Hello, it's me again with another disappointing, yet necessary topic about how Nintendo continues to fall short when it comes to providing varied and inclusive queer male characters in the Fire Emblem series. (Notably it's only major IP to prominently feature queer characters at all, to date.)
So a new DLC wave has been announced, called Cindered Shadows, which features (at least) four new playable characters; Yuri, Balthus, Hapi, and Constance. These are the two new male characters:
Yuri
Balthus
Now on first glance, if no previous information was available, I would have hoped that both these men would be available as male same sex romantic supports for the MC, considering we are still at a desparity with the amount of female romantic s/s supports. (2 vs. 5) But we already knew this wasn't the case due to previous datamining of supports that was present in previous DLC updates. Going by that info, it seems that only Yuri is available as a male same sex romantic support. (The datamining may be incorrect, but considering what we've seen so far, it seems inline with what Nintendo has done previously, more on that in a bit.)
Now stand alone, Yuri looks great. He has a cool design, and from what little we've seen of his personality, he seems to have a nice personality. He even looks to be the "leader" of this group, which may or may not be an actual new house? We don't know. The issue lies in the fact that he continues a trend of queer male characters in Fire Emblem only adhering to a particular set of design tropes, the feminine/pretty boy character.
Now to state something incredibly important. There is absolutely nothing wrong with feminine male characters, be they gay, straight, bi, asexual, or otherwise. They don't represent weakness, perverseness, or a "failure of masculinity", whatever that shit is. Feminine men are amazing, and I'm happy to see more being spotlighted in games in positive and empowering roles. (Shoutout to Sylvando in Dragon Quest XI.)
What queer gamers such as myself take issue with is that the canon queer men in Fire Emblem all seem to fall into a very particular pattern of designs, and that it's highly likely that queer men are not at the forefront when considering the creation of these characters, yet rather they play into the tropes of queer content not made with they people they portray in mind.
Here are the other canon queer male characters in Fire Emblem:
Niles (Fire Emblem Fates)
Leon (Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia)
Linhardt (Fire Emblem Three Houses)
Jeritza (Fire Emblem Three Houses)
So as you can see, now including Yuri, they definitely have a type when it comes what designs their queer characters have. Their personalities are more diverse, thankfully, but some still lean into some stereotypical tropes. (And there's the whole thing about being restricted from additional content if your pursue Niles in Fates with a male MC, but I digress.)
Why bring this all up? I don't want the men I listed above to be replaced, rather that a wider variety of queer men to be included alongside them. There is absolutely no reason why Balthus (or Claude, or Raphael, or Dedue, or Dimitri, etc.) couldn't be a queer option also, or that Dudue and Dimitri shouldn't be able to S rank, among other non-MC male/male pairings, or that Alois & Gilbert could of been romantic supports, instead of the bizarre, and frankly insulting, platonic supports they were given with male Byleth. Queer men are as varied as all other people in this world, and it's time that this is reflected in games. We aren't your window dressing, we're not your queer content for straight eyes, and we're not your token inclusion. We just want to be able to have the same frivolous fun that others get to, and it's not asking to much to be considered in this same way.
Also, to everyone thinking/saying/typing "just wait for the DLC to come out before complaining", we say how well that worked out last time with the initial release, so again I say, it's time to speak up now. It's most likely too late to make a change to the DLC for when it launches, but it's not too late for them to make the changes to the game in the hopefully not to distant future. Comments like "maybe next time/focus on future games" are useless, because this is always the case. Change needs to happen now.
Anyway, if you want to help out, please consider politely contacting the relevant people/publications/hive minds about your thoughts on this topic, and lets work together to make Fire Emblem as gay as it can be. (Hello bigoted lurkers! đź’‹ )
List of Notable Contacts:
Nintendo Japan
Nintendo of America
Intelligence Systems
Doug Bowser
Bill Trinen
Okay thanks~
P.S. If you're upset about other issues facing queer gamers, such as how female same sex relationships are generally geared towards straight men, how queer characters are almost all confined to being "player sexual", how trans and non-binary characters are rather mocked, abused or are totally absent from gaming, I strongly encourage you to create topics and conversations about any and all these important issues! They all deserve attention.
