#there's a massive difference between! surprise!!!!! queerbaiting and characters who are written queer

[sandpapersnowman]

I'm so tired of people using g**d *mens in photosets with like..... actual representation. g**d *mens will never be wwdits, ofmd, hannibal, or any other media with canon mlm because it's not! canon mlms!!!!

[jojoeyo]

Warning: there will be Sk8 spoilers

As a disclaimer, this is my experience as an older queer person in fandom, and I don’t watch a lot of anime anymore, so I don’t know just how much queer representation is out there now.

Outright queer representation in cartoons is a very recent development. It hasn’t even been a decade since the Legend of Korra finale came out. It was a landmark event for queer rep. Since Korra started streaming on Netflix, younger fans have said they’re disappointed by how subtle it is (grant it, the whole ship could have been written better, but I still ship it and I digress), but the thing is that the studio fought tooth and nail for them just to hold hands.

Forever and ever, queer stories and characters have been regulated to subtext. Any outright queerness was either a joke, the villain, or someone winds up dead

When Yuri on Ice came out, i remember it was also a big deal. I desperately wanted them to get together, but I also knew it was a lot to ask for. The fact that they even implied that they were a couple, with rings, falling in love, without pulling back and treating it as a joke, was a massive win for queer fans. I’ve been delighted to see far more queer rep in anime, tho I’m not surprised that there isn’t much outright rep, Japan has a lot of deep seeded homophobia. But it’s amazing to see so many more queer stories come out (I honestly think Golden Wind wouldn’t have been able to be made as well 5 or so years before)

Queerbaiting is a specific, “gotcha” moment in media, where they pretend characters are queer, then intentionally pulling that away from you. I never felt that in Sk8. The characters love for each other is never played as a joke. Reki and Lagna never outright express their feelings, but they’re also kids who don’t know how to express themselves but through shared passions. The whole “lets skate to infinity” is practically a love confession, and in one of the final scenes of Reki and Lagna, Lagna saying he’s found his happiness, which lands on a shot of Reki, and it’s played completely earnestly.

For Joe and Cherry, it feels like their relationship is on going. There’s clearly sexual tension there, but neither is ready to break yet. But also, Cherry overcame a massive hurdle by getting over his crush on Adam (which once again, was never played as a joke or disgusting). That’s definitely a step in the right direction for MatchaBlossom to get together

As for Adam and Tadashi, Adam calls him a dog throughout the series, but in their final scene, he says is in a very flirty way that makes Tadashi blush. They absolutely have a master/servant and pet play thing going on.

TLDR; There’s a difference between queerbaiting and subtext, and I didn’t feel any maliciousness behind the show. Just because characters don’t explicitly come out or date doesn’t mean their love isn’t there

sk8.... tell me how much is it queerbait-y? I am interested but I don’t want to watch if it is just straight boys :(

Tbh, I didn’t get get any queerbaiting vibes off of it

I don’t know of many animes that are bold enough to actually come out as official cannon, but it’s clear that the characters are very very into each other 😘

There’s like 1 straight guy (maybe?), and he’s the comic relief lol