What’s the gayest Xenoblade game?

  • Xenoblade 1

    Votes: 39 12.0%
  • Xenoblade 2

    Votes: 164 50.6%
  • Xenoblade 3

    Votes: 59 18.2%
  • Xenoblade X

    Votes: 62 19.1%

  • Total voters
    324

FatCatSings

Member
Jan 31, 2023
697
XVI has an actual gay couple in it, all these fanon vibes picks can't compete with that.

Does that count? It says gayest, not actually gay?
Did you see Clive's tig ol bitties on display the whole game? It wins for gayest and actually gay FF game. Except X-2 because that was full on gay dress up fantasy for me when I was 12.

Back on topic, I guess Xenoblade 2? But mostly just because David Menkin does the most that he can with Malos and he's a great guy. This series feels extremely hetero, almost on par with Persona.
 

BoldPrompt

Member
Oct 27, 2017
129
Isn't the Blade Sheba from Xenoblade 2 a lesbian? You could also argue Azami depending on who she is paired with, but I feel she comes off as more possessive instead of loving her driver.
 

Bard

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
12,643
3 is the only one with explicitly queer characters with A being genderfluid and Juniper being non-binary.

Sena and Lanz never really show any romantic interest in each other either despite being 'paired up'. Lanz seems to be more interested in male characters like Noah and Joren than any of the female ones, and it can be similarly said about Sena with Mio, Segiri, and that one other girl whose name I forget now.

XC2 having quite a few people talk about Jin and Malos (or well at least Malos' crush on Jin) and Brighid x Morag is another one, but I feel like XC3 being the only one that outright confirms it the 'winner' in this question.
 
OP
OP
Aleh

Aleh

Member
Oct 27, 2017
16,359
3 is the only one with explicitly queer characters with A being genderfluid and Juniper being non-binary.

Sena and Lanz never really show any romantic interest in each other either despite being 'paired up'. Lanz seems to be more interested in male characters like Noah and Joren than any of the female ones, and it can be similarly said about Sena with Mio, Segiri, and that one other girl whose name I forget now.

XC2 having quite a few people talk about Jin and Malos (or well at least Malos' crush on Jin) and Brighid x Morag is another one, but I feel like XC3 being the only one that outright confirms it the 'winner' in this question.
Well Sena is clearly Brighid's daughter, it doesn't get more confirmed than that to me :P
 

Zeal543

Next Level Seer
Member
May 15, 2020
5,865
The most recent Xenoblade release had the co-lead and obviously major party member be non binary and not only that, had an entire cutscene with the two prior protagonists explaining it so that there could be no doubt as to exactly what they intended, in case some chuds tried to deny it.

youtu.be

A explains the Ontos to Shulk & Rex | Xenoblade Chronicles 3

A explains the Ontos to Shulk & Rex | Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Sheba from 2 isnt even trying to hide being gay and juniper from 3 is also non-binary.

Lanz is also LGBT as heck and you can't change my mind
A is the female half of Alvis with alpha being the male half, alvis is the non-binary (or dual gender, not sure how it works in xeno terms)
 

Lozange

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,120
I voted for 2 as well for previously mentioned reasons + trans!Nia allegory subtext + I think there's a few gacha blades that are queer (like the bath lady), but ok, consider:

What if straight relationships
Can be gay

Thesis complete, Xenoblade 3 is second place. (Also the non-binary characters help too)
 
OP
OP
Aleh

Aleh

Member
Oct 27, 2017
16,359
I voted for 2 as well for previously mentioned reasons + trans!Nia allegory subtext + I think there's a few gacha blades that are queer (like the bath lady), but ok, consider:

What if straight relationships
Can be gay

Thesis complete, Xenoblade 3 is second place. (Also the non-binary characters help too)
The trans Nia allegory is great too and wasn't mentioned enough here. "What's the point in living if I have to hide? This is who I am" 💕
 

Yam's

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,134
If there are any gay characters in those games then it went over my head. Japanese media are usually not very subtle when depicting lgbt characters.

The only popular RPG series that's more hetero than Xenoblade is Persona.

Persona 2 allowed a gay relationship and had several lgbt characters though. It became a male harem fantasy starting with the third entry.
 

RagnarokX

Member
Oct 26, 2017
15,847
3 is the only one with explicitly queer characters with A being genderfluid and Juniper being non-binary.

Sena and Lanz never really show any romantic interest in each other either despite being 'paired up'. Lanz seems to be more interested in male characters like Noah and Joren than any of the female ones, and it can be similarly said about Sena with Mio, Segiri, and that one other girl whose name I forget now.