So a new DLC wave has been announced, called Cindered Shadows, which features (at least) four new playable characters; Yuri, Balthus, Hapi, and Constance. These are the two new male characters:
Yuri
Balthus
Now on first glance, if no previous information was available, I would have hoped that both these men would be available as male same sex romantic supports for the MC, considering we are still at a desparity with the amount of female romantic s/s supports. (2 vs. 5) But we already knew this wasn't the case due to previous datamining of supports that was present in previous DLC updates. Going by that info, it seems that only Yuri is available as a male same sex romantic support. (The datamining may be incorrect, but considering what we've seen so far, it seems inline with what Nintendo has done previously, more on that in a bit.)
Now stand alone, Yuri looks great. He has a cool design, and from what little we've seen of his personality, he seems to have a nice personality. He even looks to be the "leader" of this group, which may or may not be an actual new house? We don't know. The issue lies in the fact that he continues a trend of queer male characters in Fire Emblem only adhering to a particular set of design tropes, the feminine/pretty boy character.
Now to state something incredibly important. There is absolutely nothing wrong with feminine male characters, be they gay, straight, bi, asexual, or otherwise. They don't represent weakness, perverseness, or a "failure of masculinity", whatever that shit is. Feminine men are amazing, and I'm happy to see more being spotlighted in games in positive and empowering roles. (Shoutout to Sylvando in Dragon Quest XI.)
What queer gamers such as myself take issue with is that the canon queer men in Fire Emblem all seem to fall into a very particular pattern of designs, and that it's highly likely that queer men are not at the forefront when considering the creation of these characters, yet rather they play into the tropes of queer content not made with they people they portray in mind.
Here are the other canon queer male characters in Fire Emblem:
Niles (Fire Emblem Fates)
Leon (Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia)
Linhardt (Fire Emblem Three Houses)
Jeritza (Fire Emblem Three Houses)
So as you can see, now including Yuri, they definitely have a type when it comes what designs their queer characters have. Their personalities are more diverse, thankfully, but some still lean into some stereotypical tropes. (And there's the whole thing about being restricted from additional content if your pursue Niles in Fates with a male MC, but I digress.)
Why bring this all up? I don't want the men I listed above to be replaced, rather that a wider variety of queer men to be included alongside them. There is absolutely no reason why Balthus (or Claude, or Raphael, or Dedue, or Dimitri, etc.) couldn't be a queer option also, or that Dudue and Dimitri shouldn't be able to S rank, among other non-MC male/male pairings, or that Alois & Gilbert could of been romantic supports, instead of the bizarre, and frankly insulting, platonic supports they were given with male Byleth. Queer men are as varied as all other people in this world, and it's time that this is reflected in games. We aren't your window dressing, we're not your queer content for straight eyes, and we're not your token inclusion. We just want to be able to have the same frivolous fun that others get to, and it's not asking to much to be considered in this same way.
Also, to everyone thinking/saying/typing "just wait for the DLC to come out before complaining", we say how well that worked out last time with the initial release, so again I say, it's time to speak up now. It's most likely too late to make a change to the DLC for when it launches, but it's not too late for them to make the changes to the game in the hopefully not to distant future. Comments like "maybe next time/focus on future games" are useless, because this is always the case. Change needs to happen now.
Anyway, if you want to help out, please consider politely contacting the relevant people/publications/hive minds about your thoughts on this topic, and lets work together to make Fire Emblem as gay as it can be. (Hello bigoted lurkers! đź’‹ )
List of Notable Contacts:
Nintendo Japan
Nintendo of America
Intelligence Systems
Doug Bowser
Bill Trinen
Okay thanks~
P.S. If you're upset about other issues facing queer gamers, such as how female same sex relationships are generally geared towards straight men, how queer characters are almost all confined to being "player sexual", how trans and non-binary characters are rather mocked, abused or are totally absent from gaming, I strongly encourage you to create topics and conversations about any and all these important issues! They all deserve attention.
