Yeah, an ironic and controversial title, I know. And there are some SPOILERS for Final Fantasy XIII and Dragon Age Origins if that bothers any of you. But I wanted to get this rant out of the way.
I'm something of a videogame buff, though not really a fanatic. I don't play many games but I play the ones I like to death. And games are generally behind the times when it comes to culture. I mean, you can show as much bloody violence as you like, but no nipples? C'mon. Why are we afraid of sexuality in our culture? Why is it always something to snigger about, not to be taken seriously?
Anyway, as a bisexual myself, I've been thinking about gay people in games. For the most part, we've been marginalised and ignored, as we have in much popular culture. Many of you may have heard of a trope called 'Bury Your Gays' - look it up on TV Tropes at
[link]What this basically boils down to is: all queers must die. I'm too young to recall a little piece of pure evil called 'The Hayes Code' in the fifties, but Goebbels would have loved it. It was a cinema/TV code that tried to enforce morality on its viewers. Gays could only be depicted if they were somehow "punished" for their horrible sin, or (preferably) if they were killed as a result of their perversion. And needless to say, it said a lot of other evil things too, such as non-whites couldn't have romantic scenes with whites, etc.
The Hayes Code is thankfully long gone, but some element of it remains in the cultural mindset. Don't get me wrong; life for gay people in the West is better than it's ever been, and I'm grateful for it. But we have a long way to go to reach equality. We see this crop up in the way we are depicted in modern media, of which videogames are part. Brokeback Mountain, anyone?
Some companies- take a bow, Bioware - have always been gay-friendly, offering gay romances in Jade Empire, Mass Effect and Dragon Age Origins. Japanese games in particular seem fascinated with gender blurring, but absolutely petrified of homosexuality. Final Fantasy is a big offender in this regard - there is plenty of hints and subtext, but no real yuri or yaoi. FF VII has shedloads of repressed homoerotica, from the ultra-effeminate hero, who cross-dresses, gets involved in sauna frolics with a dozen butch men, and seems to have a peculiar love-hate relationship with his adversary. The underrated X2 has plenty of subtext and flirting between the leads, as Rikku clearly fancies her cousin, although Yuna is largely oblivious to this. But even X2 is mostly about friendship and platonic love.
In Final Fantasy XIII, we have a slight departure. The character of Yun Fang was originally meant to be male, but was later changed to a female. She was meant to be the boyfriend of Vanille, the "perky young girl" archetype in this game. But when they changed Fang's gender, they pretty much kept the romance intact. Fang even looks like a dyke, being essentially an older version of X2's Paine. True, there's no kissing, but there's still a lot of cuddling, and it goes beyond the standard 'sisterly affection' beloved of Japanese media.
There's one scene in particular where Fang runs up to Vanille after a dangerous battle and checks to see if she's okay (by looking up her skirt). They then proceed to cuddle for about five minutes. The other characters seem embarrassed - they look into space, shrug, whistle and check their watches. Vanille's hand is on her companion's boobs throughout. It goes beyond mere 'affection'.
So we have our first semi-canon gay couple, or at least as near as a Japanese game is likely to get for now.
But wait. The ending demands that someone has to sacrifice themselves so that evil can be defeated and everyone can live.
Now, who d'you think that is gonna be, huh? The black guy? The straight people? The annoying kid?
It can be said that their ending actually underscores their status as a couple, as they die holding hands and looking into each other's eyes, in an eternal 69. I sure wouldn't do that with my sister, trust me.
But it still kind of sucks.
Something similar happens in one of the novels for Dragon Age Origins. We have a canon gay couple, and both guys seem likeable and well-adjusted. So you just KNOW they're not gonna make it, right? Yes, it's kind of sweet the way one dies, then his boyfriend prefers to stay hooked up to the Lotus Eater Machine and remember him, rather than face life without him.
But the 'gays as sacrifices' meme persists. I'm wondering if some adventuring teams shouldn't just keep a couple of 'em around just for this purpose. "Hey, someone has to die! I know! We brought some queers along just for this purpose!"
The end of FFXIII has everyone who's died brought back to life (except for the annoying kid's parents). The black guy has his son, the straight guy has his underage wife. As the credits roll, everyone celebrates and is happy. You can almost hear someone saying 'uhhh... didn't we used to have some lesbians?'
I probably shouldn't rag on Bioware, because the gay and lesbian romances in Dragon Age are excellent, if a tad stereotyped (clingy girly lesbian and promiscuous gay elf who can't commit). In fact, the gay romances can end happily, unlike the straight ones. The male PC x Morrigan romance is doomed from the start - she'll leave you no matter what you do. The female PC x Alistair romance is excellent, but the ONLY way you can both survive is by making your beloved sleep with the wicked witch and conceive a demon baby. And you are forced to WATCH. So I guess for once, its the straights who have it hard.
There remains a notable anti-gay bias in some media. I winced when Bioware let Orson Scott Card write their Mass Effect comics. For those who don't know, Card is virulently homophobic. He doesn't just dislike us (we're not so insecure we need everyone's approval, you know) but he actually wants to make us illegal. He is an active campaigner against gay rights. Poor diddums is apparently upset at being called on his bigotry, because (unlike the nice folks in Uganda) he doesn't actually want to exterminate us, just push us back into the closet. Oh well, that's all right then.
Some people say that his views shouldn't forbid him from writing for Bioware. After all, 'Ender's Game' is officially 'The Best Book Ever Written By A Complete Asshole', right? But this doesn't wash. Almost all Bioware games feature gay or bisexual characters in prominent roles. Would they really feel happy about allowing a KKK member to write about a series which features prominent black characters? I think not.
In any case, we have a long way to go, as I've said. Perhaps this is just a transitional time. After all, it took a while for black characters to to be seen as heroes and leads in their own right, and now nobody thinks it's odd to see Denzil Washington headlining a movie. Perhaps we will embrace gay characters in films and games slowly.
Who knows, maybe one day SquareEnix will allow us an on-screen kiss? Or at least allow us to survive until the credits.
Coming Soon....
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