Honestly the more I think about it what would really make for an interesting deep story if they need to go through with it is the idea that Gabe was basically a completely different person than what we see now. Jack and Gabe and Anna were all really good friends during the times of overwatch. If both of them knew that he was gay and we’re OK with Jack being gay and they all still we’re best friends and Jack and Gab honestly the more I think about it what would really make for an interesting deep story if they need to go through with it is the idea that Gabe was basically a completely different person than what we see now. Jack and Gabe and Anna were all really good friends during the times of overwatch. If both of them knew that he was gay and we’re OK with Jack being gay and they all still we’re best friends, It would really increase the impact of Gabe but training Jack when they end up fighting. If Gabe was so excepting of Jack and so friendly to him and they were best war but then it would really be quite sad if they ended up betraying each other after the trust that they both had as buddies. That makes much more sense than them being romantic partners and increases that depth because Jack trusts Gabe and appreciate him for not being judge mental and then gets betrayed anyway
“Forced” only really applies if it requires retcons and reconstruction of current lore. Soldier’s romantic history has been completely blank up to this point, and this reveal changes nothing about his lore up to now. Any idea that this is “forced” is only for people who assume Straight must be the default.
Out of curiosity, do you guys think that if Zarya was revealed as straight, it would seem unnatural and forced?
I also want to add, I’m actually on the side of believing she is straight because the idea of her having a short scrawny husband is hilarious to me.
More the opposite. The reaction is more on the lines of “Oh, typical.” because it happens often enough. “Look at this butch lesbian stereotype! She’s actually straight. We’re subversive!”
Though I’m about 80% sure she’s gonna marry an Omnic.
don’t forget that they still refuse to actually show it.
Like, “here’s a movie about the guy dumbledore was in love with. Dumbledore is in it as well. We are still not showing anything gay even tho everyone knows he’s gay, because god forbid we actually put gay stuff in our movies. We are lgbtq friendly only in interviews after the movie so we can pat ourselves in the back without putting effort in it.”
They should do something for a valentines event >_>
i’d totally see zarya being straight. I dunno, if she came out as lesbian it would feel a bit stereotypical.
Maybe make her bi, i dunno. There’s a severe lack of actual bi people in fiction.
That’s only 8 characters… SHOW ME YOUR WAYS!
Here’s two ways to properly do it.
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Make it feel natural, over the course of a very fleshed out character progression arc
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Don’t even bother writing the sexuality of a character, it shouldn’t matter if they’re gay or not. Let the story be enough to captivate the audience. The actions of a character are more important and engaging than who they bang
By focusing what little lore they put out onto something as small as sexuality it leaves Soldier an empty husk whose most interesting character trait is that he’s gay
Being gay isn’t as interesting or taboo as they think it is. They aren’t breaking barriers, its been done before and its been done better. They did it already with Tracer and it was just as lame back then
But that’s the issue… Stereotypes exist for a reason. Mccree wears a cowboy hat because he’s a cowboy. When you see a character on screen, movie, game, whatever, you should absolutely know their full story based off of their looks. There can be some wiggle room but plenty of movies and games have always been good about this. If you go out of your way to make a character macho just to throw people off the trail of him actually being gay in the year 2070 where it’s likely you don’t HAVE to hide being gay, there’s going to be backlash.
There is a difference between plot twists and playing peoples expectations to lead them to do something that the character we know wouldn’t fit.
Darth Vader is Luke’s father. The character changed from anakin Skywalker to Darth Vader and hid who he was from his son and everyone else. That is a plot twist. He is hiding the fact of who he really is.
Soldier isn’t hiding anything, soldier is still the same person, but also just so happens to be gay? That’s not a plot twist, that’s bad writing.
The funny thing is, that got revealed in the exact same way, but nobody cares. You’re the first one mentioning that, in fact.
THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS
In a game about war and fighting, who they want to be with shouldn’t be something even thought about by the writers.
You’re being really short sighted. You really think there’s no possibility that this could be the reason why it’s getting a negative reaction? Simply because there are always people who don’t like the LGBT Agenda? Nah, plenty of people who are supportive don’t like what’s happening in media these days.
