#we need to start gatekeeping him. cannot believe i'm saying this but i miss when the foxposters were like. 10 people total

[lnkedmyheart]

So today we're talking about a few things related to Yuumori's writing. Now, I am doing this as a -ahem- gender fluid lesbian on the ace spectrum diagnosed with a severe anxiety and depressive disorder. I am also someone who has been analysing media and studying queer representation in media for my PhD dissertation and have already written an entire dissertation on queer rep in conservative cultures. So I do believe I'm qualified enough to debunk some bullshit takes that people tote around like facts instead of opinions and attempt to force down everyone's throats and then bitch about the lack of admiration they get from the crowd. I am however not going to put in too much effort into this because my GOD I don't care enough but the sheer misinfo some of you people spread is mind boggling.

So let's start!

YuuMori has bad queer representation.

YuuMori's queer rep is a ridiculous thing to get mad at. For starters the series is Japanese, set in 1800s London, a place where being queer was pretty much punishable by death. Now if the story was explicitly labelled as a forbidden victorian gay romance I could see why people expect there to be massive queer rep at all. However, at no point in the main manga has Sherlock's previous statement of "I have no interest in women" been challenged. Sherlock has consistently only shown visual and behavioral cues implying a crush towards William, his 2 closest relationships are both with men (Liam and Watson) and his interaction with Bond is still the same as before with him being uncomfortable when he clings to him or him showing his fondness of Bond just as he does with Miss Hudson.

If you wish to insist a throwaway line about him being unable to forget Adler (a reference to the Doyle canon where it also wasn't romantic) is romantic then I do think there are more than enough lines he says about both John and Liam with far more intensity and passion that hint towards affection and should therefore also be taken as romantic since that's the narrative hill we are dying on.

YuuMori has terrible trans representation.

The trans representation in YuuMori is bad because...? Well here's the deal, the two random lines that are brought up to insist that the trans thing is fake are both lines that people have criticised the translation of. And yes, both those lines in the main manga are lines that don't necessarily mean just the trans identity. Hell it's honestly a stretch to use those lines as proof since the whole idea behind said lines is "what is my role in Liam's plan" and Bond learning that his role is defined by his own self and choosing. The whole deal was Moran telling him to stop acting like Bond needed to be guided and told what to do and be genuine and Bond immediately chose to embrace his masculine side, never once going back to his old name or pronouns. Furthermore the very idea that Adler should cease to exist in people's memory just because Bond is a person now or that Bond cannot be trans without dysphoria is such absolute horse shit because not everyone suffers from dysphoria the same way. Some never go through dysphoria and instead realise that they just feel better and more true to themselves when they dress up a certain way. A large number of cosplayers realise they are genderfluid, nb or trans because they realise they much prefer dressing up as the opposite gender. You cannot put trans or gender based experiences into a neat little box and gatekeep it. Furthermore, there is no way that YuuMori isn't following the trans narrative, sure you can chose to ignore the glaring hints dropped every where like Sherlock and Watson discussing how Adler's writing is masculine (no matter how great an actor, Adler couldn't have changed her entire hand writing to fit that of a man enough to fool Sherlock), Adler constantly choosing to disguise as a man, Adler not feeling like she fit into the world right, Adler immediately choosing to become a dude, not just any dude but James Bond, the ideal of traditional masculinity. But you cannot ignore the explicitly trans discourse regarding changing rooms. So no, the trans rep in the series is actually rather good all things considered. Just the fact that a few translations can read a little differently and there is a whole horde of people using those vague translations as proof of Adler's cis-ness makes no real difference to how well it is handled. Sure the Irene came back point seems to have blinded everyone with rage so thoroughly that they completely skipped the parts constantly remarking Penny's hardships with playing a man because she is a woman unlike Bond or Bond's complete insistence at being refered to as Bond when he's in a dress. And I've seen a lot of people calling Bond's depressed expression happy and I'm so sorry but how is that HAPPY??? And why is everyone calling him Bond or a he/him in private where no one can see him go back to Irene?

YuuMori is using queerbait and bl tropes for marketing.

Queerbait is when audiences are baited into thinking there is something queer going on in the series so as to get them to spend money on it and then never giving them actual rep. James Fucking Bond is an actual character in this series. No Bond can never confirm if he's trans or non binary or gender fluid simply because those terms do not exist in this era. On the other hand, if we're talking about Sherliam then again no, Sherliam isn't even remotely queerbait. They are first and foremost friends, they have actual romantic tropes attached to them but are never hyper sexualised or put into uncomfortable yaoi dynamics or situations. You are supposed to be reading subtext in their friendship and no YuuMori cannot fully confirm them as a gay couple without risking their slot in the magazine or censorship. Again, Japanese artists need to work around censorship far more than western writers and choose to fall back on other cues, tropes and means of providing romantic subtext. And bl...seriously just because a series that is non romantic has a non het dynamic that borders on romantic doesn't mean it's bl or is using bl tropes. Sherliam are literally using het couple tropes, have parallels with a canonical het couple in the series while also retaining the essence of how a lot of queer people interact with a heavy helping of victorian era flirting.

