I Talk And You Are My Captive Audience

@moophinz

It's really not like the writers themselves try desperately hard to force the audience to see Majima Goro as a totally heterosexual and completely straight acting man. However, some circles of the audience haven't gotten the memo and will harshly defend the honor of a man who's not real. As much as I've easily come across those that are accepting and fans that are queer themselves, I've also crossed paths with loud bi/homophobes who try to attack or pester those that don't see him the same way they do. In truth, I've never seen such a large concentration of people who are starkly against the notion that a fictional character could be bisexual or gay. (With a concerning amount of people who seem to outright refuse to believe bisexuality is even a viable orientation. He must be one or the other). And as I stated at the beginning, the writers aren't giving him a new girl every game. He's had less romantic interests of the opposite sex than Kiryu- a very un-horny man who's had at least four(or five) if you want to include his place in spinoff games Kenzan and Ishin.

It's nothing new to any fandom (and it's nothing new for me to bring it up), but it can still be upsetting and frustrating to watch bigoted people parade around a specific character in a series you enjoy. All while claiming they know them better than anyone else. I go through this with Sora from Kingdom Hearts who's another character that isn't exactly the poster child for traditional masculinity, and other characters of that specific variety.

Majima has only had two female love interests across the series so far, and we only see him interact with one of them while we're left up to the word of other characters outside his POV for the second interest. While he clearly cared a lot for Makoto, the Majima Saga of Kiwami 2 reveals she's started a family and will soon be living in another country. She's got her own life; a much better and happier one. Yet, she's still used by some as a prop for the sake of Majima being viewed as hetero, and some still want him to be hung up on a woman he loved over two decades ago. I can't deny that it starts to feel desperate and creepy. Him meeting her again just gave him a chance to see how well she's doing for herself and move on from that. I also can't deny it's frustrating to watch people treat Makoto in a way that completely denies her her own character in order to do what they think will make Majima happy.

As depicted by Goromi, and his pink dump trucks that debuted in Y3, Majima must be a fan of the flashiest shades of pink. Having a drag persona alone is something I think would turn certain fans away from him. It does to some small degree. Spinoffs like Dead Souls feature Majima being even more openly queer or disinterested in women than he is for the most part in the main games. While not canon, he's still depicted as being really into Daigo crossdressing and asking him if he's "ever thought of switchin sides." He gets genuinely disgruntled over not being able to kiss him, too. In Kenzan, he doesn't gain any feelings toward a woman he's lived with for a while, choosing to instead view her as a sister. (His treatment of the cabaret girls in 0 is similar. No attraction, just slightly younger women he views as if they're his daughters). Kiryu is the one who ends up with her for a year. This isn't even scratching the surface of multiple actions from Majima and things he's said during the main games. Viewing Majima as queer is nothing invalid, but at the same time, no one should be treated as if they have to pull out a novel to defend themselves from attackers.

The homophobia rears its ugly head in a format that I haven't seen jumped on a lot for other characters. "Majima isn't gay or bi. He's just crazy." It's the most absurd thing I've seen someone say on this topic to be honest about it. Shrugging away the perception of him not being straight by claiming any non-heteronormative behavior is the product of him just being a zany guy who seeks to strike fear and intimidate other men? Is he only stable minded when it involves women? That's sadly not all this mindset involves. There tends to be a push from those who aren't comfortable with their own orientations to not apply labels to characters. Claiming that queer people attaching queer labels to characters is wrong, but it's totally okay to call these same characters straight is hypocritical. Heterosexuality is also a label. Ironically, those with their own discomforts tend to praise and refer to Majima as a man who's just really comfortable with himself. Nothing more, nothing less.

Thank you so much!

I do plan on getting to them after talking about Kaiba and Atem, and then Judai and Manjoume since I’ve been wanting to take a closer look into each of the rival-protagonist duos. I also need to refresh my memory on some things here and there. Rest assured, I’ll definitely be getting to them sooner or later.

Thank you for enjoying the analysis!

The romantic relationships in 5Ds and GX— meaning characters who like one another regardless of whether it’s returned and are consistently reoccurring. I have a few hang ups with most of them, and I’ve always wanted to talk about them. Hoping that it’s not misunderstood as me taking shots at anyone. I just wanna air my grievances with a lot of the writing as I analyze them all.

Kaiba’s strange relationship with Kisara and the BEWD. Again, I have some problems with the writing and really want to discuss these.

Writing decisions made when crafting Kaiba and Atem’s relationship that lend to different takes on their dynamic.

