You would think that attracting a whole new demographic would be good for her studio, too. More people to throw money at…

You would, but NOP. Makoto’s whole shtick is that she’s marketed as this incredibly princely girl and is lusted after by thousands of female fans, so Makoto’s own feelings of discomfort at not getting any male attention apparently don’t matter and she is discouraged (in other episodes) from putting on the frilly clothes that she actually wants to try wearing. The entire point of an idol is to grant the dreams of their fans, after all! What they want doesn’t matter so much in comparison!!!

and i am just standing here going wow is this logic intrinsically problematic or is it intrinsically problematic

especially with the way that makoto herself has been socialized to think that her tomboyishness/her father encouraging her to to traditionally “manly” things with him when she was little is the worst and most unattractive-to-men thing ever

my face when 8|

But then, it’s not like the anime specifically has got a great track record when it comes to encouraging the characters to be themselves and take life’s struggles at their own pace. See: Chihaya’s character arc. I am always going to be mad about that, man. The inherent ableism involved is just viscerally upsetting to me.

So as previously established all over the place on this blog, I really fucking love Blaze Union. I love it for the characters, the empowering elements of the story, the quality of the game in general, and the amount of diversity in the cast.

Still, as much as I love this game, there are a couple of flaws in the writing that always really put me off.

Some of these flaws are more or less narrative, and some of them are simply blatant moments of heterocentrism that really don’t seem to belong in a story that generally treats its non-heteronormative characters quite humanely. BF26 (“The Warriors’ Vacation -Girls’ Side-“) is one of the latter problematic bits.

The recurring conflict between Jenon and Nessiah makes me pretty uncomfortable for both of these reasons.

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this supposedly “recent and progressive” textbook (2011 version!) is bigoted as fuck as far as its discussion of gender identity/sex/sexuality goes

it doesn’t use the right pronouns for trans people

it uses the phrase “transgendered people” rather than “transgender people”

it only includes male, female, and trans in its definitions of “gender”

it doesn’t discuss the ace spectrum

and also it says that most bisexuals don’t/won’t commit to relationships and will usually always engage in sexual/romantic relations with both genders

wow

wow??????????

the only question is whether i should talk to the professor about this being bullshit or not, i am getting kind of sick of having this conversation!

I love Blaze Union. I love so many things about Blaze Union.

I love the linguistic aspects of the game and how they’re used for characterization. I love the way Gulcasa is portrayed as a survivor of abuse, and find that aspect of the story very empowering. I love how there’s a lot more gender equality in the game than in the real-life 1400s, and I love that the party is largely made up of a number of courageous women who present their femininity in different ways, and that one of the most prominent of them is a POC!

I love to death the fact that no one remarks one way or the other on Nessiah’s presentation as a fairly femme man, and you know I love to death that there’s loads of sexual tension between Gulcasa and Nessiah—between Gulcasa and Leon—between Siskier and Zilva that is likewise not treated as bizarre. I love that the package deal of Eater—ultra-girly cis manhunter of the day and hypermasculine trans man of the night—is met with a few shrugs and a “well, that may be unusual, but we’re all weirdoes here so make yourself at home!” from the whole party.

But then there is the Chapter 5 BF “The Warriors’ Vacation -Girls’ Side-“, which just makes me cringe.

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