I appreciate Square Enix supporting LGBT rights in FFXIV.

If you look hard enough you can see just about anything anywhere.

I wonder if people just have the expectation that these two characters have a romantic connection because game devs like to use lesbian couples to fulfill LGBT representation. Lesbians are more palatable to people, or something. GW2 did that a LOT

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Originally Posted by FrogDog

I wonder if people just have the expectation that these two characters have a romantic connection because game devs like to use lesbian couples to fulfill LGBT representation. Lesbians are more palatable to people, or something. GW2 did that a LOT

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This is why I was so appreciative of

Hythlodeus and Emet-Selch in Elpis.

Maybe that's the beauty of the whole thing. People who want something to be there, it'll be there for them and for people who don't see anything (like me), still works out.

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Originally Posted by Rinhi

for the love of god please stop trying to push for two underaged girls to be gay, do you have nothing better to do than force your headcanon shipping onto others and using every possibly excuse why it's not "obvious"?! SE has no problems with straight up gay characters and yet there is not a single indication that ryne and gaia are in love, a relationship or anything of the sort, it's f*cking creepy.

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Ehm. I am not into this "pride" thing.. and i am not saying that this scene represented gays or lesbians or whatever.

But why is it "creepy" that two underaged girls can fall in love.. but on the other hand if a boy falls in love with a girl its cute and okay, huh?
I fell in love with girls and boys at the age of 6+ and was afraid to telling someone to fall in love with the same gender, because of people like you.

Its normal, you now - since it happens to many of us.. and its nothing wrong or "creepy" about that.
Just as easy as that.

This is why same sex friendships and expressions there of are nonexistent these days. Given that when shown the mob claims it to be lgbtq+(bbqblt)++. It saddens me a great deal and corrupts the concept of love without lust or motive.

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Originally Posted by Caurcas

This is why same sex friendships and expressions there of are nonexistent these days. Given that when shown the mob claims it to be lgbtq+(bbqblt)++.

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Sorry, but thats really rubbish to say the least.
You know, not all people are the same - so generalizing is never the best (and not really smart) way to go.
People of the so called LGBT community arent a homogeneous mass... its like saying every straight person is the same. Every straight or whatever person is an individual and his thoughts arent connected to his/her sexuality.

As i said one post above you i wouldnt interprete a lesbian relationship between those and just a better friendship.
So you dont really have to put yourself into a poor victim role and generalize everything because you want it to be so.

But well, simple prejudices are a very easy concept to simple down the extreme complexity of the reality we are living in, doh*?
Would every person of the so called "LGBT community" would analyze this scene in the same way that it could only be a lesbian couple? i would clearly say: no. Art can be interpreted in many ways.
So you maybe shouldnt generalize, just because one voice seems to be louder than the others.

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Originally Posted by Tonkra

Sorry, but thats really rubbish to say the least.
You know, not all people are the same - so generalizing is never the best (and not really smart) way to go.
People of the so called LGBT community arent a homogeneous mass... its like saying every straight person is the same. Every straight or whatever person is an individual and his thoughts arent connected to his/her sexuality.

As i said one post above you i wouldnt interprete a lesbian relationship between those and just a better friendship.
So you dont really have to put yourself into a poor victim role and generalize everything because you want it to be so.

But well, simple prejudices are a very easy concept to simple down the extreme complexity of the reality we are living in, doh*?
Would every person of the so called "LGBT community" would analyze this scene in the same way that it could only be a lesbian couple? i would clearly say: no. Art can be interpreted in many ways.
So you maybe shouldnt generalize, just because one voice seems to be louder than the others.

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LGBT has long since become its own ideology that exist to perpetuate itself. It no longer serves the individual, but rather the individual must serve it or be cast out and condemned. It corrupts everything it touches ideologically.

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Originally Posted by Ativan

While I still wish to see more prominent queer characters in the main story, hopefully a Scion, I have just finished the Eden raid and I felt heard and appreciated as an LGBT individual.

https://i.imgur.com/CElTcUk_d.webp?m...idelity=medium

The Eden raid, as a parallel to FF8's story, is about Ryne and Gaia's love story. Much like Rinoa, Gaia had to choose between her past love and her new love. The rainbow Pride crystal makes it pretty obvious that Square Enix is supporting LGBT rights with this story. There is so much parallel between Squall/Rinoa and Ryne/Gaia that this is all but confirmed.

I just wanted to say thank you to the developers for creating a queer story. I wished it was a bit more explicit (maybe Gaia can confess her love for Ryne?). As of now this story verges on queerbaiting but it is a good first step.

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I didn't notice that. Maybe it's that and maybe it isn't. But I didn't see a romance between those two so much as a friendship. I'm hesitant to call any same-sex friendship baiting.

Not that SE would know - but the rainbow flag has actually been the Flag of the Inca nation since the 1700s when it was used by people attempting to throw off Spanish occupation in Peru. The flag still flies today over Inca cities in the highlands and is and has been used in graffiti all over Peru as a sign of resistance for centuries.

I saw this rainbow here though as just symbolizing all the elements coming back. Before the rainbow was co-opted by the LGBTQ movement, it also symbolizing things like racial diversity / multiculturalism, hope (as used in the move Wizard of Oz - which is actually weird given that the author of Oz used to argue in favor of genocide of indigenous people and as a newspaper editorialist was one of the figures behind the push for the Wounded Knee massacre in the months leading up to it), and many other notions.

Rainbows have many meanings.

I'm pretty sure I've seen more direct LGBTQ references somewhere in FFXIV. But I personally didn't put this one together myself.

They've been very hesitant to put any romances in the game actually. Of people in direct and stated relationships I can think of the twin's parents - and... some tragedies here and there. Mostly they avoid the subject regardless of sexuality. They have an insane number of very close friendships, but romances are not commonly gone into in FFXIV.

My biggest complaint with this whole plotline is I think Gaia was my favorite NPC of Shadowbringers and yet she ONLY shows up in the Eden raid. And since she's on the first they're not likely to use her again. I really want to see more of her, and frankly more of her and more of her and Ryne together as well - be it friendship or romance. I'd like to see where it goes and I'd really love to see some of these characters like those two and the twins finally grow up (like what is with the twins that have been with us for 8 years without ever getting past being teenagers).

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Originally Posted by Tonkra

Sorry, but thats really rubbish to say the least.
You know, not all people are the same - so generalizing is never the best (and not really smart) way to go.
People of the so called LGBT community arent a homogeneous mass... its like saying every straight person is the same. Every straight or whatever person is an individual and his thoughts arent connected to his/her sexuality.

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Agreed. It's usually the first move of bigotry to try and group people together into a 'mob' or an 'ideology'.

Why can't people just take comfort in what they perceive it as, and everyone leaves it at that? Literary and entertainment media often has many ways each medium can be interpreted. Where one sees the crystal's colors as a symbol for LGBTQ+ and the dynamic between Ryne and Gaia as a romantic relationship, others may see it as the return of the elements, the hope for the future of the First, and Gaia being able to free herself from the bonds of her past and look towards the future by the strength of her friendship with Ryne.

One way isn't correct over the other. We all view things differently, interpret things different, and certain moments speak to us all very differently. Each of us are a sum of our own life experiences, so no one is going to have exactly the same outlook or see the same message in any medium's form.

Really, arguing over it does no good. A discussion as to what each person sees is far more conductive. No one's view, as long as it's not hateful and destructive, is invalid.