Possibly, a post on the writing of different female leads in the franchise and how Kotori is the most disappointing one thanks to Yoshida while the lead Sevens girl (I’ve forgotten her name already lord help me) has my least favorite design. (Can’t comment on writing as I haven’t watched Sevens). Also, definitely stuff about how often people bash Anzu or use her for terrible NSFW.

Maybe more Kingdom Hearts posts since this blog isn’t just for YGO.

On a different note, Shark is pretty much written as a tsundere. Male tsunderes are rare, and Shark basically fits the notes to be one.

While he isn’t cartoonishly mean to Yuma purely from liking him, he does treat him a particular way in his rudeness. He wants to be his friend, but pushes him away quite a bit (as he believes he’s too dangerous for Yuma’s safety).

When presented with others gushing over or simply praising Yuma (like the teacher does when comparing him to the sun), Shark maintains his cool and seemingly careless facade. Only to then in private, show a soft side and fondly think or speak of Yuma. Rio has said he talks about the other boy all the time. He also doesn’t express this fondness so directly until the near end of the series where he gushes to Yuma in the middle of a duel.

In said duel, he uses a line like “worming your(read:Yuma’s) way into everyone’s hearts.”

When Yuma expresses joy and wants to be affectionate towards him for his overt moments of kindness, Shark gets aggressive, denies it, will even curse at him, and even blushes (like in Duel Links).

He constantly turns away from Yuma when deep down, he deeply desires to protect the boy as clearly evidenced multiple times in the show.

More than once, Shark can be seen not-so-subtly staring at Yuma from a distance. One time it’s focused on by the camera. The next, he’s sat in the background, watching the other very closely. It almost feels like a different display of his literal watchfulness.

There’s one side of both fandoms teeming with homophobes ready to leave hateful comments on gay content of any sort.

This was on an image of a gay pairing. I included the first one since I view it as an unnecessary statement to make, especially when the pairing they bring up hasn’t actually been canonized. The second one does the same thing. The bottom two are not only disgusting for the first portion of what they said, but also because they dare to tack on a compliment. It’s incredibly backhanded. “I find the content horrific, but it’s so pretty lol.” Don’t do things like this. Another common comment is “This ruined my childhood.”

In the KH fandom, where antis commonly lead targeted attacks on LGBT+ shippers, this is an unsurprising sight for some people. Again, people pull out straight pairings that aren’t actually canonized to use against queer content. There’s just an automatic assumption based on little details or writing that isn’t very fleshed out.

These are two examples, but things can be far worse and tiring for individuals with how frequently they happen. It may go without saying that this behavior isn’t exclusive to these two communities.

YGO DM is long since finished, but several viewers have a very skewered version of events in their heads. This comes from stuff like the dub and possibly influence from other people who’ve given their own distorted understandings of the story. The actual story paints an unusual friendship between Kaiba and Atem that’s sadly often considered nothing more than a cold rivalry where Kaiba despises Atem. Despite evidence from canon that shows the exact opposite (such as a scene in DSOD where Yugi demands to duel Aigami for sending a friend- Bakura- to another dimension to which Kaiba allows the duel because he relates to Yugi’s struggle). It’s also been consistently stated that their relationship is hard to define for each character, but there is a bond with genuine care. Speaking of DSOD, it’s gotten and still gets some amount of hate by fans who consider it a waste since the story isn’t exactly what they wanted/expected. It’s fine to not like the movie, but claiming stuff like it’s bad writing just because it’s not what you believed of the story is being childish.

Seeing as how KH is far from over, and Nomura has so many interesting writing methods, the franchise has its own enormous crowd of those snubbing Nomura around every corner. The games carry a staggering amount of plot implications, foreshadowing, and details one has to pay attention across every entry. Countless players despise the complex narrative- which, again, isn’t an inherent problem- and scream that Nomura is incompetent. He’s said himself that he enjoys theories, but many of these same detractors become angry with others who look into the seemingly normal details and tell them they’re wasting their time. It’s not enough to be angry with a frame franchise they’re still closely following, but they have to try to stop others from it. This isn’t even getting into how several higher ups in the franchise’s development team have made it clear time and time again that Riku and Sora are the most important characters. Much to the anguish of some of the detractors who also coincidentally despise Riku.

This may be a minor note depending on how you look at it, but... both fandoms have a number of male fans who project their desires onto the leads and openly fantasize about Sora and Atem going around and sleeping with almost every female character. The number of times I’ve seen this happen with them is just gross to put it plainly.