XC2 having quite a few people talk about Jin and Malos (or well at least Malos' crush on Jin) and Brighid x Morag is another one, but I feel like XC3 being the only one that outright confirms it the 'winner' in this question.
Well 2 also implies Pyra/Mythra and Nia like each other and 3 confirms they all ended up together. Nia even wields homages to Pyra and Mythra's swords.
 

Bard

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
12,643

Disclaimer

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,598
3 has Juniper and A, and then there's gym buddies Sena and Lanz which are so clearly gay and it's made even more apparent when you consider they were one of the ouroboros pair and yet had zero romantic interest and were always interacting with same sex characters for their biggest development arcs :)

I just don't agree about Lanz or Sena. There's a difference between being queer-coded and just not expressing any sexual/romantic feelings throughout a game. And believe me, I want Lanz to be gay lmao, dude's a hunk.

But that same-sex character around whom Lanz' arc revolves was his childhood friend who "died" at like 10 years old. It's about his trauma and survivor's guilt, not anything romantic or sexual.

In fact Lanz joins Noah and Taion in getting embarrassed to change clothes in front of the girls. Very, very straight coded. Again, unfortunately.
 
OP
OP
Aleh

Aleh

Member
Oct 27, 2017
16,359
Yep.

I'm not going to entertain the harem bullshit that 2 did. Pyra and Mythra 'liking each other' is fucking gross.
I think most people interpret it as Pyra and Mythra being with Nia, not with each other. That both makes the implied (and for as far as I'm concerned, still unconfirmed) poly relationship easier to swallow and avoids any gross incest/selfcest implications
 

BradenAndEggs

Member
Jan 8, 2018
1,501
Jin/Malos alongside Morag/Brighid in 2 seem to be incredibly in love.

Lanz and Sena seem particularly interested in Joran and Shania respectively in 3, but who knows?

Eunie definitely has sparks with Ashera and Taion. I personally think Taion/Eunie are super cute together, but I think all the ships are good time!
 
OP
OP
Aleh

Aleh

Member
Oct 27, 2017
16,359
I just don't agree about Lanz or Sena. There's a difference between being queer-coded and just not expressing any sexual/romantic feelings throughout a game. And believe me, I want Lanz to be gay lmao, dude's a hunk.

But that same-sex character around whom Lanz' arc revolves was his childhood friend who "died" at like 10 years old. It's about his trauma and survivor's guilt, not anything romantic or sexual.

In fact Lanz joins Noah and Taion in getting embarrassed to change clothes in front of the girls. Very, very straight coded. Again, unfortunately.
I just think a workout obsessed guy that regularly trains with a workout obsessed girl and never shows interest to any girl and viceversa is very queer coded, and it also comes down to their other interactions with Noah, Mio, and other side characters.

Jin/Malos alongside Morag/Brighid in 2 seem to be incredibly in love.

In 3 Lanz and Sena seem particularly interested in Joran and Shania respectively, but who knows?

Eunie definitely has sparks with Ashera and Taion. I personally think Taion/Eunie are super cute together, but I think all the ships are good time!
Eunie is definitely bi for Ashera. Also, Nia and Melia in XC3 definitely had a vibe with their inter dimensional video chats lmao
 

Bard

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
12,643
Well then don't read it like that. It's never implied that they like each other but they and Nia like each other.
I think most people interpret it as Pyra and Mythra being with Nia, not with each other. That both makes the implied (and for as far as I'm concerned, still unconfirmed) poly relationship easier to swallow and avoids any gross incest/selfcest implications
I don't see them being interested in Nia in that context either, it's a harem for Rex and it's extremely disappointing. This could easily go into a thread derail so I won't speak to it anymore.
 

Hellstruck

Member
Jun 29, 2022
1,336
I agree with the poll. Malos was 100% gay for Jin. I don't think Jin reciprocated though.
Brighid had heavy vibes with Morag, but again I didn't really get anything from Morag. There's the scene mid chapter 7 where Brighid sees Pandoria/Zeke's connection and asks Morag how she'd feel about something similar and Morag just misses her intention completely with a "Eh, would it leave a scar? Then nah." I LOVE the little upset angry face Brighid makes afterwards.

That said the overall topic just seems kinda weak. "Xenoblade is the most hetero JRPG series besides Persona" sums it up.
 
