#queer coding

“He was so attuned to the forces of nature that many thought that he [mike’s dnd character] would become a ranger or even a druid. But his grandfather was a knight and his father was a knight. So a knight he had to become.”

So a knight he HAD TO become.

im sick.

Not to mention that his mission as a knight is to protect Elven wizard Eleven who is connected to the Eldertree.

and im just gonna leave mike’s s4 dnd hfc character idea here:

this is so heartbreaking.

And let’s not forget: “A paladin who has broken a vow typically seeks absolution from a cleric who shares his or her faith or from another paladin of the same order.” -Dnd player’s handbook

In conclusion, mike’s forced conformity and queerness have never been clearer!!

Thank you for reading! Xx 💙

full pages:

Every time I rewatch Season 4 and get to that moment in episode 1, I can't help but notice what I'm seeing.

Okay maybe I'm delusional (1000000%) and I have no education in film production/editing/directing or anything like that... BUT did anyone else find this scene extremely... weird?

I GET IT, I GET IT, Mike was looking for his sister Nancy to invite her to the Hellfire Club... BUT FOR FUCK'S SAKE!!! This scene?? The focus on the guys?? I mean, the literal FOCUS ON THE GUYS. We get a shot from Mike's POV where he sees one guy (the guy is in focus) then the next shot has a girl and a guy, but the focus is specifically ON THE FUCKING GUY ?????? And only THEN does he notice his sister??? Like dude......you're not even trying. BRO YOUR SISTER DOESN'T LOOK LIKE A DUDE OKAY??? And from a filmmaking perspective... why was it made this way??

God I'm truly losing my mind with all these analyses about Mike's queer coding. I no longer know what's real and what's paranoia SO CAN WE PLEASE JUST GET SEASON 5 AND ALL THE ANSWERS?? I AM THIS CLOSE 🤏 TO A COMPLETE AND UTTER MELTDOWN I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE

Games like Arknights, Reverse:1999, Path to Nowhere, and Nikke are perhaps the most obvious examples of this. Higher budget gachas like Honkai Impact 3rd, ZZZ, and PGR style their cutscenes like VNs but with 3D animated character portraits. Fate Grand Order and Heaven Burns Red are both, at least partially, written by two of the most famous VN authors of all time.

What all of these gachas have in common are putting out novel length stories about gay women and men on a near monthly basis. Especially Chinese gachas where queerphobic CCP laws mean writers need to get more creative and subtle about queer subtext.

The primary demographic upon which these games glean their revenue from, the typical dudebro gacha gamer rolling for their waifus, don’t realize they’re playing a VN because they’re often skipping or blitzing through the dialogue. And if i said this is usually a gendered divide then it wouldn’t be far from the truth, especially with a casual look at gacha Youtubers, social media, forums, subreddits, etc.

It’s because of this why arguments about yuri subtext pandering to straight men or the misassumption held by some women/queer/progressive players that those chuds are in a position of good faith is giving them too much credit.

I’m not saying this is an absolute certainty, but "man who rolls for their wife and only watches character build breakdowns" is the classic gacha game demographic. It’s why mihoyo was able to get away with writing kiamei and bronseele for well over a decade - this demographic doesn’t care about reading into things too deeply.

Lately, you can tell it’s always the same demographic because it’s always queer shipping and theorycrafting SPECIFICALLY that gets their jimmies riled up. And it’s these same chuds that complain about "yuri slop tourists" even when it’s yuri fans that have been around from the start or are involved in the art/writing team. I’ve been noticing Umamusume’s been going through this right now and it’s just really visible. The same homophobic and queerphobic arguments being made again and again to quash shipping culture and literary fan analysis.