I appreciate Square Enix supporting LGBT rights in FFXIV.

[Windwalker]

It's a shame the Ryne and Gaia sitation is very... queerbaity. I adore them and think it would be great if they where LGBTQ+, but I get the feeling thats not the case. Prove me wrong Yoshi ion future updates please!

Overall I must admit, I do wish that we could get another explicate LGBTQ+ character in the game... we have not really had any since the post ARR patch's, from what I can tell. Doesn’t even have to be a main character (Though that would be neat!) but given how often we interact with side characters who mention their wives and husbands etc would it really hurt if the odd one happened to have a same sex partner?

No thank you, every time its done, it tries to put focus on that rather than the story. So many TV series and movies ruined by forced inclusivity.

[Vav2021]

No thank you, every time its done, it tries to put focus on that rather than the story. So many TV series and movies ruined by forced inclusivity.

The Last of us 2 comes to mind for a game, and Batwoman comes to mind for a show. Yeah, if it's forced, it can break the suspension of disbelief at how it's typically presented now.

[Rinhi]

Yeah, but it's also their culture not to do it. Who is anyone to dictate someone elses culture?

Also, men holding hands is the least of Indias social problems.

how do you even get that message from my post? dictating culture? indian societal problems? ?????
I was just lamenting the fact that I find it sad that guys can't hold hands like girls do without possibly getting ridiculed for it lmao

[Melorie]

No thank you, every time its done, it tries to put focus on that rather than the story. So many TV series and movies ruined by forced inclusivity.

Maybe you should watch better TV series/movies or be less overly sensitive regarding simple things as someone being gay? Geez. What's the problem in a character citing their partner or having their "crush" be from the same sex? What would change? For example, within FFXIV universe, you have Moenbryda/Urianger, Ardbert/Lamitt, Shiva/Hraesvelgr, Fourchenault/Ameliance, Edda/Avere, Bahamuth/Tiamat, Mide/Dayan... all of them are couples or have some sort of romantic relationship inside the story, would they ruin things for you if they weren't heterosexual? Are they forced? What would change if Shiva was a man, or Lamitt?

Kinda ridiculous to feel like a history is "ruined" because of something so common. Funny how anything that's not the status-quo is "forced".

I wonder if people with your mindset get as angry with other bunch of forced tropes all over media, but I bet you don't. People have been shipping characters since forever, romance exists in storytelling (and quite a lot in video-game storytelling), I don't get what's the point of making a big deal out of this.

Put it in a romance story then! Do you have trouble with reading comprehension? This is a video game

Funny, since FF14 has romance subtext (your entire heavenward expansion has a romance backstory), a lot of Final Fantasies have romance (ff8, ff9, ff10, ff15), games with romance such as TW3, Dragon Age, Mass Effect are extremely popular... Being a video-game has nothing to do with having romance or not. You might have zero interest in that, but it doesn't change the fact that it still exists and is part of the story - sometimes quite crucial.

Anyway, I personally see them as friends but couldn't care less about people shipping - whatever, teens get crushes too - but the way that people feel beyond angry with randos shipping gays in a video game or gays in games in general is quite amusing. Y'all should be ashamed by wasting such anger into something that doesn't even affect you (and if it does, well... there you have, a problem you should work on).

[rachcouture]

The Last of us 2 comes to mind for a game, and Batwoman comes to mind for a show. Yeah, if it's forced, it can break the suspension of disbelief at how it's typically presented now.

Batwoman was gay in the comics, way before it got a TV show, but go off, I guess.

[Soge01]

Batwoman was gay in the comics, way before it got a TV show, but go off, I guess.

CW did a horrific job of portraying Batwoman in their tv series, along with every single character on there.

Vav2021, I'm sure of, has nothing against Batwoman being gay. He's just pointing out that the show was terrible, not Batwoman for being gay.

CW's Batwoman is a huge example on how to not write a character period. She literally wouldn't shut up about her sexuality for a single second. There's being proud of who or what you are and then there's Batwoman both in and outside of costume telling everybody and their grandma that she's gay every episode. Like she deserved a Metal and key to the city for her sexuality or something.

In the comics, Batwoman was just who she was: Batwoman! A badass crime fighter that dealt with the traumas of her past while, like the rest of the Bat family. Not letting it define who or what she is. She just so happened to be gay, and that was it.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

It's a shame the Ryne and Gaia sitation is very... queerbaity.

Its not. They just became very good close friends.
But for some reason all of a sudden 2 Girls being Good Friends means "Same-Sex Couple" and people wanna claim LGBT, when its not even there.

I think its Humorous that People aren't just saying its a Personal Head-canon, but instead want to claim they are In-Canon Gay.

[EmoPanther]

Id love a game where the developers say that all the characters are asexual, aromantic, robots. Problem Solved.

[Sclair0]

Id love a game where the developers say that all the characters are asexual, aromantic, robots. Problem Solved.

You joke but that is close to several sci fi stories. I'd play it depending on gameplay.

[Sclair0]

But for some reason all of a sudden 2 Girls being Good Friends means "Same-Sex Couple" and people wanna claim LGBT, when its not even there.

I don't think it's definitive either way (intentionally imo) but I do think "all of a sudden" and "It's not even there" are a bit close to overstatements. The allusions to the Shoujo Ai genre are pretty strong, parallels with the romantic plotlines of FF8, the main villain being Mitron who we know definitively did have romantic feelings for her.

I don't think that's code for "Definitely 100% gay in canon" but there's definitely intentional romantic subtext there, similar subtext has been used in things like Sora and Kairis relationship in KH1. Seems to me to be intentionally be written with implications, but ultimately left ambiguous. (Which is itself like, the way Shoujo Ai genre stories are mostly done)