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professor_tammi(Apologies in advance if this post seems incredibly messy and disorganized. My posts are pretty much always like that, but)
So I sort of saw this mentioned ~elsewhere~, but re: how FE fics occasionally portray the verses as homophobic to at least a certain degree... I can't say I'm surprised that happens, and it's obviously not limited to Fire Emblem fan fics (or even issues related to sexuality, for that matter; the same thing sometimes happens with - for example - gender roles). I'd assume that most authors simply put modern judgments into stories taking place in fantasy worlds because, well, if the original work doesn't expand upon or even mention the issue, people will just insert whatever views they've had first-hand experience with into the story. This is, of course, easier than spending inordinate amounts of time thinking of what would actually make sense with the already established lore and history of these fictional universes. So, all in all, it's not too shocking. Although I greatly admire the kind of fan fiction authors who choose to do the latter instead. That is really impressive and interesting to see when done well, tbh.
So Fire Emblem suffers the same fate, because they never directly take a stance in the issues mentioned above. For some of them, you might be able to come up with theories based on the dialogue, but even then it can be pretty difficult. Do the games ever directly tell us how the characters view different sexualities? Nope - unsurprisingly, since that's probably a pretty controversial subject for a JRPG to thread, and as a result, most don't. Instead, there's lots of subtext. But the fact that FE has so few canon couples probably doesn't really help much with this, either, since you don't exactly get to see any reactions to all of the subtext (but to be fair, I really do prefer it that way, so this is actually a good thing imo) - and this lack of reactions can in itself can be interpreted in various ways.
For what it's worth, though... I think I could see most of Tellius being fairly accepting of all sexualities? At the very least, I think Crimea would be, if only because of Elincia being a very open-minded ruler and the fact that nobody seems to really mind Heather's flirting. Though that could also be chalked up to the CRK's and GM's just being very nice - or in Nephenee's case, possibly oblivious - people in general, so I probably can't say for certain. In a similar vein to the Elincia-thing, though, at the end of RD, I can't really see Sanaki or Micaiah opposing it either (although with Daein seeming rather prejudiced in general and the senators having pretty much controlled the entirety of Begnion for quite a while, things could have been different before the end of RD). Still, the Tellius games are probably some of the more subtexty games in the entire series, and I think you could maybe interpret the lack of any real reactions to this as a sign of acceptance (or even that it might be considered perfectly normal). It would be a lot harder for me to mention anything at all for some of the other verses, though. For example, Jugdral? I have no clue whatsoever. It's pretty het-oriented for obvious reasons, but yeah.
Oh, and now that I've mentioned subtext again... I really love the fact that most pairings aren't set in stone. Letting the player think and choose for themselves is always nice~ Especially since I tend to disagree with most canon couples outside of video games, it seems.
(Edit: I always feel terrified of discussing things like this because somehow, I feel like I'm going to unintentionally offend someone no matter what I say. ;_; And also because I'm terrible at clarifying my thoughts and getting them across.)
A-also I watched the Glee season 2 finale, and uh
all I can say is do not want Finchel (nooo Jesse ;_; I like Jesse okay) and Sam/Mercedes (why can't they just be friends :|). But the Kurt+Rachel friendship was nice at least.
And, um... it was kind of amazingly underwhelming for a finale, tbh. Even I thought that. That's pretty unusual since I just tend to completely look past most of Glee's problems (I figure almost everyone else on the internet already spends enough time criticizing the show to pieces).
The most exciting thing about the episode was definitely Quinn's new haircut, tho. Aaaah so cute and pretty ♥ (Clearly I'm not shallow at all. Nope!)
