About That Locker

[Halivel]

Besides, you cant write LGBTQ into pertinence for a plot because China will block anything about homosexuality, probably other places too.

That's precisely why all relationships are written through ambiguous subtext and subtlety that are up to interpretation.

Censorship doesn't mean these things cease to exist. They just get concealed through layers of vague talk. People in these communities, speaking from experience, are practically trained to read through subtext and allusions, because that's the only way you get to see that representation at all, and are often able to pick up on things that will seem unintuitive or a stretch to others.

Being vague gives writers and developers the ability to distribute their content in countries with strict regulations, while those who know what to lookout for will be able to read through hints. At the same time, to those who don't want to see any romance in their content, it gives the ability to completely ignore it.

The unfortunate side effect is that there will be forever the debate of "no one is openly stated to be in a relationship/be queer, so it's not happening" because, well, it will never be "official" for one reason or another.

[LegendWait]

That's precisely why all relationships are written through ambiguous subtext and subtlety.

Censorship doesn't mean these things cease to exist. They just get concealed through layers of vague talk. People in these communities, speaking from experience, are practically trained to read through subtext and allusions, because that's the only way you get to see that representation at all, and are often able to pick up on things that will seem unintuitive or a stretch to others.

Being vague gives writers and developers the ability to distribute their content in countries with strict regulations, while those who know what to lookout for will be able to read through hints. At the same time, to those who don't want to see any romance in their content, it gives the ability to completely ignore it.

The unfortunate side effect is that there will be forever the debate of "no one is openly stated to be in a relationship/be queer, so it's not happening" because, well, it will never be "official" for one reason or another.

I agree. People just need to level their expectations, this is never going to be more than that.

[Halivel]

I agree. People just need to level their expectations, this is never going to be more than that.

I'd say people are free to discuss the implications of interactions between certain characters, because there are definitely scenes that are pretty loaded with hints for those who can and want to see them.

But anyone who expects to ever see an open statement about some character dating another probably will be dissapointed in the long run. Both because they're unlikely to do that for reasons of publishing the game in countries with censorship, and because Character x WoL ships are a popular thing within the community. They'd want to avoid open statements for role-playing reasons, as well.