OP
OP
Aleh

Aleh

Member
Oct 27, 2017
16,359
I agree with the poll. Malos was 100% gay for Jin. I don't think Jin reciprocated though.
Brighid had heavy vibes with Morag, but again I didn't really get anything from Morag. There's the scene mid chapter 7 where Brighid sees Pandoria/Zeke's connection and asks Morag how she'd feel about something similar and Morag just misses her intention completely with a "Eh, would it leave a scar? Then nah." I LOVE the little upset angry face Brighid makes afterwards.

That said the overall topic just seems kinda weak. "Xenoblade is the most hetero JRPG series besides Persona" sums it up.
Malos is literally the only person that showed Jin a way to go on! He literally saved him from letting himself rot on the streets. He was hung up on Lora that's for sure, but he still loved Malos all the same. He (and Malos too) just focused his feelings in all the wrong ways.

Oh and as for Morag, she's the one even initiating that conversation by stating that she's jealous she doesn't have such a physical connection to Brighid like the others
 
Last edited:

BradenAndEggs

Member
Jan 8, 2018
1,501
Morag and Brighid sitting together at the end of 2… cute cute cute cute
2018011404450901-659bjkseq.jpg
 

Cronogear

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,043
I'll admit, I wasn't convinced at all after people said Nia clinging to Pyra, saying "Nice bod" to Mythra, or shoving Rex aside to hold hands with Pyra/Mythra in the title screen made her bi. I just figured they were all meant as "Haha anime jokes" in-game.

Then when I saw Nia had versions of Pyra's and Mythra's swords in XB3, not sure why but I kinda felt like there might actually be something to it? I guess because it shows her connection to them in a more serious way, not in an anime joke way. Though without confirmation it doesn't really mean much, and I doubt we'll ever get it.
 

Cipher Peon

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,911
I haven't finished 3, but it's 100% 2.

Sheba is one of my favorite characters in the series, I wish she was mandatory because she is SO good
 

lambdaupsilon

Member
Apr 17, 2018
1,212
I voted for 2 as well for previously mentioned reasons + trans!Nia allegory subtext + I think there's a few gacha blades that are queer (like the bath lady), but ok, consider:

What if straight relationships
Can be gay

Thesis complete, Xenoblade 3 is second place. (Also the non-binary characters help too)
this is the truest anyone's ever been on this godforsaken site
 

Twohearts

Member
Feb 8, 2024
502
Straya
I probalby saw the most memes about SHulk having gay sex with the "I'm really feeling it" voice clip overlayed. so probably 1
 

Man God

Member
Oct 25, 2017
38,408
I probalby saw the most memes about SHulk having gay sex with the "I'm really feeling it" voice clip overlayed. so probably 1

Shulk is chasing the murderers of his girlfriend for most of the game and Reyn is pining for Sharla, who is hung up on the giga chad Gadot. Melia is not doing a good job keeping her feelings for Shulk in check, and Fiora returns Shulk's feelings for her. Riki is a happily married man with a football team of children. None of the villains have any real romantic feels. Dunban is the sexiest Asexual imaginable.

Alvis has a frankly weird relationship with Shulk. So that could be something.

Now some of the themes of transcending body and soul do in fact have positive trans imagery.

Xenoblade's big strives in inclusiveness haven't really gotten to non hetero relationships in a big way, but it deserves huge kudos for its complete turn around on diversity. XBC1 only has what, 200 hundred humanoids and most of them are white european fantasy humans, white european humans with pointy ears and wings on their head, nopons, and robbit people. By XBC2 you see a little more color here and there in both the humanoid races and the blades and by XBC3 you have a melting pot of all the races of each planet from XBC1/2 killing each other until they all come together.

Almost everyone in XBC3 is some form of mixed race/culture, especially the main cast.
 

NioA

Member
Dec 16, 2019
3,691
Eunie/Ashera is a thing and it's way better than any other romance in the four games in the poll
I'm sorry, I don't make the rules
 

HeRinger

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,319
I find it a little puzzling that two characters of the same gender can't have a friendship without someone pointing that they must be gay.
 

Maledict

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,141
You can possibly read some subtext into some characters, especially in 2. But it's grasping at straws, and I saw that as a gay guy who has really enjoyed the xenoblade games. Gaming has come a hell of a lot further than this series, which remains extremely heterosexual. The fact that even FF now has openly gay characters and all we get in Xenoblade is crumbs of subtext is fairly fucking Sad.
 

Disclaimer

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,598
I find it a little puzzling that two characters of the same gender can't have a friendship without someone pointing that they must be gay.

It's something that cuts both ways.

Yes, absolutely, people will ship two people of the same gender even when there's basically nothing to suggest it. Largely because queer people are so starved for representation in the medium, let alone representation of actual relationships. Yes, this can have an unfortunate effect of downplaying platonic friendships.

