A college friend glanced through my sketchbook sometime in 2004, saw all my slutty Magus (Chrono Trigger) doodles and pretty much immediately lent me his copy of SSSC, saying "I think you're gonna love this one" as he handed it over.
It took awhile for me to warm up to the game, actually. I was impressed by the opening anime sequence and song, sure. But the initial party (especially Luna) grated on me. (I was 17, it was the early 00's and I didn't have the media literacy and appreciation for half-decently written female characters that I have now.)
This poor first impression was not helped by the soft-lock bug WD had invariably added to the very beginning of the game by making enemies level with your party: I didn't know about any of that, and must have grinded out a few levels... because by the time I got to the game's first boss on the deck of the Hispaniola, that jellyfish slime was effectively unbeatable.
I shelved the game for what felt like a year, until my guilt about borrowing something someone had recommended so enthusiastically to me became unbearable and I tried again from a brand new save file.
This time I new the opening of the game, so I must have rushed through it, because I successfully avoided falling into the same soft-lock trap that scuttled my first run.
And I was finally treated to Wind's Nocturne. A song and sequence so deeply ingrained in my memory, I don't think I could forget it if I wanted to. That was when Lunar's unique charm first started to reveal itself to me.
Reaching Meribia felt like a bit of a slog again, I recall hating the sewers, but my interest maintained and eventually I made it to Vane...
(You don't want to know the struggle I went through to slap two images together on mobile. Hellish.)
I don't know who all remembers what an awful time the early 00's were for queer folk like me, or how hypermasculine men were expected to be in EVERYTHING, and nowadays you could easily write this introductory appearance off as a "classic" mage robe ensemble. But back then this just hit different. (And looking at Lunar's other examples of mage robes, the purple frock still reads highly feminine to me today.)
When this elf showed up with his cunty voice, draped in all his gender non-conforming glory, it felt like I'd been struck by lightning. I'd never seen a fictional pretty boy presented like this in my short life, and he CHANGED me.
I'd flirted with exploring my own queerness before, but growing up in fuckin nowhere Iowa left me feeling pretty unmoored and directionless. It was a closeted era in general, and I yearned to find some kind of queer elder to reassure me. I just didn't expect he'd be a fictional elf on a fantasy moon.
Lunar's undercurrent is inherently queer, and I'll argue that point to my dying breath. That's what drew me in around 20 years ago, and that's what's kept me engaged after all this time. Endless queer readings that change the game every time you consider it.
Alex is a closeted nonbinary youth, constantly besieged by messages of what it means to be a "man" or "woman."
Luna is deep in crisis over her own identity, a child burdened by a thoughtless upbringing, raised to be nothing more than her sibling-by-adoption's constant companion and future wife. Her future is a foregone conclusion that's been beaten into her every day of her life by the careless words of the adults around her. "Can there be a guiding light I've yet to see?"
Nall doesn't know what he is, only what he isn't.
Ramus had suffered the fate of every moderately unsvelt child: ridiculed and seen as an inherent failure. He embraces his sexuality when the world at large would mock him for it, and overachieves to earn the love and respect of a father who does not deserve either in kind.
Nash is brash and arrogant, and very easy to read as an ftm man desperate to cover his own flaws by pointing out the ones he sees in others.
Mia, quiet and full of unstated mystery, can also be read as trans or a trans allegory. She's still trying to find her voice, traumatized by the sudden abusive transformation that's come over her "mother". For all she knows, Lemia's change in attitude is due to Mia's own choices. (Thankfully it's just a case of unsubtle doppelganger subterfuge instead of parental transphobia. )
Kyle is deeply entrenched in his own toxic masculinity, but it's still possible to see a future where he overcomes that and embraces his desire to be feminine and fluid. I read him as closeted genderfluid.
Jessica, Jessica, Jessica. Beloved by all, bisexual Jessica. Clunky dialog choices make her protest from the closet doors, but we see you Jess.
Dyne "Staying composed all the time, just seems painful" Laike Bogard. Ran away from home at 15 with a man he just met. Small for his age, small for his gender. Changes his name and entire identity. Bi/Pan trans man.
Lemia married-to-the-job Ausa. Single mother, coparenting her child with her closest friend. AceAro queen, with a side of nonbinary just for me, as a treat.
Mel's a fuckin PIRATE. THERE ARE FEW THINGS MORE QUEER THAN A PIRATE.
Ghaleon. "Only loved one person, a human man." (I'm sorry Xenobia, but he's actually a slut. He just doesn't like you like that!)
Royce. Lesbian coded to hell and back. Bratty youngest sister who gets away with everything. We need to engage with her potential MORE.
Phacia, doomed aromantic. You deserved better.
Xenobia, tragically straight and in need of a lesbian awakening. I've made my arguments before, so I won't retread.
Tempest and Fresca, inseparable t4t pair. Tempest is pregnant with his first child by the end of the game.
Myght, inventor with average hermit tendencies, cursed with an offputting odor by WD's localization. Taben moves in abruptly after Ghaleon's defeat. Crotchety old mad scientist yaoi ensues. Hop on board this ship with me, cmon.
Taben. If any one character in SSSC has answers to the mysteries of the past 5 centuries, it's probably him. (It sure ain't Althena.) And he's a tight-lipped bastard. Tired old gay man swag.
Althena. "Mother." Oh, how we deny the agency of mothers. Oh, how much a loving mother can harm her children. Oh, how she would do anything to prevent her children from becoming what they became before. Oh, the wreckage. Oh, the ruin. Oh, the denials, the accusations. "Mother." Althena.
And cripes I'm gonna be here all day if I do that for the other games, but just know every Lunar character and situation has a queer reading. These are just mine.