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Do you 'support' LGBT supports in "Fire Emblem: if"?


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Do you 'support' LGBT supports in "Fire Emblem: if"?  

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  1. 1. Do you 'support' LGBT supports in "Fire Emblem: if"?

    • Yes, I would like to see - or wouldn't mind - LGBT characters in "Fire Emblem: If"
      364
    • No, I would not like to see - or would mind - LGBT characters in "Fire Emblem: If"
      87


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Most of Japan's representation of homosexuals in media such as anime and video games is very stereotypical, even today, as they are commonly used for comedic relief/value. Sure there are some cases where this is not the case but said cases are few and far between, sometimes it's so subtle that it's practically just speculation held amongst fans, or it's just incredibly vague like Ike and Soren's PoR and RD interactions/endings, are they best friends or lovers? Nobody knows! Personally I would not want a stereotypical LGBT character in FE as it just further reinforces the stereotype, and stereotypes aren't fun, and from what we've seen there's enough interaction between certain characters that hints towards LGBT relationships, even if there is no actual S support for said relationships (I'm mainly looking at Silas' dialogue with Male Corrin and Camilla's description in Belka's description). So there's a bit of something there for us regardless. It's a bit of a bummer but if there isn't any straight-up LGBT representation in this latest title, as there most likely won't be, then so be it. Let us hold out hope for the next one and stop arguing about a feature not being included in a game that is almost already out as it's kinda becoming a bit pointless to continue this 'discussion' and people are starting to get a bit too heated for my tastes.

Edited by Kyza
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Most of Japan's representation of homosexuals in media such as anime and video games is very stereotypical, even today, as they are commonly used for comedic relief/value. Sure there are some cases where this is not the case but said cases are few and far between, sometimes it's so subtle that it's practically just speculation held amongst fans, or it's just incredibly vague like Ike and Soren's PoR and RD interactions/endings, are they best friends or lovers? Nobody knows! Personally I would not want a stereotypical LGBT character in FE as it just further reinforces the stereotype, and stereotypes aren't fun, and from what we've seen there's enough interaction between certain characters that hints towards LGBT relationships, even if there is no actual S support for said relationships (I'm mainly looking at Silas' dialogue with Male Corrin and Camilla's description in Belka's description). So there's a bit of something there for us regardless. It's a bit of a bummer but if there isn't any straight-up LGBT representation in this latest title, as there most likely won't be, then so be it. Let us hold out hope for the next one and stop arguing about a feature not being included in a game that is almost already out as it's kinda becoming a bit pointless to continue this 'discussion' and people are starting to get a bit too heated for my tastes.

There have been stereotypical gay characters in all sorts of media for generations. They are only very slowly changing that. The characters are starting to get more pronounced. But that is because media is a reflection of our current culture. When more and more people became aware of homsexuals they included what they thought were homosexuals. When people became aware that those aren't really homsexuals they started demanding change.

It's an involved process and it took actual representation for things to get rolling. And for that matter FE had gay stereotypes before (just last game in fact): Victor and Vincent.

Maybe it's time they actually started to think of homosexuals as characters by making them main units instead of caricatures.

And Fire Emblem has been filled with flat, one-note characters for a long time now.

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Yeah, obviously no one wants a gross stereotype, and I know Japan has it's own issues with depictions of LBGT people. But ironically, Fire Emblem has actually been sort of okay in it's depictions of gay (not cannon, maybe just subjective, but definitely hinting) characters, at least when considering major characters. Take, as you mentioned, Ike and Soren. That wasn't official, but, it was really suggestive, and their relationship was pretty touching, and their characters didn't really fall into terrible gay stereotypes.

It just seems like it would have been very easy for IS to go the extra step, and not leave it at just "maybe? Are they? Well they could be" and actually have some canon same sex romances. And I would have loved to see that.

I knew it was a faint hope, but it's still sad to see it (probably) shattered now.

Edited by Mad_Scientist
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On the other hand telling people that it not ok to force developer to add in LGBT representation without them having any vision of doing so in the first place is called homophobe and bigot. Especially when the game video is already finished being developing and it out on the market. We can go both way. :D

I don't see how anybody has forced, or could force, the developer to do anything. As far as I am aware nobody here has any direct means of communication with IS, let alone the power to force them to change their game.

