#i like talking about queercoding haha sorry this is so long. it's something i probably read into a bit too much lol but idk it's fun i guess

[thrilling-oneway]

I'd give you 5$ if you post that draft

you didn't even need to bribe. it's not actually in the drafts of this blog so i'll write a better version

i've said it a billion times before: tsukasa is the comedic relief weirdguy, the devs basically will do anything with him so long as it's funny.

so starting with that valentine's day vlive in 2021. during the MC part of that he gets jealous that rui has been getting chocolates and tries to brag that he got lots of chocolates too but then immediately reveals that he got friendzoned by multiple girls. his voiceline that year is something about how he catches everyone's attention on vday and year round bc he's a star or something like that but anyway that whole interaction there seems to suggest he's straight lol.

however.

he's REALLY oblivious. played for comedy ofc but i see a lot of people interpret this as him being somewhere on the aro spectrum (probably not what the writers intended but fair instance of accidentally coding a character as smth). examples include: not understanding why Akito doesn't want to be seen at PXL alone with Toya in an Akito's initial 3* (second story), literally says "thank you" when Asahi basically confesses to him and completely misses the point (he actually did seem to nearly get this one for a second), and he doesn't understand why Rui's friends are impressed that he's friends the incredibly attractive Shizuku (Tsukasa is the only not-gay-coded male character who isn't attracted to Shizuku, probably because they're childhood friends. or if you want to view him as being aspec, then that works too). also when he mentions that he's friends with guys in his class who are cool and popular and good with women, Hibiki says that he was in a class with one of those guys in 1st year and is amazed that tsukasa is in that crowd now, emphasis on the "tsukasa's friends are good with women part". tsukasa's just confused about that because of course they talk to girls a lot they're in the same class.

also he usually rewrites a lot of romance plays to remove the romance. he rewrote R&J to just make it focused on the action (which is probably because he likes playing action heroes more than anything else), and he got rid of the romance plot in little mermaid because he didn't felt it was needed (this one is justified in-universe as they do fun shows for small children and don't really need the tragic romance, and also from production standpoint like you don't do that because fandom). so yeah that could again be read as him being aspec if you want but i don't think the writers intended it to be read that way, especially the R&J one that was purely for comedy.

all that said, this is an idol game, which generally run on the rule of thumb that every character is some flavour of queer, even if it's just for fanservice (i don't play enstars but from what i do know of it it falls a bit on that last point). anyway you can probably tell where this is going but he gets ship tease with rui sometimes. vast majority of this is from Rui's side but there are things like Oki ni Mesu mama

Tsukasa: Waiting for the "1, 2…" signal, holding hands with you is an act of courage for me

or that one part in pandemonium where he drops his persona for a brief second when he's impressed by rui's plan that was very much put there on purpose, or that Tsukasa and Airi's cheerful carnival team name from that event is "swayed by their partners (相方, aikata)" and when you consider that Shizuku and Airi are heavily implied to like each other, and have canonically been on a "date", that was also a Choice.

idk whether to count KING because justified by them being actors and the fang motif in the song... vampires kinda homoerotic it makes sense that the dance routine was that. also i'm not sure if the connect lives are even canon, especially the wxs one since tokishun broke character and the 4th wall.

yeah i dunno. the writers kinda just do whatever they want with him. interpret any of this how you will i'm just recounting shit from the game.

oh hey it's longer than 300 words now

[ariyadaivaris]

Hey, I'm reading what you had to say about F*nn and his shirts and I was wondering your opinion on the likes of Dalton Castle, the Velveteen Dream or Breezango. They're all straight (at least, that I know of), but depict characters that are associated with the LGBT+ community. Do you see them using that kind of gimmick as a problem? Or even a bad thing that shouldn't be done since they're just part of the staight ally?

oof!!! that’s a really good question and i appreciate you trusting me to answer this, so thank you 

uhhh this varies from person to person, actually. my opinion on them in a short sense is that dalton is USUALLY fine, while velveteen and breezango are…more…complicated. dalton’s talked about the character he plays before, and he words it as being different because, for example, when he interacts with men in the audience, it’s not meant to be uncomfortable, but more of a flattering thing. it’s…hm. how to word this. it’s not meant to be…transgressive? if that makes sense? it isn’t meant to shock you or creep you out, it’s meant as just…flirting. as far as i know dalton’s straight but i personally feel like he’s okay! it helps that he’s a babyface and that him being coded as gay is just part of that. if that makes sense. 

velveteen and breezango are a different matter. 

breezango are definitely for SUREEEEEEE coded as gay and the dudes themselves are…fine? they play it fine, i’m not always the most comfortable with it but most of that has to do with how wwe frames them, and THAT’S where the problem comes in. whenever they’re exhibiting Gay-Like Behavior, its a comedic thing. it’s something to be laughed at and mocked and seen as a joke. the dudes themselves handle it fine, but they’re framed so…weirdly and outrageously that even when they ARE babyfaces this is meant to be a weird quirk or a joke than something even teasing the idea of Representation. yknow how jbl would freak out about them on commentary all the time? or like, how even if he doesn’t necessarily Play It Up, tyler usually disguises himself as a woman and that’s a running joke? its like. its something to laugh at and i DONT think tyler or fandango are in a position where they can object to that portrayal, like most people in wwe, but the fact of the matter is its…uhh…not great. ian’s talked about it better than i could haha

and velveteen. hoo boy. velveteen is queercoded and this is definitely and without question a transgressive thing. it’s treated as such by a lot of his competitors, especially while he was starting out as velveteen, and people would be freaked out by him because he’s not gender conforming and he’s for sure not straight and it’s not GREAT. it’s gotten a lot better with time, imo? his feud with aleister felt a lot more…reciprocated? and he’s been treated decently and i appreciate that. it’s…hard to word, but i feel like his role has stopped being played for laughs and started just being him, and i don’t know about my other Gays™ on here but i do genuinely adore him and willingly accept him as a queer icon. he doesn’t profit off of it either and that sure does help! 

velveteen being coded as queer is still meant to be even mildly transgressive, though, and honestly it doesn’t help that while everyone else here is probably straight irl, velveteen’s got some ISSUES with drawing the line between kayfabe and reality. his previous gimmick was a tr*mp supporter and he keeps up the character of velveteen strongly enough that i…want to believe that this was the case with this past gimmick as well, where he supported tr*mp. but uh. you can kinda see how if it isn’t just a past gimmick, how having him play a queercoded character who comes off originally as villainous isnt GOOD ! its…weird. the man devotes himself passionately to his character and the lines he draws between reality and kayfabe are shaky at best and i love velveteen’s character but it’s uhhhh not a shining example of THe Gold Standard Of LGBT Representation, yknow? 

i dont know. i know im wording this densely and poorly but it really does…vary person to person, and its nuanced and there’s a lot that comes into play, and i don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with these characters as long as they’re played well, but things can go sour. i know i love breezango and everything but also its gotten kinda impossible to watch them without feeling like the butt of the joke. sometimes no matter how well the character is played, the framing of them is just gonna be garbage because the promotion isn’t gonna take a queer character or story seriously. there’s a lot to consider and i have done all of it EXTREMELY poorly oh christ there are so many blocks of text anon i am so so so sorry