hey i just want to say i find it so wonderful and relieving when other xiv fans also see emet selch as a gay man. from the very first moment he walked on screen, the energy of “bitter old Hollywood theater queen” was so strong and such blatant coding i never even had to consciously think about it, it was just a given. but lo and behold, i got into the fandom after catching up on the story, and found much to my shock that TONS of people are shipping him with their female wols??? i allow that fans in japan (and maybe other places, idk) might see him differently because the cultural tells for queerness are totally different there, but i have to raise my eyebrows at the americans playing the english version and still missing it. he’s literally an aging theater enthusiast in a fur-lined robe who quotes Lauren Bacall and wears noticeable makeup, whose signature body language is either a snap or a limp-wristed wave over the shoulder, and they’re somehow seeing someone who might like women? i just have to laugh. and yes, insert mandatory caveat that it isn’t that serious and there’s nothing wrong with how they’re playing barbies, but at the same time i genuinely don’t get how they aren’t seeing it. which is an extremely long winded way to say, thank you for seeing the obvious with me. i don’t necessarily expect you to publish this because it IS kind of swinging a bat at a hornet’s nest and i doubt you want that kind of attention, but i just want you to know some of us also get it. happy pride 🏳️🌈
Signing under every word. I hate to admit that I have to tone myself down and hold back on talking about something I have extremely strong, bottled up feelings about, just hope one day I grow "big" enough to stop giving a shit, and finally speak my heart out. For now keeping on my gay grind and trying to gather more people that agree with the above.
And sure, I'll post it. It's tumblr, so I expect people to behave, but my block button's ready anyway.
Fandom (in general, fandom spaces) used to be the pink people in this comic. It used to be predominantly queer before 2020s. I used to feel safe and at home. Then this happened. I still could not make my peace with it.
Hey so. I am speaking as a bi brown person from west asia (since anon is so sure everyone is american here), this is incredibly saddening disappointing to see an artist i have admired and followed for so long to engage with such blantant biphobia.
This is not me saying headcanoning him as gay is invalid. Quite the opposite. His sexuality is a blank page that we can fill out like most of other ffxiv npcs. I do follow many artists who headcanon him as gay and i cheer for them. I have just reblogged your art of them as I do quite often. I follow fragments. His portrayal as a queer person is important to me whether as a gay, bi and/or trans person, I celebrate it all. But your claims here are quite problematic on two fronts:
implying emet can only be queer by the virtue of being gay and therefore bisexuality is not a valid headcanon for him
implying that both gay and bi men has to act "visibly queer enough" to be accepted as queer (as if flamboyant theatratical make-up wearing villain can't be bi as well)
implying there aren't people who ship him with hyth AND fem wol/azem at once
implying bi4bi m/f couples are basically same as het couples and our bisexuality is only valid when we date the same gender
Everyday i have to face with a very homophobic society irl and it is very tiring and dangerous for us here. Our rights and freedom is being taken away if our existence is not a crime already. Then i log into tumblr, thinking that i am accepted and safe in ffxiv community, and then I see this absolute bullshit from fellow queer folks who should be walking by my side. Homophobes are spewing poison at us for headcanoning him as bi, y'all are saying "if you hc him as bi, you're basically homophobic." at us. And let me tell you, my fellow queer people's hatred hurts a lot worse. Because it is a betrayal.
We are both pink ones but you are pushing us out, you have the audacity to categorize us as the same as straight homophobes in the fandom, you're denying our bisexuality, acting like we, bi folks are grey ones. And then you're doing this in Pride Month.
If you can't extend basic decency to your fellow queers and if you make them feel unsafe and unwelcomed, well. You should be ashamed of yourself.
Oh wow, okay, that is a very blatant biphobic ask with not even a hint of trying to hide it and you are just straight up agreeing with them. I won't ask for an explanation because we both follow the exact same philosophy of blocking liberally, which is what I will be doing as soon as this reblog is sent, but I'm certainly raising an eyebrow at the idea that a flamboyant presenting man should be unable to like women in any capacity.
Interpret him in whatever way you like, we are all free to do whatever we want with the media we consume, but it's a bit suspicious how willing you are to post this ask on your widely viewed blog knowing it will hurt people who love your work. You're hoping you'll one day grow big enough to stop giving a shit? You already clearly don't, given how willing you are to throw a bomb at the faces of the people who follow you and have for years.
Posted about this on bsky and I'll say it again here; folks who get upset at bi people for being bisexual and writing bisexuality are the absolute worst. Gods forbid queerness not come in neat binary boxes. Gods forbid sexuality may be a little more complex than "man + camp = a six on the Kinsey scale".
Hells, more pointedly: gods forbid somebody play with their touys wrong. Projecting bisexuality onto a real person who does not identify as such is bad, but Emet-Selch is - say it with me, gang - not a real person. He's a tumblr sexyman who has no canon sexuality beyond "probably (emphasis on probably) has romantic feelings for Hythlodaeus." I would say portraying him as straight is... bizarre, sure, but it's no cause to lambast people on social media, and it's also a far cry from portraying him as bi or pan or omni or any other sexuality that may encompass more than one gender.