Edited by EJ107
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I don't see how anybody has forced the developer to do anything. As far as I am aware nobody here has any direct means of communication with IS, let alone the power to force them to change their game.

By the power of Greyskull, I compel you to include more gay characters! :P

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I love how if someone gets called out for saying something utterly insensitive the automatic response they give is something like: "Whatever man I just like messing with you guys. You take it too seriously anyway." And then we've got people literally trying to compare the strife and inequality those in the LGBT community face with that of being an atheist. And let's not forget the "it adds nothing to the game" shtick. I'm a straight male and an atheist, and even I can see that when you've got a game that dedicates so many aspects of itself to relationships and romance, in 2015, in seems like almost a given that homosexuality should at the very least, be maturely and tastefully included in the game.

I'm black, and yea it would be great to play a black self insert, but Kamui's canon family is obviously Asian. Yes, i'm atheist, but it seems like everyone worships some dragon god or another. But (almost) everyone fucks. We have a freaking facerubbing mechanic! And Kamui can most likely romantically support with everyone of the opposite sex in the game, magically making anyone fall in love with him/her.

As said before, it is entirely possible for a Japanese gaming company to respectfully include homosexual romantic supports; especially when they've teased them in the past. And honestly I don't play fire emblem just for the strategy. It's fine if you do. But I genuinely like pairing up characters, planning out children's abilities, and roleplaying avatars. No one is forcing them to do anything by having a dialogue about what can be done differently; especially since bitching about Orochi being promiscuous and Camilla being unrealistically curvy is less likely to come under fire.

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Reading this thread has been quite the ride.

I voted yes to queer characters, because why not? It's not taking away from the game or even "adding" anything other than having more options for players. I don't understand how someone could be against a feature that they wouldn't have to pursue if they wanted nothing to do with it. It's kind of how I'll ignore the face rubbing feature, let the people who want that have it. The whole cast wouldn't have to be queer either, just have a few characters that would be responsive to a queer romance from the Avatar (or even other queer units?).

Only issue is that now we know the game features marriage/children so I don't know how that would work. There's always next game I suppose.

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Yeah, obviously no one wants a gross stereotype, and I know Japan has it's own issues with depictions of LBGT people. But ironically, Fire Emblem has actually been sort of okay in it's depictions of gay (not cannon, maybe just subjective, but definitely hinting) characters, at least when considering major characters. Take, as you mentioned, Ike and Soren. That wasn't official, but, it was really suggestive, and their relationship was pretty touching, and their characters didn't really fall into terrible gay stereotypes.

It just seems like it would have been very easy for IS to go the extra step, and not leave it at just "maybe? Are they? Well they could be" and actually have some canon same sex romances. And I would have loved to see that.

I knew it was a faint hope, but it's still sad to see it (probably) shattered now.

Trust me I agree, I think it could've been an easily included and very much welcomed addition to the game, but I also understand why it probably isn't included in this game. I mean you also have to think about how IS was just brought back from the brink of death through Awakening, they're experimenting with their new fan-base and seeing just what it is they can do without losing said growing fan-base, catering to both old FE fans and new alike with two separate versions including there own sets of mechanics. They're playing it safe per-say despite adding in some outlandish features (skin-shipping/FE Amie), and while I would much rather have had LGBT supports than the face-touching feature it's a step in the right direction. No doubt the next title will most likely feature such supports if this one does, in fact, not. We have only the future to look forward to in that regard.

Edited by Kyza
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Yeah, I have no interest in trying to establish some sort of representation quota on developers or whatever. I just hope for a day when there can be open, respectful same-sex romances without it being seen as a sales liability. As a gay guy myself, I would certainly appreciate it.

Only issue is that now we know the game features marriage/children so I don't know how that would work. There's always next game I suppose.

Intelligent Systems' secret master plan:
Make children a permanent feature in FE so they have an excuse to never include same-sex S-rank supports.
*gasp* Those devious dastards!

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Yes, because I'm a girl who likes other girls too, and it's not about fanservice and being "special", it's about being accepted just like any other straight people too.

