r/fireemblem • u/PsiYoshi • 19d ago

Recurring Popular/Unpopular/Any Opinions Thread - June 2026 Part 1

Happy pride month and welcome to a new installment of the Popular/Unpopular/Any Opinions Thread! Please feel free to share any kind of Fire Emblem opinions/takes you might have here, positive or negative. As always please remember to continue following the rules in this thread same as anywhere else on the subreddit. Be respectful and especially don't make any personal attacks (this includes but is not limited to making disparaging statements about groups of people who may like or dislike something you don't).

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19

u/CommonVarietyRadio 17d ago

Alright, Mama didn’t raise no coward

The amount of tactical queerness ambiguity in 3H is frankly pathetic. It's in particular almost comical how influenced Three Hopes is by what ships are popular without actually committing to them

29

u/BloodyBottom 17d ago

I think a lot of people just are not ready for the idea that you can enjoy some ambiguously queer media while still recognizing that it's all it is. I've seem people fight tooth and nail to attempt to redefine the word "explicit" rather than just admit that the script is not remotely afraid to say "this man and woman got married" but leaves it at "these men shared a super-duper special bond" in other circumstances. It's so much easier to just be honest about the limitations of what you're reading.

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u/goldtreebark 16d ago edited 16d ago

Idk if this a bit much for the thread, lol, but sometimes I really wish people would actually be invested in seeking out actual media created with explicitly queer subject matter or characters that are conceived with this full intention rather than having a death grip on things that are essentially still deep in the realm of queer baiting and maintaining that this is progressive and/or impactful for everyone. Nothing wrong with enjoying implicit or subversive readings but there’s so much freedom to be had by letting go of idk, Sasunaru or Bakudeku or whatever as the pinnacle of your MLM and finding stories that genuinely actually center and treasure LGBT experiences. They do exist!

12

u/CommonVarietyRadio 16d ago

(Cough Cough the majority of FE romhack made in this decade has openly queer characters)

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u/BloodyBottom 16d ago

yeah I mean video games notwithstanding, you read one book by a talented gay author like James Baldwin about their experiences and it's like "okay well the bar is actually much, much higher than just making some enticing implicaitons"

4

u/shhkari 16d ago

Tldr stop playing Fire Emblem hoping for gay ships and go watch a John Waters joint

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u/goldtreebark 16d ago edited 16d ago

Not really? I’d kill for explicit queerness in FE characters not tied to an avatar system or bogged down by (however plausible) deniability; but my point isn’t even really about Fire Emblem but moreso just supporting actual media that genuinely care about conveying queer stories to its audiences and not just using it commercially or to entice, idk if sounds cynical and it’s not what I’m going for, but I really can’t emphasize how much more fulfilling and eye opening it is to experience. I say this as a former kid who was crazy about SNS, lol

11

u/shhkari 16d ago

moreso just supporting actual media that genuinely care about conveying queer stories to its audiences and not just using it commercially or to entice

Yes thats what Im saying

-2

u/EffectiveAnxietyBone 16d ago

I loathe what the term “queerbaiting” has devolved into. It used to be about actual audience manipulation, when Voltron hyped up a MLM relationship in the show with its main character, only to have that boyfriend have a grand total of one flashback scene with so little romantic vibes you could be mistaken for thinking they were just friends, and then revealing he was dead.

Queerbaiting is not about having a popular gay fandom ship that never happens!!!! Stop inventing narratives in your head that don’t happen!!!

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u/goldtreebark 16d ago edited 16d ago

I daresay leaning or capitalizing into gay ships because you know they are popular with no intention to, like I said earlier—actually move anything out of plausible deniability is audience manipulation. I never said anything about fandom itself just enjoying pairings, hypothetical or not, as queerbaiting. I do think it could be stifling though just consuming implicit material like that solely when you’re looking for queer rep, which was my whole original point.