This is pretty unrelated to the rest of this post, which is already kind of random and disjointed, but... after searching for Ike/Elincia fics for a while because apparently I'm a masochist who wants to see my OTP get broken up or something idgi, I've concluded that, yeah, while I don't really understand straight!Ike at all, that's not the only reason I didn't find most of them interesting. There's also the problem of him constantly being portrayed as a romantic sap, and I'm just like "nnnope I don't even know who this person is"
And I've finally figured out why Firefox 4 was crashing roughly once every 5 minutes earlier today - apparently it was because I had hardware acceleration turned on. Good to know, I suppose, but it would've been nicer if it hadn't kept crashing while I was searching for a solution to the problem, forcing me to restart it the entire time which is incredibly frustrating because I have around 100+ tabs open at any given moment, and every time it crashed I had to reload everything and argh
and now it still crashes every few hours
We're not friends anymore, Firefox. :|
So I sort of saw this mentioned ~elsewhere~, but re: how FE fics occasionally portray the verses as homophobic to at least a certain degree... I can't say I'm surprised that happens, and it's obviously not limited to Fire Emblem fan fics (or even issues related to sexuality, for that matter; the same thing sometimes happens with - for example - gender roles). I'd assume that most authors simply put modern judgments into stories taking place in fantasy worlds because, well, if the original work doesn't expand upon or even mention the issue, people will just insert whatever views they've had first-hand experience with into the story. This is, of course, easier than spending inordinate amounts of time thinking of what would actually make sense with the already established lore and history of these fictional universes. So, all in all, it's not too shocking. Although I greatly admire the kind of fan fiction authors who choose to do the latter instead. That is really impressive and interesting to see when done well, tbh.
So Fire Emblem suffers the same fate, because they never directly take a stance in the issues mentioned above. For some of them, you might be able to come up with theories based on the dialogue, but even then it can be pretty difficult. Do the games ever directly tell us how the characters view different sexualities? Nope - unsurprisingly, since that's probably a pretty controversial subject for a JRPG to thread, and as a result, most don't. Instead, there's lots of subtext. But the fact that FE has so few canon couples probably doesn't really help much with this, either, since you don't exactly get to see any reactions to all of the subtext (but to be fair, I really do prefer it that way, so this is actually a good thing imo) - and this lack of reactions can in itself can be interpreted in various ways.
For what it's worth, though... I think I could see most of Tellius being fairly accepting of all sexualities? At the very least, I think Crimea would be, if only because of Elincia being a very open-minded ruler and the fact that nobody seems to really mind Heather's flirting. Though that could also be chalked up to the CRK's and GM's just being very nice - or in Nephenee's case, possibly oblivious - people in general, so I probably can't say for certain. In a similar vein to the Elincia-thing, though, at the end of RD, I can't really see Sanaki or Micaiah opposing it either (although with Daein seeming rather prejudiced in general and the senators having pretty much controlled the entirety of Begnion for quite a while, things could have been different before the end of RD). Still, the Tellius games are probably some of the more subtexty games in the entire series, and I think you could maybe interpret the lack of any real reactions to this as a sign of acceptance (or even that it might be considered perfectly normal). It would be a lot harder for me to mention anything at all for some of the other verses, though. For example, Jugdral? I have no clue whatsoever. It's pretty het-oriented for obvious reasons, but yeah.
Oh, and now that I've mentioned subtext again... I really love the fact that most pairings aren't set in stone. Letting the player think and choose for themselves is always nice~ Especially since I tend to disagree with most canon couples outside of video games, it seems.
(Edit: I always feel terrified of discussing things like this because somehow, I feel like I'm going to unintentionally offend someone no matter what I say. ;_; And also because I'm terrible at clarifying my thoughts and getting them across.)
A-also I watched the Glee season 2 finale, and uh
all I can say is do not want Finchel (nooo Jesse ;_; I like Jesse okay) and Sam/Mercedes (why can't they just be friends :|). But the Kurt+Rachel friendship was nice at least.
And, um... it was kind of amazingly underwhelming for a finale, tbh. Even I thought that. That's pretty unusual since I just tend to completely look past most of Glee's problems (I figure almost everyone else on the internet already spends enough time criticizing the show to pieces).
The most exciting thing about the episode was definitely Quinn's new haircut, tho. Aaaah so cute and pretty ♥ (Clearly I'm not shallow at all. Nope!)