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To everyone saying that gay characters aren't part of IS' ~vision~: if someone's vision of the world doesn't include gay characters, there's a 100% chance they're homophobic. Just sayin'.

You can expand your definition of the buzzword 'homophobic' to also include left-handed people and ones who eat vegetables, and I'm sure IS won't care either way.

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To everyone saying that gay characters aren't part of IS' ~vision~: if someone's vision of the world doesn't include gay characters, there's a 100% chance they're homophobic. Just sayin'.

So IS and almost every other Japanese developer is homophobic?

See, I can understand being disappointed, but when people do like to chuck homophobic or transphobic for what is really just being uninclusive at worst, well I really don't agree with that.

Edited by Tryhard
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I really don't care about it, since what I care the most for are well written and/or fun characters, so, for me, it doesn't matter who they are, how they look like, etc, as long as they're enjoyable to read.

But I'm more inclined with "No" because looking at Awakening's writing and how they seem to handle characters in Fates, it'll be a total joke and a lot of people will be more upset than happy. Mark my words on it. If there will be a gay, bisexual or lesbian character their sexuality will be their major trait and if that's not going to cause drama and backlash then I don't know what will. I can already picture million Kotaku articles on it.

SURE, backlash will happen even if we don't have gay characters, but it'll be much less because what's normal (AKA games without homosexuality) attracts less attention, and the majority of people simply don't care much.

I know there has been a whole "You must pretend they will be well written for this poll" discussion on here, but I can't. FE's writing is usually good but not stellar, and the last game in the series, the one Fates will be more similar to, had some people get married because they wanted to experiment baby making in a scientific light. I'll let that sink in.

Of course, I totally expect fanservice like Inigo and Gerome or Severa and Kjelle :/ it wouldn't truly be a fanservice game without your token pseudo-gay undertones. Or a Fire Emblem game, for the matter...

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I don't particularly care, and for that reason I see no reason not to say 'yes, the option should be there.'

The argument I most agree with is that not all characters should be accessible to the avatar, as tempting as that is. While I don't think sexuality should define a character, each character does have their own story and was raised a certain way. This is why they would be attracted to certain people. Maybe one good gay and lesbian option would be nice. TBF the last statistic I saw stated that only about 2% of the entire US population is gay/lesbian, so in terms of that having one for each seems like a decent way to go?

Maybe that's not enough, but I'm more worried about well-written characters and supports with maybe even a small impact those relationships should have in the overall story.

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I really don't care about it, since what I care the most for are well written and/or fun characters, so, for me, it doesn't matter who they are, how they look like, etc, as long as they're enjoyable to read.

But I'm more inclined with "No" because looking at Awakening's writing and how they seem to handle characters in Fates, it'll be a total joke and a lot of people will be more upset than happy. Mark my words on it. If there will be a gay, bisexual or lesbian character their sexuality will be their major trait and if that's not going to cause drama and backlash then I don't know what will. I can already picture million Kotaku articles on it.

SURE, backlash will happen even if we don't have gay characters, but it'll be much less because what's normal (AKA games without homosexuality) attracts less attention, and the majority of people simply don't care much.

I know there has been a whole "You must pretend they will be well written for this poll" discussion on here, but I can't. FE's writing is usually good but not stellar, and the last game in the series, the one Fates will be more similar to, had some people get married because they wanted to experiment baby making in a scientific light. I'll let that sink in.

Of course, I totally expect fanservice like Inigo and Gerome or Severa and Kjelle :/ it wouldn't truly be a fanservice game without your token pseudo-gay undertones. Or a Fire Emblem game, for the matter...

Look at Vincent and Viktor. They were horrible gay stereotypes played for comedy. No one batted an eye at that. I have previously stated that bad representation is better than no representation, because it will force the writers to actually confront this issue. Fine, let there be backlash on a subpar written character, and then the next games gay characters will be better written, because they will actually have some feedback on it.

I really don't get it, why must gay character be THE BEST WRITTEN characters.

