I appreciate Square Enix supporting LGBT rights in FFXIV.

[Lersayil]

Nice try, Alex Jones.

I just don't like 'em putting rainbow color aether in the lava that turn the freakin' frogs gay!

[Seraph_Immanuel]

And... this simply proves my point that most straight folks simply won't see the coded messages.

The problem with this thinking is a person can imagine or fabricate whatever they want and when people call them out they can say, "oh, it's a coded message... you wouldn't understand." Or maybe it's just not there and your explanation is baseless.

Maybe SOE is referring to God's covenant to us in Genesis. What, you don't see that? Oh, you wouldn't understand. It's a coded Judeo-Christian message.

[Nethereal]

Ah shit here we go again.

Personally, as a gay guy, I'm not a fan of reading into relationships as canon unless they are explicitly mentioned as such. Anything less can simply be read into as half hearted pandering - and in addition, I'd rather see gay relationships established between adult characters rather than underage characters. I'm not inclined to obsess over the idea of a pair of teenage girls potentially getting together.

I don't see Ryne and Gaia as a couple, at any rate. They only knew each other for a very short period of time and it's already a stretch that they'd be such good friends - let alone in a relationship.

I think it would have been great to see each of them put to the sword so that Lohgrif and Mitron could be together instead. A pair of quasi-immortal beings who saw their entire world crumble around them but pushed in defiance to try and get back together is far more engaging to me than a pair of bratty teenagers whose deepest memory is splitting a biscuit in two.

Yeah I loved the romance aspect between Lohgrif and Mitron and was upset when they didn't utilize it fully.
I loved that they went down the road of morally grey if not outright black on what a person is willing to inflict upon others to get back their other half.
And then it got generalized by the entire community as "Just let her go you creep!"

That would've been such a better ending, actual consequences to the main characters. Instead they put all that stuff on the side character dwarfs.

[TaleraRistain]

"They're totally gay" and "They're not gay" are both valid ways to take what has been presented to us in the game, and it's best for people in either camp to just... let the other camp be. In this thread, the 'main camp' would be the people who do see the gay in the writing. No need to invalidate them with "oh you're just reaching, it's these OTHER reasons".

So leave it at that.

You aren't doing this yourself. There are plenty of folks who have just been "I didn't read it the same way. Here's how I interpreted it" but you are SO SURE you are right that you're actively attacking and insulting those people instead of "letting the other camp be". Might want to take your own advice there.

[Nethereal]

The solid facts are that there are very specific events, framed in very specific ways that very strongly hint at LGBT romance. But nothing is outright confirmed, so people are free to understand it that way, OR they can elect to ignore it.

"They're totally gay" and "They're not gay" are both valid ways to take what has been presented to us in the game, and it's best for people in either camp to just... let the other camp be. In this thread, the 'main camp' would be the people who do see the gay in the writing. No need to invalidate them with "oh you're just reaching, it's these OTHER reasons".

So leave it at that.

To the contrary, the majority of people in this thread don't think they're in a relationship and the fence sitters think they're qeer-baiting.
Now maybe the opposition was louder which is possible or you can go count every post and add them up and I would be pleasantly surprised if the majority in this thread thought they were bi/gay/a couple.
You'll also probably want to count the views & replies and compare them to the likes on certain polarizing comments.

[TaleraRistain]

I think it would have been great to see each of them put to the sword so that Lohgrif and Mitron could be together instead. A pair of quasi-immortal beings who saw their entire world crumble around them but pushed in defiance to try and get back together is far more engaging to me than a pair of bratty teenagers whose deepest memory is splitting a biscuit in two.

See, I wouldn't have liked that part because Mitron had no care what the person that Lohgrif had become wanted or what her new life might mean to her. I thought they had a fitting ending with that almost certainty that they would meet again. I also like to think that while Gaia valued whatever relationship she had with Ryne, that she broke free to be her own person for herself. I lean towards more friendship than romantic because for me it kind of cheapens her choice if she only did it because she liked someone else rather than self-care for herself.

[KizuyaKatogami]

See, I wouldn't have liked that part because Mitron had no care what the person that Lohgrif had become wanted or what her new life might mean to her.

They had made a promise to always be together. The sundering is what split loghrif in the first place and made her forget. In reality, you can argue gaia is selfish for not thinking about Loghrif herself felt and that she might want to be with mitron. She was the one getting in the way of 2 people. Mitron and Loghrif were simply more casualties in the sundering created by Hydaelyn. But i still think that ending was much better than what we got, where she gives false hope of “maybe we can be together again in the future,” but then promptly forgets all about him just showing how flawed they are. Also find it hard to believe Loghrif would leave mitron over some coffee biscuits and knowing some random girl for a couple weeks at most.

[TaleraRistain]

They had made a promise to always be together. The sundering is what split loghrif in the first place and made her forget. In reality, you can argue gaia is selfish for not thinking about Loghrif herself felt and that she might want to be with mitron. She was the one getting in the way of 2 people. Mitron and Loghrif were simply more casualties in the sundering created by Hydaelyn. But i still think that ending was much better than what we got, where she gives false hope of “maybe we can be together again in the future,” but then promptly forgets all about him just showing how flawed they are. Also find it hard to believe Loghrif would leave mitron over some coffee biscuits and knowing some random girl for a couple weeks at most.

So are we just puppets of whatever Azem might have desired in the past?

[Nethereal]

So are we just puppets of whatever Azem might have desired in the past?

That's actually why the storyline is so interesting and why it's even harder understand why people believe that Gaia and Ryne are a couple.
Gaia on an individual level is dealing with a madman who she doesn't remember trying to destroy everything her current self holds dear, herself included in his attempts to get back a previous version/reincarnation of herself.
Now that alone is conviction enough to defend yourself and warrant some self improvement but people prefer the alternative which is "She give me biscuit, I go now to flick bean!"

[KizuyaKatogami]

So are we just puppets of whatever Azem might have desired in the past?

Well that’s the moral dilemma. It’s really all about perspective which even the devs agree on. To Mitron, he made a promise to Loghrif and vice versa, to always be together. Gaia is essential an amnesiac version of Loghrif so of course he would try to restore her memories and erase the ones he deemed as fake and coping. Gaia lived at the expense of Mitron and Loghrif’s happiness. That’s the tragedy of it all really. Honestly it’s why i kind of dislike Ryne’s involvement in that story period. It would’ve been much nicer if we got more insight on Mitron himself along with Loghrif rather than Ryne and her coffee biscuit/shopping shenanigans. Anyways though on topic, that’s why i find it so weird when people say they’re together or whatever. Even Gaia expressed that, however flawed the idea itself may be, her and Mitron would most likely find each other again. So she’s at least acknowledging those feelings. For me i see Ryne and Gaia’s relationship no more than simply a friendship of two girls around the same age. It’s even mentioned early on that Ryne didn’t really know anyone around her own age besides the twins, so Gaia was probably a refreshing sight.