Reminding everyone that these two heterosexual men and the company they work for do not care about the LGBTQ+ community and only add representation to their shows as a means of profit
Just like how they don’t care about those with mental disorders, disabilities, furries, ect.
a lot of the representations within to series is either lack luster, based on stereotypes or a large majority of them end up “doomed”
One example I have is when Taurus (and I think the creator as well, it was one of the two) was confirmed to be gay by Ken in the discord even after they were long dead and there were no real signs of that within the time they were still on screen
which kinda pisses me off obviously because it was so clear he was never intended to be gay within the series and it was a label they just slapped on last second because why not
There’s also the trans characters I feel I need to bring up; the only trans characters we have, femnaf Roxas and eass Freddie, we only have ever seen them post-transition and them before through flashbacks, never have we seen them going through an arc where they discover their identity and grow into the person they want to be
The only exception to this being Monty but even then, it wasn’t ever gotten into as much as I feel it needed to be
If you like the representation within the shows and see yourself within these characters and such, that’s good on you, I’m just speaking my mind out and since it’s pride month, I thought “gotta express this to someone somewhere” so I’m doing it here
Btw a really good example of stereotyping lgbtq characters is Moon being Aroace. No shade to him but being Aroace is a spectrum, and when I first discovered TSAMS I was Aroace myself, but the way they presented Moon was very.. basic. Basic in the sense that a big stereotype for the aroace community is that they hate and are repulsed by sex and romance and that they’re innocent and know nothing of sex. Moon displays both of these very often. The hating romance and sex and being repulsed by it comes up every other episode tbh and Moon is constantly seen gagging around couples. And then whenever there’s a joke made or something implied, Moon is completely oblivious and half the time doesn’t get it until someone explains it to him, in which he goes “Eugh”. No hate to those who’s ace awakening was Moon, but he’s very stereotypical.
I can’t say much about the trans characters since I don’t usually watch shows with them in it, but what I will comment on is the lack of Transfem representation in the shows. Yes yes I know don’t egg me yes Freddie or whatever her name is is Transfem, but I feel like we all just… skipped over it? With Roxas in femme we had a bit of a scuffle with his transmasc thing, and we also have Roxas from TLAES and a Chico I think from some dimension idk, but the Transfem community seems very neglected when it comes to tsbs, especially considering the characters who could’ve so easily been written to be Transfem (Dallas or wtv their name is, Nexus, Lunar I’ve heard), but just.. weren’t? This also kinda ties into my other point of lack of lesbian rep or just female representation in general. The shows are very limited when it comes to female characters, and generally they usually all act the same and want the same things (Kind, sweet, compassionate or “emo coded”).
Don’t even get me started on the gay character either. All the gay characters in these shows so far fall into two categories. A; Innocent twin who needs to be man-handled, and B; The buff boyfriend. Very stereotypical if I’m so honest. And speaking of, Nova and Frost are the pivot of this stereotyping. From the high pitched whiney moaning voices, to the way they’re categorized, it’s all stereotyped.
To close it up I’d like to talk about my Bi characters. The bi characters in the show usually just get that label slapped on them and never show any interest in the opposite sex/gender/penis/whatever. Solar is the bIGGEST EXAMPLE EVER. I remember back when Solar first arrived, he was presented to be implied as either on the ace spectrum or be Bisexual leaning towards men. As SOON as he was revived and established to be Bi, he barely even sNIFFED a man. Not to say his opinions can’t change or wtv, but his entire “being bi” thing seemed to be just slapped on as a label to represent the queer community and then.. nothing was ever done to actually show he was bi? He could have done a speed dating ep where he went through both men and women, he could’ve had male hear me outs, hELL HE COULDVE HAD MENTIONED HE HAD GRINDER AND I WOULDVE ACCEPTED IT GOD FUCKING DAMNIT