Let's be honest most characters in Fire Emblem aren't really well developed compared to other game series. There are usually tons of throw away characters that have exactly one personality trait and not much else going for them. If one of these would be *gasp* gayness it would be unfortunate but not exaclty a novelty.

Usually the media evolves 'minority' characters the following way:

No representation->Caricature->Token->Saint/Genius->well-written character.

I have not seen it evolve differently yet. we have already had caricatures (agaon Vincent and Viktor). Let the next steps follow if they must.

But having Kamui be able to romance characters of the same gender wouldn't really have to change anything. The characters personalities and motivations remain the same, they are just attracted to each other. They have done Ike and Soren tastefully before (then chose to hide it). Let there be two gay options for each gender on each side and you wouldn't have to change anything for them.

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Look at Vincent and Viktor. They were horrible gay stereotypes played for comedy. No one batted an eye at that. I have previously stated that bad representation is better than no representation, because it will force the writers to actually confront this issue. Fine, let there be backlash on a subpar written character, and then the next games gay characters will be better written, because they will actually have some feedback on it.

I really don't get it, why must gay character be THE BEST WRITTEN characters.

Let's be honest most characters in Fire Emblem aren't really well developed compared to other game series. There are usually tons of throw away characters that have exactly one personality trait and not much else going for them. If one of these would be *gasp* gayness it would be unfortunate but not exaclty a novelty.

Usually the media evolves 'minority' characters the following way:

No representation->Caricature->Token->Saint/Genius->well-written character.

I have not seen it evolve differently yet. we have already had caricatures (agaon Vincent and Viktor). Let the next steps follow if they must.

But having Kamui be able to romance characters of the same gender wouldn't really have to change anything. The characters personalities and motivations remain the same, they are just attracted to each other. They have done Ike and Soren tastefully before (then chose to hide it). Let there be two gay options for each gender on each side and you wouldn't have to change anything for them.

Vincent and Victor are very irrelevant, VILLAINS and are nobody really remembers them. Let's be honest here, lol.

I'm not saying gay characters have to be the best written evarrrr, just not caricatures represented only by their sexuality. That is very enough to not spark drama, IMO.

If say, there was a gay character, but their main trait was, I dunno, being the best swordfighter ever, and his love for dudes came only in his supports with the serious archer or in his supports with other characters, I would be okay with that and it'd be done in true past FE fashion, where supports revealed us more things about certain characters instead of playing always with what their description says.

I am extremely negative after seeing the quality of certain supports in Awakening, and I'd rather IS to not touch the subject instead of sparking drama, hate and backlash by making a character like Victor or Vincent playable :/ Japan won't react much but as I said, I really expect a lot of negative attention from the press.

It could be a step forward but... I don't know, I'm not convinced by it 100%.

Then, the Kamui issue... that is a very touchy subject and I didn't touch upon it.

People will be upset if certain characters can only be romanced by a certain gender, and I'm not talking about straight people, but people in general. It's a lot about istant gratification and wish fulfillment, and I don't have much respect for the mechanic, even if I enjoyed marrying my favorite characters, both boys and girls, even if I wasn't attracted to them. In the end I don't know what to say because I can't think of something with it that can make everyone happy :/

ALSO... let's not talk about Ike/Soren and other similar supports. It's not the same thing, because it's open to interpretation. People will always interpret it differently, like with Lyn and Florina, with Kjelle and Severa... etc. Granted the last example is flat out fanservice, lol, but what I mean is: unless it's EXPLICITLY stated otherwise, in my opinion, it doesn't work, because different people means different views.

True representation has to be blunt, direct, not subtle and interpretable, so that only delusional people will pretend the character in question is not really gay.

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Vincent and Victor are very irrelevant, VILLAINS and are nobody really remembers them. Let's be honest here, lol.

I'm not saying gay characters have to be the best written evarrrr, just not caricatures represented only by their sexuality. That is very enough to not spark drama, IMO.

If say, there was a gay character, but their main trait was, I dunno, being the best swordfighter ever, and his love for dudes came only in his supports with the serious archer or in his supports with other characters, I would be okay with that and it'd be done in true past FE fashion, where supports revealed us more things about certain characters instead of playing always with what their description says.

