#probably controversial

And people don't have to like it but I have to say it, as I do want to be honest with all of my readers. Even if it makes me sound like a spoiled child.

I am still considering holding up the cancelation of TL.

"Oh god here she goes again 🙄" but just hear me out okay? I'm going to be completely and fully honest about the situation which is something I was not going to do before.

And this went long, no one has to care or read it, but I'm putting it out there anyways because I decided I'm going into my brutally honest phase and so, I'm going to start here.

We’ve lost the line between pretend and real, fiction and fact, even a truth and a lie has been fumbled and muddled up. This is a lot to do with social media (you know they’re still putting on a show for us in all those interviews and bts… ) but there are other things too making this weird; a strange desire for a definite right and wrong, one that can’t change , a perfection and moral purity that allows no opportunities for people to live and learn and change. An obsession with sharing everything with strangers online, expecting them to share everything back.

You don’t need to know the sexuality of that actor for it to be “realistic” “meaningful” “valid” - they’re pretending… acting, if you will, and the actor isn’t your beloved character.

It’s not a lie it’s a job.

Bisexual Ilya would be very different than another role Connor Storie might take where the character is also bi or gay or not. Maybe Ilya is good rep for you maybe he’s not. That has nothing to do with the actor.

You’re identifying with the character, the actor’s portrayal of whoever, not the actor. If the job they do is good enough and respectful and shows how it could be to live that story for real for anyone out there then what’s the problem with keeping their private life private.

Heartstoppers Nick is bisexual so is Ilya. Shane Hollander is a gay man in hiding for ten years, Antony Bridgeton is straight, his brother is bi or something like it. Buck is bi, Hen is a lesbian, Eddie thinks he’s straight. None of that has anything to do with the people pretending to be these things.

So if the portrayal of the character speaks to someone (and please let’s remember what doesn’t speak to you maybe does speak to someone else because ya know infinite diversity in infinite combinations) it really doesn’t matter if actor is this or that.

I thought about it, and after reading your opinions, I decided it was time to make a post about this thing.  Because of what I’m currently (and very slowly) writing, I developed quite the explanation about the mask rule of the Sanctuary, and I think now it’s about time to post it. 

Let’s start from what the mask rule, canonically, is.

It started because no females were allowed to be a Saint, so the woman that wants to become one has to cover her face and renounce her gender. This led to the “kill or love” conundrum, because being seen by a man without the mask is terribly humiliating for the woman. 

And this, as the one and only explanation, is not good. 

What I did, and what I normally use now as a modernized explanation and as my personal interpretation, is the following. Keep in mind, this actually changes something from the canon, since it’s an interpretation. 

The mask slowly became more of a tradition to be followed than something to be wear just in order to be able to fight. Renouncing their gender is not strictly necessary for women all the time, because times have changed, but female Saints still wear the mask for traditional purposes, other than by law.  It is still a law in the XX century, but girls are not forced anymore to wear masks during their training (opposite to the canon, where they do), and they have to adopt it only when becoming a Saint. If they join Athena’s regular army, they have no obligation to wear the mask, because they’re not Saints. 

Now, my interpretation of the “kill or love” thing is this: if a woman willingly takes off the mask in front of a man, then it’s a declaration of love.  If a man (or even a woman, in this case) forcibly takes off the mask from the woman, she is entitled to kill.  If the female Saint loses the mask during a battle, she has no obligation to love or kill a person that sees her face, unless the mask gets deliberately knocked off her face or she willingly removes it. If a woman removes the mask in order to help another Saint (like Marin with Seiya during the Sanctuary Arc), there’s no consequence because it’s necessary. 

Female Saints can freely remove their mask when among other women, even if a female Saint is in love with another woman. If she wants to confess her feelings, she can simply tell her. 

Female Gold Saints, on the other hand, are something I see differently. Because they are Gold Saints, I can accept them not wearing a mask. I don’t want this to become the norm, but I can understand why a highest ranking warrior of Athena that’s also a woman might not want to wear the mask. Also, the Gold Saints are the closest Saints to Athena (after the Saintias, if you take them into the picture), so it could be reasonable for them to be exempt from wearing it. Or to wear a mask, like Sonia, that doesn’t cover the entire face. 

There are still people that complain about it (Shaina, for example), but it’s not humiliating anymore for women to lose their mask, and the law still stands because of tradition, not oppression. 

Keep in mind, for me renouncing the mask is not something that’s possible, because for me renouncing the mask means renouncing the position of Saint, since the woman would go against the law.  It’s not like we don’t have female Saints that don’t have to wear the mask. We have the Saintias, now, that are actually instructed NOT to wear the mask.  Because of this, I stand my ground. The mask is mandatory as a Saint (by law), optional during training, not needed for the regular army (in which women are completely accepted in modern times)

This is why I get extremely pissed off at Yuzuriha not wearing the mask (I can understand Yato and Tenma, but not everyone else), and now at the entire Netflix series twice as much. And at the Eagle in Omega (I forgot her name, forgive my brain).   And this is why I get angry at people using the mask rule as an excuse for male characters to do whatever they want with women that lose their mask in front of them.