characters (which is not actually something I figured out how to differentiate until I was Last Week Years Old). so there are lots of books out there that I enjoy reading but it’s comparatively rare for me to read something that feels like it was written For Me and Martha Wells does that very well

anyway, give me more ace it-pronouns human-spliced robot main characters and people-eating demons who consider rank over gender when finding new bodies to inhabit

[rosquinn]

what do you mean netflix is making a tpodg adaptation and making basil and dorian brothers what

[butcharyastark]

i cannot explain how simultaneously complexly fascinating and deeply hilarious this fucking intimate coming out scene between flint and silver is in the s3 finale of black sails.

like. imagine you are james flint. you have a horrible secret tragic backstory you won't tell anyone about how you became the fearsome and capable pirate captain you are today. that tragic backstory involves being the bisexual unicorn for a rich couple's poly triad dreams in 1700s england. you confide in someone outside of this dynamic for the first time after everything happened about what happened because they asked to know. you bare your soul uncharacteristically about being bisexual, polyamorous, and griefstricken. nobody else but one person in your life has seen this of you. the person you confide this to is someone that genuinely worried about you killing them in front of your entire crew like, literally 10 days ago, for confessing to betraying you abt smth that took months of efforts and dozens of death to try to achieve. this person, who is the most kindly understanding and softspoken person on your ship of ragtag hardened pirates, looks you in the eyes by the soft lighting of the campfire under cover of nightfall after burying literal and now metaphorical secrets, and says, in order, to your FACE, that 1) firstly he is a hashtag gay ally (in the 1700s) and so sorry for your loss but 2) he's been thinking lately it's kind of weird everybody around flint dies and he doesn't want to be next bc everybody flint trusts is a dead man walking bc 3) hey flint have you ever considered maybe it's your fault this happened and that you are doomed bc of just who you are as a person? and 4) but it's okay actually bc if it came down to it i think i've grown as a person enough that if anyone dies in this partnership it will be you 😤

like. to his face. i repeat, to the face of the most feared pirate this side of the americas, who has considered killing him within the past month or two, who opened up to silver in the most baring way possible for a regular man, much less a man like flint--to his FACE silver said that "maybe the homophobia you experienced that ruined your entire life was actually your fault for existing and everybody you love is doomed to die because being around you is a curse :/" in the most GENTLY understanding tone of voice while staring deeply into his eyes and professing genuine care and friendship and respect for him.

i'd lose my mind. i'd implode. no fucking wonder flint takes a preparatory, longsuffering swig of liquor with the most exasperated expression i've ever seen on a 40+yo man's face the literal second silver's mouth is open for longer than 2 sentences. silver is SO goddamn lucky this man stopped seeing him as an enemy 6 weeks ago and instead switched to begrudgingly ominous mentor and weird older brother.

and they're both still being friendly about it like silver isn't casually portending one of their deaths because of the other because of the inherent darkness of their souls and like flint hasn't killed men on his own crew for saying less than this behind his back. this is fucking insane energy. i want to study them both. i want to microwave them at high heat. i want to put them in a jar and shake it. you two really live like this?

[the--falling--titan]

i hate when something im hyperfixated on is mainstream but not in the way that i need. theres not enough deranged queer people in the martian fandom to support my mark watney is a trans guy headcanon.

[sumendi-blog]

I have to write this or I will explode, a little bit tired of the "friendship" thing

I can tell Harvey Guillen or Paul Simms are not fans of Nandermo, that's ok, but if they REALLY think that we are interested in their dynamics because of the evolution of their "profound male friendship" oh boy you two are wrong.

I must also say that Paul bragging that his show "is omg SO QUEER" when you only have 2 canon pairings, both of them straight (Laszlo/Nadja and Sean/Charmaine) and the third one that got 2 episodes centered was Colin/Evie

Nadja also had an episode centered in another straight pairing, Jesk

Nandor...oh boy, Gail, Jan, Meg, married Marwa...aha, all women. Yesss he has hook ups with Laszlo and a thing with Marwa!Freddie and husbands who he got rid off in one scene omg so queer

Laszlo hook ups with the Baron...the good thing is he has a weak/horny spot for Sean, one point for wwdits!

And Guillermo? He had a boyfriend FOR A WHOLE EPISODE! congratulations!!! But ooops...not any longer! Not the gays, sorry!

Are they going to have the balls of give Guillermo a slayer boyfriend? Nandor ending up with the first random woman that appears in S6 , won't be alarmed

[smokestarrules]

#bi4pan huntlow is something that can be so personal

SO true. I screaammmedd when I heard Willows sexuality was confirmed, I can’t believe my headcanon was true! Some people will say it feels retconned but if you ask me the vibes were always there. Even if it was just being psychically connected to Dana Terrace

Nah, it's not a retcon.

[melancholyofautvmn]

one of the funniest experiences i ever had as a young sapphic was watching miraculous ladybug and getting like a 1.5 second glimpse of their history textbook and immediately going, "hey, wait a minute... isn't that sappho?"

[henry-fox-biggest-stan]

Vickie on GOD you're getting screentime

[raven]

two out of six persona games have gay relationship options and one i would argue was made with queerbaiting deeply in mind. none of these games are persona 4 golden, but if i were to classify a persona game as the most "queer media", it would be persona 4 golden, and thats not because i am disdainful both of the term/category "queer media" and the game persona 4 golden. but the way you could justify this might be a large contributing factor as to why i dislike the term/category "queer media" so much

[rnoonsetter]

legit really want to make a chart about ars paradoxica keeping track of all the timelines and plotlines like this show is so dense and fun. why isn't there an active fandom for this show like there still is for wolf 359? its got even more morally complex characters about double the scifi epic trappings along with hideously complex time travel and more than one important gay character (sorry wolf but there are plotlines in this show about queer characters and their relationships, it's not an offhanded mention right at the end.) anyway listen to ars paradoxica it's a masterpiece.

[mantisgodsdomain]

Apparently there's a fic reading challenge thing this year, but after doing a quick skim of the goals... we don't think we'll be touching it with a ten-foot stick. Some of these goals put a VERY bad taste in our mouth. The idea of a "diversity checklist" isn't supposed to be... literal, we don't think? No? We're remembering that one quote about "listening to people of color being like eating your vegetables for white activists" and we're feeling like it may actually have been understating whatever the hell is going on here.