[ SECRET POST #4444 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4444 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.



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02.
[Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom]


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03.
[Mary Skelter]


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04.
[The Final Table, Charles and Rodrigo]


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05.
[Altered Carbon]


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06.
[Katie Perry/Orlando Bloom engagement]


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07.
[Fandom: Fruits Basket]










Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 17 secrets from Secret Submission Post #636.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

DA but anon is exaggerating greatly. First of all, there was no way there was ever going to be anything between Kyo and Yuki because they were the two male parts of the love triangle with the heroine and it was obvious that one of them was going to end up with her at the end. Second, Haru and Rin being a ship was something that was made clear (and canon) fairly early on, so them being endgame was hardly a surprise. Third, Ayame and Shigure do flirt playfully... as a joke. Ayame has a live-in girlfriend throughout the entire series so again, there's was never any chance of a gay ship there.

Akito and Shigure I'll sort of give you, but yeah, the rest was very clearly never meant to give any sort of implication that anything was going to happen.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, the fact that there is deliberate homosexual innuendo by the author is hardly nothing, though, if you frequently make use of it with multiple characters yet not a single one ends up gay (or even ambiguous). That does seem like queerbaiting, since it's specifically aiming for BL points but bait-and-switches into a neat heterosexual package.

[(Anonymous)]

That's... not what queerbaiting is, though. Queerbaiting is when the creator builds up a potential queer relationship and makes it seem like it's legitimately going to become canon, and then pulls a "WELL ACTUALLY" and backs away from it. None of the subtext in Furuba save for possibly Akito and Shigure was ever given any sort of implication that it was anything more than just that: subtext. It wasn't bait-and-switch because there was never any chance that it was going to be canon, and in fact two of the het ships I mentioned (Haru/Rin and Ayame/Mine) were made canon fairly early on, as was the Kyo-Tohru-Yuki love triangle.

[(Anonymous)]

You can keep insisting that "putting in gay bait isn't bait because het ships were the intention all along!!", reaching-diehard-furuba-fan anon, that doesn't make it any less fujobait. Nor does it make it any less problematic or irritating. There's a reason many are frustrated with Fruits Basket for doing this and it's entirely justifiable.

[(Anonymous)]

You say 'fairly early on' but Rin doesn't even /appear/ until volume 8, by which point Hatsuharu had shown interest in Yuki from his very first appearance. Mine isn't confirmed to be Ayame's girlfriend until volume 19, well into the series and after multiple instances of the series teasing that he might like men. That is not 'fairly early on.' The series teases Ayame being possibly gay for at least 19 volumes before deciding nope he's straight.

And honestly even if it wasn't queerbaiting, using 'ha ha this male character says things about loving this other male character but not like serious romantic love' as a joke doesn't make the series look any better, frankly.

[(Anonymous)]

nayrt but didn't Ayame perv on girls sometimes too? I swear I remember him joking about peeping on girls in the bath at one point or something similar...

[(Anonymous)]

In all honesty, I can accept that Ayame is bi, but that doesn't change the fact that his behaviors leaned heavily into queer tropes for the majority of his screen time but the only relationship that is depicted is a heterosexual one.

[(Anonymous)]

NAYRT - From Wikipedia: "Queerbaiting is the practice of hinting at, but then not actually depicting, a same-sex romantic relationship between characters in a work of fiction, mainly in film or television. The potential romance may be ignored, explicitly rejected or made fun of."

Given previous anon's examples, there's some pretty damn big "hints", especially regarding Haru and Ayame. Shigure and Akito is definitely a bait-and-switch because regardless of what the overall plan was or even the genre conventions, the readers were still led to believe it was a same-sex relationship until the reveal.

[(Anonymous)]

So you admit that Akito and Shigure, at least, was queerbaiting. It was the most damning one at that.

[(Anonymous)]

From what I recall, there was no indication at all that Mine was anything more than Ayame's assistant and friend until around volume 18 or so. Up until that point the series had pretty clearly played the 'flamboyantly gay -- but not too gay' card with him, only to eventually reassure the audience that don't worry he's just as straight as the rest of the cast. Furuba may be a shoujo series but I heavily disagree that the author didn't know exactly what she was doing when she had moments like teenage Ayame suggesting all the boys in the school turn their affections towards him. Yes it was a joke, but it was also a pretty deliberate tease to the fujoshi who would eat it up and give the series more sales.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not exagerrating, you diehard Takaya stan. Stop making excuses for her piss poor behavior.

[(Anonymous)]

Second, Haru and Rin being a ship was something that was made clear (and canon) fairly early on

Pretty sure Rin came into the picture rather late. Certainly not as early as Haru straight up saying he loves Yuki and likes Kyo within his fucking introduction, with there being no implication that Haru had a female love interest.

[(Anonymous)]

And Rin also had ship tease with Tohru after her appearance.

[(Anonymous)]

First of all, there was no way there was ever going to be anything between Kyo and Yuki because they were the two male parts of the love triangle with the heroine and it was obvious that one of them was going to end up with her at the end

This is the sort of "obvious" where it's only obvious as a result of the traditional normative status of heterosexuality. Of course, the reality is that - the world being what it is, or what it was at the time - that was going to be the outcome. But it's also not really a defense against the accusation of queerbaiting to say that the series was probably going to be straight because of heteronormativity.

[(Anonymous)]

and, y'know, the part where it's a shojo manga where love triangles/multiple guys vying for the lead girl is a staple of the genre...

[(Anonymous)]

You know, around the time Furuba was popular shoujo was pretty much all I read, and still Furuba is the only series I remember where het reigned supreme to this extent in the ending. In other series, supporting characters were, shock, allowed to remain single (yes, even in romance stories), and some actually were canonically queer.