#think that is acceptable but why stoop as low as that fandom is going. y’all not helping make his situation better and neither did he

[junmail]

since when does posting an innocent disclaimer with a post of an alcoholic beverage you’re endorsing equate to sending death threats because you think it’s a dig at your fave ??

[rathbian]

edit: uh apparently i didn’t add a readmore whoops mb

I didn’t think I needed to say this but ad hominem attacks don’t lend well to discourse. Even worse are baseless accusations while ignoring disclaimers and evidence. Worse still is blatantly discrediting testimony from the people who y’all supposedly defend, whether now or from ages ago. Ain’t my wheelhouse so I can’t refute much but I suppose if we’re going to stoop so low as personal attacks, anything’s fair game, huh.

In completely, totally unrelated matters, let’s actually discuss a little bit about Kaito Momota and why supporting him completely uncritically or, at least, speculating that he could be a mlm or trans guy is harmful. Under the cut will be an explanation of why wholly uncritical support for his characterization is an issue and why supporting him in that way detracts from one’s credibility when discussing matters of bigotry and representation in fictional media.

I understand damn near everyone knows this by now, I know it’s old and tired but we need to discuss the original Japanese scene from the Daily Life segment chapter 2. Because I hold no credibility on my own for saying he’s transphobic/homophobic from his comment to Shinguuji, I will defer to a handful of other sources. Various trustworthy dictionaries(please use Google for this) refer to okama(オカマ) as a derogatory term for trans women and effeminate and gay men when used against someone. You can find the line he says here at about the 01:08:01-01:08:09 marks. Further context of this scene is described here and here, both sources by trans people and fluent Japanese speakers who have done their research into this topic.

Because of these sources, I have reason to believe that he said a transphobic and homophobic line, on top of all of his other moments of accusing men of not being manly enough for his standards which is a sentiment borne of misogyny and homophobia. This alone, would be enough but I’m certain that there exist some camps of people who will defend him with varying excuses so I’ll take a moment to refute a few hypothetical defenses for him. Should you find another point of refutation I’d be happy to argue against it, so please let me know.

“If the intent of this line was to be homophobic/transphobic, the translators would have kept it in.“ - I will give on the point that Kaito is not intended to be a bigoted character, at least, in Kodaka’s eyes. Intent, however, does not equal impact. In writing him as an archetypal shounen hero with the associated machismo and bullheadedness and having the narrative laud him over and again for having these views, he comes off as a character whose chauvinistic ideologies are praised or, at least, excusable. Even in NISA’s English version, one can at tell that even his misogyny and homophobia remained, albeit, tamely or localized in the bonus mode. I may not be a conspiracy theorist but it’s not far-fetched to claim translator bias colored the way he was localized as well, considering NISA’s lack of hesitation in translating slurs and the like for Miu, to make him seem more affable due to his archetype. Despite that, because a number of his actions and words are so deeply rooted in this view, it could not be removed entirely from him. Knowing this, we can come to the conclusion specific line was essentially lost in translation, as he was watered down but still capable of exhibiting the toxic behavior associated with his character type on top of clear bias. 

”The NISA English version is the only one that most of the fandom has been exposed to so it’s okay to only base Kaito’s characterization off of that.” - An understandable point insofar as not everyone has access to the original version of the game. This is, then, up to the fandom to do just a little bit of research when people are trying to bring up this version of the game to educate others of the original intent of the game, seeing as translation errors abound through attempts at localization. Though NISA’s version is the generally accepted translation, it will not change that it is a derivative work and that the source material's faults cannot remain without scrutiny. To do so is to allow misinformation and misinterpretation to run rampant. I do not find fault in those who do not yet know but those who either are unwilling to accept his flaws ingrained in his behavior or unwilling to listen or learn when someone tries to show context are willfully ignorant of his bigotry.

“It was left uncriticized by the narrative so it’s Kodaka’s fault/the fault of Japanese culture so we can remove that from his character traits.“ - Aside from the rather dubious assumption that Japan as a society is so backwards that Japanese people cannot be trusted to know what is bigoted or not, nothing will change that he had said what he said and did what he did within the canon of NDRV3. We cannot extricate Kaito from those by blaming the author for his traits without acknowledging that all the other traits written into his character are also simply the fault of the author as one should not be selective in acknowledging canon. Things which were written by an awful person remain awful and to ignore that is to shy away from the true nature of the material at hand, to enjoy uncritically is the same as condoning such things. As a personal plea, I ask of you to think critically: why go through these lengths to excuse a character’s bad traits that would be looked upon as offensive? Why ignore homophobia, transphobia, and misogyny in favor of making this character look better or for the sake of a headcanon?

Why is it so important to know that Kaito is indeed bigoted and just why is it bad to headcanon him as attracted to men or is trans? I will acknowledge the possibility of internalized homophobia and transphobia. However, recognize that his actions stem from that bias and that the narrative will not speak against him on these matters as it only calls out his foolhardiness and reckless abandon. If you can recognize these, you should also think a little bit about why making headcanons about a character having internalized bigotry that is not recognized as awful would run parallel to the incredibly harmful stereotype of assuming that bigots are really just in the closet. Internalized bigotry, especially when left without criticism, does not make for the greatest headcanon material.

I will not police those who are fans of his, as it is not a crime to enjoy characters who would be considered awful. I will neither make assumptions about nor judge those who like him without context as I’m not one for attacking others on a personal scale and I’m sure that people will give their reasons unwarranted anyway. However, trying to preach about bigotry affecting real people through representation while not only excusing bigotry from a character but also disregarding those who this bigotry would affect is hypocritical, I’d say. Objectively, it’s still harmful to headcanon a bigot as a part of the group that they’re bigoted against because in contributes to the idea that the real oppressors are members of their own community. It’s a belief that warps real people’s perceptions of other real people and making a headcanon out of it has similar effects to negative stereotyping in coding. To use a colloquial phrase, is this who y’all stan?