This is pretty unrelated to the rest of this post, which is already kind of random and disjointed, but... after searching for Ike/Elincia fics for a while because apparently I'm a masochist who wants to see my OTP get broken up or something idgi, I've concluded that, yeah, while I don't really understand straight!Ike at all, that's not the only reason I didn't find most of them interesting. There's also the problem of him constantly being portrayed as a romantic sap, and I'm just like "nnnope I don't even know who this person is"
And I've finally figured out why Firefox 4 was crashing roughly once every 5 minutes earlier today - apparently it was because I had hardware acceleration turned on. Good to know, I suppose, but it would've been nicer if it hadn't kept crashing while I was searching for a solution to the problem, forcing me to restart it the entire time which is incredibly frustrating because I have around 100+ tabs open at any given moment, and every time it crashed I had to reload everything and argh
and now it still crashes every few hours
We're not friends anymore, Firefox. :|
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no subject
Date: 2011-05-29 10:11 pm (UTC)Actually, I've always considered homosexuality as perfectly normal thing in Tellius, being relationship between beorc and laguz the only "taboos".
No one seem to care or even being weirded out by Heather or Kyza outspoken sexual preferences, or by pretty much declared pairing like Tibarn and Reyson (the canonicity of this could be discussed, but I’ll go as far as saying they are at least canonically “suspicious” if only for Tibarn infamous line about tying down Reyson to a bed XD). We are so sadly used at seeing homosexuality as “abnormal” due to our culture, but it’s not like every culture was like this, Tellius is a fictional world with races, religion and history different from ours, it would not be surprising.
The only problem I may see is for Beorc sovereigns, while laguz rulers do not even have the duty of an heir, for the most part at least (hello dragons).
So, my conclusion is that there is not even need for acceptance, because homosexuality relantioship are seen as nothing different from heterosexual loves, as long as it is between two beorc or two laguz. obviously this is just my headcanon and there are no real evidence to prove it, just my two cent. XD
ps. urgh, I hope Mozilla will stop crashing, it's so frustrating when it does that :/
no subject
Date: 2011-05-30 12:16 pm (UTC)I think the fact that the characters don't really treat, say, Heather and Kyza any different works as evidence? :D Or at the very least it supports your headcanon theory. But I agree with your idea, either way~ I don't even think that the majority of the playable characters are straight, but, um, maybe that's just me.
(... and I managed to solve the crashing problem, thankfully. :) )
no subject
Date: 2011-06-01 12:21 pm (UTC)It's truly confusing...maybe the english version wants to hints to homosexuality more in a joking way? those two and some of Kyza lines aside, all the subtext scenes in the game have a serious tone and are not different from m/f ones even if they are not as explicit. And thinking about it, a declared "I love you" is rarely seen in every pairing anyway.
Nintendo treating homosexuality in this way should be seen as a positive thing, it's about time we see some gay characters from a videogame that are not only useless minor roles or comic relief or other stereotypes (well, Heather is flirting, but I would not put her in the "comic relief" category). this is one of the reasons why the kind of "Ike and Heather can't be gay!1!!11!" argument makes me so angry :/
Sorry, I'm going OT ...and this probably doesn't even make much sense ^^'
(that's a good news :3)
no subject
Date: 2011-06-01 03:57 pm (UTC)It's true that most FE pairs never outright say "I love you", though. Most of them just go for "never leave my side" or something similar to that, it seems, but I think I prefer it that way. (Also, it makes for more subtext. Subtext is a good thing!)
I agree completely with your second paragraph, though (even if Heather is a minor character, but still). And lol, the "Heather can't be gay!" argument makes absolutely zero sense whatsoever, so. As for Ike, I think he could be interpreted as asexual or possibly pansexual or something too; it's just... I don't really see why he couldn't be gay. I even prefer that interpretation, OTPing and such aside, because a game having a gay protagonist? That's just really awesome. :D
(Don't worry about going off-topic and such~ I'm perfectly okay with that.)