I am extremely negative after seeing the quality of certain supports in Awakening, and I'd rather IS to not touch the subject instead of sparking drama, hate and backlash by making a character like Victor or Vincent playable :/ Japan won't react much but as I said, I really expect a lot of negative attention from the press.

It could be a step forward but... I don't know, I'm not convinced by it 100%.

Then, the Kamui issue... that is a very touchy subject and I didn't touch upon it.

People will be upset if certain characters can only be romanced by a certain gender, and I'm not talking about straight people, but people in general. It's a lot about istant gratification and wish fulfillment, and I don't have much respect for the mechanic, even if I enjoyed marrying my favorite characters, both boys and girls, even if I wasn't attracted to them. In the end I don't know what to say because I can't think of something with it that can make everyone happy :/

ALSO... let's not talk about Ike/Soren and other similar supports. It's not the same thing, because it's open to interpretation. People will always interpret it differently, like with Lyn and Florina, with Kjelle and Severa... etc. Granted the last example is flat out fanservice, lol, but what I mean is: unless it's EXPLICITLY stated otherwise, in my opinion, it doesn't work, because different people means different views.

True representation has to be blunt, direct, not subtle and interpretable, so that only delusional people will pretend the character in question is not really gay.

I only brought in the Vs as examples of badly written gay caricatures in FE. They exist already and yes their presence is known.

But as you said they are villains and FE villains often don't have many character traits. I really doubt we will ever get characters like these as playable units with supports.

Yes, the fiasco with restricting characters based on sexuality is well known..in the west. Japanese audiences have generally been more accepting of homosexuality, as it is not seen as sinful or debauched over there. It's also not taken seriously and viewed as a phase one grows out of, but I highly doubt Japan would have any big backlash. The western side is definitly more tricky, but look at Dragon Age: There was a big controversy and lots of homophobic jerks whining, but in the end it didn't hurt their sales one bit. Maybe we need to stop tiptoeing around the issue and just confront the gaming scenes huge weakpoints, or else we will never make any progress.

We don't need to make everyone happy, just see to it that everyone be treated fairly.

And Ike/Soren was only brought up as an example of how a same sex romance in Fire Emblem could work. For these two all we need is a dev to say "Yo they are gay" and everything else is already settled. If we can have similar story arcs for Kamui and whoever, except stating it out loud, it would be great.

And even when devs state it, there will still be people in denial. When this happened with The Last of us someone had the gall to say to me:"The gay community forced them to say that. Character X is really just experimenting and not really gay/bisexual.". Sometimes people won't listen even if they get a sledgehammer to the face. We don't need to cater to these people.

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I only brought in the Vs as examples of badly written gay caricatures in FE. They exist already and yes their presence is known.

But as you said they are villains and FE villains often don't have many character traits. I really doubt we will ever get characters like these as playable units with supports.

Yes, the fiasco with restricting characters based on sexuality is well known..in the west. Japanese audiences have generally been more accepting of homosexuality, as it is not seen as sinful or debauched over there. It's also not taken seriously and viewed as a phase one grows out of, but I highly doubt Japan would have any big backlash. The western side is definitly more tricky, but look at Dragon Age: There was a big controversy and lots of homophobic jerks whining, but in the end it didn't hurt their sales one bit. Maybe we need to stop tiptoeing around the issue and just confront the gaming scenes huge weakpoints, or else we will never make any progress.

We don't need to make everyone happy, just see to it that everyone be treated fairly.

And Ike/Soren was only brought up as an example of how a same sex romance in Fire Emblem could work. For these two all we need is a dev to say "Yo they are gay" and everything else is already settled. If we can have similar story arcs for Kamui and whoever, except stating it out loud, it would be great.

And even when devs state it, there will still be people in denial. When this happened with The Last of us someone had the gall to say to me:"The gay community forced them to say that. Character X is really just experimenting and not really gay/bisexual.". Sometimes people won't listen even if they get a sledgehammer to the face. We don't need to cater to these people.

I'm not sure if Japan is more accepting. Terms like "ookama" exist and are used a lot, even in children media like the Pokèmon anime. They'd probably be more lax with it.

In America, I'm sure people would either be super happy or think it's all about some gay agenda.