YuuMori has extremely weak characters.

YuuMori has rather strong characters, no not all characters grow but the world around them does. A character doesn't HAVE to grow themselves as long as they make the world grow around them. YuuMori has struck a nice balance between these two types of development where it stalls some development for characters till it is necessary abd therefore doesn't take attention away from the issue at hand. That is a way of avoiding overwriting which can detract from the main story and narration. For starters the world shifts around the Moriarty brothers. They do successfully spark a massive change in the world around them by staying practically stagnant because had they changed dramatically their entire arc would have fallen flat. The 2 characters with the most individual growth is Sherlock, who grows to accept people and realise their worth and Liam who realises that people will not constantly follow his every whim especially when it involves him killing himself over it. Every character in the series has grown, Moran, Moneypenny, Moriarty brothers, Mycroft etc. So no, characters aren't the weakest point of the series, especially when you realise that the majority of the fandom seems to not dislike anyone in the recurring cast all that much.

YuuMori has no foreshadowing and has bad writing.

Untrue. YuuMori had several instances of foreshadowing throughout it's course. A lot of the character interactions can in fact be seen in a different light when you go back to them after certain key events. Sherlock's interactions with Adler foreshadow his eventual transition into Bond. A lot of conversations between the Moriarty gang foreshadow events that happen in the final problem, chapter 31 Durham date is literally just a pile of foreshadowing disguised as an adorable friendly date. Secondly, YuuMori has pretty strong and tight knit writing. Not only does it seamlessly create new stories out of original stories from the Doyle canon but it also switches up things to both fit into the new version while staying true in its essence of the Doyle canon. Oh and let's not forget how strong the development is, every relationship is expanded upon well enough to justify how certain deep bonds work.

YuuMori has no development between Sherlock and Liam.

Okay now this is just bs or anime only talk but the fact that that angry person keeps insisting that manga sherliam have no development either throws me for a loop. Seriously William's letter basically spells out why they are both so attached to each other and chapter 31 is literally those two growing even more fond of each other. Seriously, how is Sherlock knowing Adler for 1.5 days during which he was irritated with her for 80% of the time enough to be seen as endgame while Sherlock openly admiring and travelling 10 hours just so he can visit Liam "anytime he wants" not enough development to justify his attachment?

YuuMori glamorizes mental illness.

No. Just no. None of the Moriarty brothers are mentally stable, Albert's ocd variant is genuinely terrifying but not because it makes him evil but rather because of how much it breaks the mind of a child when left untreated. William's depression has left him emotionally stunted and incapable of seeing any value in his existence, Louis clearly suffers from some kind of anxiety variant which leads to him constantly feeling like he is never enough for his brothers. Moran's PTSD is never mocked or misrepresented, Sherlock's canonically neurodivergent traits have not been erased even if he's been made slightly more personable (yes neurodivergent people can be personable, they're not all extreme loners).

At no point are you made to believe that Albert's desperate need to clean everything is quirky, or Liam's suicidal tendencies are cool and fun. That's just a really bad take of someone scraping the bottom of the barrel for something to hate on.

YuuMori glamorizes terrorism and martyrdom.

I mean...Moriarty is literally a villain protagonist? He's a literal terrorist?? Nobody (with two functioning braincells) that I've talked to about YuuMori has ever felt that we are supposed to like Moriarty's actions at any point. We are supposed to agree with his beliefs and feel for him but not agree with his method. We are supposed to root for Sherlock, his adversary, which we actually do. We aren't cheering on a terrorist, we are cheering on a good guy murdering absolute scum that hunt kids for fun and actively torture the weak. Remove the nationalistic aspect and people would be raving about how good Moriarty is. As for glamorizing martyrdom...again, nobody in the series is an actual martyr for their country. They are all willing to die for the people, Liam sees no worth in his existence outside of helping the weak finally find equality, Albert sees no value in his existence, Moran has lost all purpose and latches onto the ideals of a child because of how his mind was broken from his own people betraying his trust. Sherlock has no intentions of being a martyr. There's no glamorization of martyrdom at any point in the story. At no point does anyone say "I will die for my country" and is praised for it.

Last but not the least, just because you are queer, doesn't mean you aren't an asshole. If you're going to sit on your imaginary high horse and spout nonsense actively calling other queer people delusional fake fetishists because they like a headcanon/ship you don't you're kind of a jackass and probably need to rethink your argument entirely. If you think the majority of the fandom is delusional because they read the very blatant subtext in their own way instead of your own then you need to step away from your device and touch some grass. If you are going to sit there and actively negate the experiences of millions of queer people or people with psychological disorders because they like a ship or show or headcanon you hate then you can't really pull the "I'm queer too" card. And stop calling the fandom jokes attacks. If shippers of the pairing or headcanon call insanely aggressive antis who insist on using main tags to talk shit about the ship or headcanon and insistently tell LGBT folk we are dirty lustful people for being gay on several platforms, they are refering to those assholes. If you're not the one doing such things people aren't talking about you.