But it's also commonly the case that two same gender characters will have significant amounts of romantic subtext (usually that straight people don't even pick up on at all), and straight people will ridicule those who point it out, and basically try to gatekeep and say they're not queer unless they're literally shown fucking (e.g. Fire Emblem's Ike and Soren).

With regard to Xenoblade 2, I think Brigid most certainly shows romantic affection toward Morag, and very arguably Malos toward Jin, though I wouldn't say that either case is necessarily reciprocated.

Know what'd be nice? Developers just giving us more than subtext.
 

kirbyfan407

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,136
Hopefully Xenoblade 4! For explicitly stated representation, I think I have to say Xenoblade 3 because of the nonbinary representation (assuming we use gayest to mean LGBTQIA+). If we're going for queer romance and including non-explicitly stated...I guess I'll go with Xenoblade Chronicles 2.

The most recent Xenoblade release had the co-lead and obviously major party member be non binary and not only that, had an entire cutscene with the two prior protagonists explaining it so that there could be no doubt as to exactly what they intended, in case some chuds tried to deny it.

youtu.be

A explains the Ontos to Shulk & Rex | Xenoblade Chronicles 3

A explains the Ontos to Shulk & Rex | Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Sheba from 2 isnt even trying to hide being gay and juniper from 3 is also non-binary.

Lanz is also LGBT as heck and you can't change my mind
The only thing confusing to me about that bit of character info from the scene is that Alpha is repeatedly he/him, A is they/them, Ontos overall is nonbinary (as the cutscene describes), and Alvis was he/him. So I'm a little confused how that worked out. My guess is some of it comes from localization and retconning Ontos after Alvis was a thing in Xenoblade 1 (as somewhat seen with the Alvis character model change in Definitive Edition). Or perhaps Alvis and Alpha being he/him is explained by the influence of Klaus, as mentioned in the cutscene? I totally understand A being nonbinary and Ontos not being gendered like Pneuma and Logos as these are very explicitly stated, but everything else around Ontos's gendering seems inconsistent to me (which is maybe genderfluid, but each manifestation seems static).
3 has Juniper and A, and then there's gym buddies Sena and Lanz which are so clearly gay and it's made even more apparent when you consider they were one of the ouroboros pair and yet had zero romantic interest and were always interacting with same sex characters for their biggest development arcs :)
Totally forgot about feeling those vibes for Sena and Lanz. I had those thoughts at points, too.
 
OP
OP
Aleh

Aleh

Member
Oct 27, 2017
16,359
I find it a little puzzling that two characters of the same gender can't have a friendship without someone pointing that they must be gay.
This is such a ridiculous post. It's the same rhetoric I constantly have to hear from homophobes (not calling you one, but I still have to point out the problem in this) that try to deny the most obvious of queer coding there is completely ignoring why coding, and not explicitly telling, is even a thing to begin with.
In reality, it's male-female characters that can never have any friendship without being shipped together because of that antiquated view that guys and girls can't ACTUALLY be friends without ulterior motives.

At the end of the day, complaining about all these non-explicitly confirmed things and demanding "proper" representation isn't the progressive view some think it is. It just undermines how queer people constantly have to struggle to be visible, validated, and recognized for things that are never even doubted when it comes to cishet equivalents. Zeke and Pandoria are just as subtle as Morag and Brighid in base XC2 but no one puts into discussion whether or not they're a romantic couple or if Linka is really their daughter. Jin and Lora never ever say they love each other, but people accept it immediately, unlike Jin and Malos. And I could go on. It's honestly tiring!
 

Maledict

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,141
T

At the end of the day, complaining about all these non-explicitly confirmed things and demanding "proper" representation isn't the progressive view some think it is. It just undermines how queer people constantly have to struggle to be visible, validated, and recognized for things that are never even doubted when it comes to cishet equivalents.

Going to be honest, I think you really need to back down here and stop trying to gate keep what queer people think. You have numerous gay people *in this thread* disagreeing with you. You don't get to decide what queer people think as a group. Your own opinions are actually fine and obviously you are more than entitled to those, but please don't claim that is is some universally agreed queer peoples thinking because it really isn't.

The Xenoblade games are some of the most backward and unrepresentative RPGs there are. They suffer from massive male gaze and heteronormativity problems, the way XB2 treated women character was frankly awful, and just because there's the faintest of hints of gay subtext in some characters doesn't make them suddenly okay or that people should embrace that. It's less progressive than a FF game released over a decade ago.

And I *like* the XB games!