Either way I was in no way talking about controversy from anti-gay people but controversy from gay people or people who support them: having a character like Vincent or Victor playable, and have them be THE gay character of the game, that would spark controversy, because they'd be ridiculous and a walking joke and everyone would have the right to complain. That's what I meant. I'm afraid it'd spark a lot of backlash.

Maybe we should stop tip-toeing around it, but I doubt Fates is the right game to do this if the characters are handled like Awakening's. At this point I'd rather have homosexual characters in FE15... yes I am this pessimistic about Fates' writing, lol. At least the gameplay looks super fun.

And regarding the people who bitch at the game and the characters stating they are gay, they are just delusional. Already said that. There's no need for devs to say anything, it's the game who needs to be blunt and direct about it, and that's why I don't think any of the possible examples in the series are valid, as much as I love certain couples and as much as I'd love them to be canon, because it's all open to interpretation, and people have the right to interpret things differently.

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I'm not sure if Japan is more accepting. Terms like "ookama" exist and are used a lot, even in children media like the Pokèmon anime. They'd probably be more lax with it.

In America, I'm sure people would either be super happy or think it's all about some gay agenda.

Either way I was in no way talking about controversy from anti-gay people but controversy from gay people or people who support them: having a character like Vincent or Victor playable, and have them be THE gay character of the game, that would spark controversy, because they'd be ridiculous and a walking joke and everyone would have the right to complain. That's what I meant. I'm afraid it'd spark a lot of backlash.

Maybe we should stop tip-toeing around it, but I doubt Fates is the right game to do this if the characters are handled like Awakening's. At this point I'd rather have homosexual characters in FE15... yes I am this pessimistic about Fates' writing, lol. At least the gameplay looks super fun.

And regarding the people who bitch at the game and the characters stating they are gay, they are just delusional. Already said that. There's no need for devs to say anything, it's the game who needs to be blunt and direct about it, and that's why I don't think any of the possible examples in the s eries are valid, as much as I love certain couples and as much as I'd love them to be canon, because it's all open to interpretation, and people have the right to interpret things differently.

I know that Japan is homophobic in it's own way, which is what I wrote in my last post.

While I also do not think that Fates will have the best writing, I doubt they'd go the Viktor and Vincent route with actual playable characters. They could only write gay jokes so many times before they become stale even to them.

Will our first playable gay FE character be a well-written nuanced person. Probably not, but having a badly written representation is better than no representation. It might be a necessesary first step in the right direction.

If they do a badly written gay unit and get lots of backlash maybe they will put more effort into the next one.

Should the series is still around in 15 years what would be better: Having a more than a couple gay characters with the first being kinda stereotypical in personality (not to V levels of course), but improving as they go along? Or still be arguing if we should or should not include gay characters in the next game because they might be badly written?

Personally I am done hiding my identity in real life. I don't feel like going back to that in a game.

As for stating things in the game itself. Believe me, people will argue that there is nothing there until they see actual sex scenes. The Last of Us had a kiss and people were still in denial. There will always be idiots who don't believe two characters are gay unless they are actively going at each other. Our media shouldn't have to devolve into hardcore porn to make people understand.

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Regardless of how the characters are written, considering that IS made a point in Awakening to allow the player to marry every single character in the game, even those who don't support anyone else and even those who also might be their own children in another playthrough (well, except for Morgan) regardless of how forced it would feel, I at least don't see a reason why the player shouldn't also be given the option to marry those characters of the same gender as well. That seems simple enough.

Edited by BrightBow
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Quite frankly I doubt I can contribute anymore to the conversation after that bombastic piece Eclipse ended up writing a few pages back. Personally, I'd go with No as my choice, simply because of the idea that if IS starts going down this path, and they don't execute it PERFECTLY, the tumblr shitstorm that will result from it might either be the most hilarious or disgusting thing I've ever seen.

Mind you that's not necessarily a bad thing, I'd get a few chuckles out of it but I'd rather have that not fully start to taint my vidya if I can help it, not like Japan really gives a damn if the west gets 'offended' or 'triggered' and I thank them for that.