To me it’s more superficial injection of diversity to bring attention to the company for sales it’s a very lucrative way of marginalizing minorities. But the LGBTQ community will refuse to admit or internalize this because it fits their agenda. But I’m sure people will misconstrue this and call me a bigot or anti LGBTQ or something, because there’s no way it can be anything else right?
This isn’t in anyway taking away from the need of representation, but when it’s done in an obvious manner to pull in attention for profit, you’re taking away from something we lack severely in this day and age and that’s Authenticity and this is worth 1000x more than a fake motive to help your agenda.
so, a gay character has to have “gay” written all over him otherwise it’s forced? Gay isn’t a personality trait, nor a dress code.
On the topic… i hate how forced gay characters are sometimes.
Like, in the movie Character X shows nothing lgbtq at all, only for the director or producer to come out and say “yup, they’re lgbtq, look how inclusive we are, even if we actually can’t put gay people on screen because that’d be bad for buisness, the chart says” and patting themselves on the back.
Thankfully, the lgbtq community is growing sick of this. Just look at Solo, when they said “lando is totally pansexual, mkay?”. The one criticizing it the most were lgbtq tired of having gay characters outed only in interviews.
And then there’s the dumbledore question, that aeveryone hates.
Because its so stupidly dull that no one cares. The slightest bit of lore we actually have is being weighed down by “this person is gay” “this person is dating this person” “this person is also gay” “well this person is autistic”
where’s the character progression? the action? the story? its devolving into reality show levels of drama
The lack of lore is not just because there is a gay character.
I mean they had all this time to create a deep captivating story and they hit us with a gay hero…for the second time
If it was done well then that’s one thing, but to do it poorly on two separate attempts AND to follow it up with barely any meaningful lore is just lazy writing
There are actual fanfictions that have much more thoughtful writing
Gay is not a personality, gay is not an identity in itself, gay is gay. It’s a sexual orientation. If you strip away all the taboos and societal layers, it’s just one of the settings that a human being comes with.
Now there’s a huge history of constructing identities around sexuality, of course. There are huge societal factors.
But the way a person expresses their sexuality is their choice.
So is deciding how much that sexuality is part of their identity.
The thing about gay being “forced” is that this line of thinking suggests that there must be certain allocated token places for gay people, within boundaries they can’t overstep. Why would that person be gay, right?
Well because that’s a person and people come with a range of sexualities and yeah sometimes people are gay. Granted, the overwhelming majority will mostly be straight. But a whole big bunch of people aren’t.
So, no. Being a gay character in a story is not forced. Neither is being a woman or a person of an ethnic minority.
It’s just one of the traits of the character, aside from personality, hair color, place of origin, what have you.
If I just cut out that first statement you put like I just did, I agree with everything you said.
A gay character shouldn’t have gay written on them. But they shouldn’t act or look the complete opposite either.
I’m sorry, but your interests absolutely affect the way you look and present yourself.
Throwing around the classic stereotypes for a 90’s sitcom dad, making him out to be the conservative nationalist military character, SOCKS AND SANDLES FOR CRYING OUTLOUD, dad jokes, writing him to act like Clint Eastwood… It just doesn’t add up.
Someone I know pretended to not be gay their whole life. Dated girls, hid it, never mentioned it, etc. And now he’s out. And… surprise surprise… Everyone around him knew it all along, including myself.
People get the hints from others. We can sit here all day and pretend like that this character was written realistically, but he absolutely was not.
Tracer was a perfect example of how the LGBT community should be handled… this was not.
Overwatch has always been one of those pieces of media that I considered to be great from a diversity stance… this really changed that for me. And that’s sad because I always praised Overwatch as doing diversity properly and not making it into a joke like Glee. The sad thing is, most people who play won’t know soldier is gay, so there’s really no punishment from the community because it was hidden, only for those really into it…
Blizzard is smart, and sneaky… they know that if they even put a hint of that in the game, there would be huge backlash. Doing it in a comic that a small majority of fans will even read completely destroys their chances of getting backlash.