Also there's just a bit of personal bias here because if we open the floodgates, all that IkeXSoren shit is going to come back and I doubt many of us really want that.

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Personally, I'd go with No as my choice, simply because of the idea that if IS starts going down this path, and they don't execute it PERFECTLY, the tumblr shitstorm that will result from it might either be the most hilarious or disgusting thing I've ever seen.

That's such a terrible reason. Why should you care?

Besides, I do believe IS can write OK (clearly) homosexual characters. After all, they did write a good transgender character...

So yes, I am all for it and disappointed by the recent developments. Oh, well...

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Okay, a few things to note. Many people have commented on Japan's attitudes on homosexuality vs the US, and which is more "accepting" of it or whatever. The thing is, you can't just say that either the US or Japan is better when it comes to homosexuality, because there are a lot of different factors at play, and both cultures have their issues.

For example, in the US, conservative Christianity has had a huge impact on the country, and even people who aren't Christian are often shaped by that culture. As a result, there is the potential (especially common in the past) for people to object to and raise a huge fuss over merely the existence of a homosexual character, especially if it's in a work directed towards children. Simply acknowledging that homosexual people exist is corrupting children and spreading sin, or encouraging unnatural life styles, etc.

Well, there are very few Christians in Japan, so this entire aspect of US culture that completely dominates and shapes the way people view same sex romances is completely absent from Japan. That's why Sailor Moon can air on Japanese TV decades ago and feature Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune as lovers, and it's fine, but when the show got brought to the US they changed it and made them cousins and tried to hide their relationship.

That's why even as recently as Radiant Dawn, a lesbian character like Heather is much more explicitly lesbian in the Japanese version, but in the US version is toned down a bit. (Though it's still pretty blatant.)

Well, Japan doesn't have the whole Christian attitudes about homosexuality weighing it down, but it does have plenty of its own issues, ranging from horrible stereotypes and ignorance to cultural attitudes about gender roles. A lot of Japan's baggage about homosexuality is related to the traditional attitudes about gender roles that the country. You get things like the Class S bs, where lesbianism is considered just a phase, but actually a fine phase for schoolgirls to go through so they can "practice" with each other with romantic relationships while still remaining all pure and innocent and untainted by a man for their future husbands. (In the US "it's just a phase" is also a common view, but it's more of a denial, a "no way, my child can't be gay!" and not a "yah, practice with other girls and then marry a dude" thing.)

Honestly, I'm not an expert on Japan, so take my comments about homosexuality in the country with a bit of a grain of salt. But that is the impression I've gotten, from reading from people who are experts.

There are two points to all this that I'm trying to make. One is that yah, we can point to specific examples that would make Japan look super progressive compared to the US (same sex lovers in a kids cartoon decades ago!) and examples that would make Japan look super regressive compared to the US (the V pirates in Awakening. Ugh). But in truth the answer is not so simple.

And second, Japan isn't going to throw a fit if there happens to be a possible same-sex romance in Fire Emblem. A bunch of people over there aren't going to throw a protest about how Nintendo is pushing "the gay agenda" or anything. No one's gonna say "Nintendo is a kids company, how dare you corrupt our children!" because two dudes kissed. That is not the type of issue Japan has regarding homosexuality.

So that's not gonna be a danger in Japan, and it's not like they even need to worry about that in the US. Attitudes are changing. Sailor Moon may have changed lesbians to cousins in it's first dub, but now we got Legend of Korra doing a vague bisexual ending (confirmed by the creators online to be canon bisexuals in love) and Steven Universe doing a much more explicit, clear depiction of lesbian lovers. In a kid's show. And Steven Universe is a smash hit. There's still pushback in some places, but it's not so bad as it was before.

Also, if people were going to get all up in arms about something in Fire Emblem, need I remind you that Fire Emblem Fates has, as an enthusiastic Famitisu writer described, "Skinship! Your real sister! Skinship with your real sister!" I'm pretty sure that Nintendo and Intelligent Systems aren't that concerned with what might cause a fuss in the US in their current design of Fire Emblem.

So really, there is absolutely nothing stopping them from including some same sex romances, other than inertia.

Edited by Mad_Scientist
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