Queer baiting/Homosexual jokes--Was anyone else disappointed?
Was anyone disappointed with Episode 5?
I hate to say that I was. There was a lot of reasons on why. I thought that writing and pacing was off. A lot of things didn't make any sense. But the number one reason is the gay jokes and queer baiting.
I am a non-binary person who is attracted to both women and men. I have a lot of conflict with that especially since identifying as a man and liking men is rough.
Rhys, Vaughn, And Handsome Jack were very close to my heart. I deeply appreciate the fact that there was a heavy implication that Rhys and Handsome Jack were gay/bi sexual or pan-sexual. And A LOT of people felt the same way. I thought it was very brave of Telltale and Gearbox to put homosexual themes in their games. I also thought it was great Athena and Janey are getting married.
However, Episode 5 rubbed me the wrong way. I couldn't help but get the feeling that all of the male homosexuality was just a huge joke. Like being a gay man is hilarious or evil? Which is toxic.
I can't tell you in words how much it hurts. It broke my heart that we got an option to romance Sasha or Fiona and not Vaughn. I mean, I know it's a long stretch. I knew the chances of two men together was slim, but when game developers do queer baiting it's devastating. We see this CONSTANTLY in entertainment. Male homosexuality is always used as mockery or to devalue human beings. I just didn't think Telltale would do it, too.
Did anyone else feel the same way?
Comments
Uhh.. Hate to break it to you but there wasn't any implication or "baiting" (As you put it) of either of them being gay or bi... Like at all. It just seems like you're looking too deep into things and overreacting/getting mad over something that's not there. They also didn't make fun of male homosexuality nor did they make it seem like it's hilarious or evil. I have no idea where you pulled that out from.
You think because Rhys isn't attracted to Vaughn that Telltale makes fun of homosexuality? I swear some people look for reasons to be upset.
Ah... yeah, no. I agree that queerbating is a huge problem with modern media, but Borderlands is like... one of the few franchises these days that explicitly avoids it, along with a slew of other unfortunate tropes ("sad lesbians" being one of them).
I really can't tell if you are being serious or just trolling. Borderlands doesn't take anything seriously, thought that has been made abudantly clear at this point. Also, i get Rhys (his crush on Zer0 couldnt be made more obvious), but where the flipping heck can anyone get any indication that Handsome Jack is interested in dudes?
I'm assuming the Jackapedia entry for Vaughn, but considering everyone has the same reaction to Vaughn's abs I wouldn't read into it.
It's Not EA game where you can romace everything that moves.
Son, this makes absolutely no fucking sense.
Like the jokes about black people? Yeah we love slavery jokes, they're funny. It was clear Telltale wanted to make fun of the homosexuals there !
More seriously, i hate people like you.
Edit: Before you get mad about people who don't like your lifestyle, i'm not talking about that.
What the hell are you talking about? Lol
how about vaughn is hetrosexual, so even if rhys wasn't, as his friend he would know how inappropriate and insulting making a pass at his straight friend would be.
and well the "someone else" option could fulfil that option of unrequited love of rhys to vaughn, if that is how you would like to interpret it.
i think people are being unnecessarily mean to you and as a lesbian i too am sensitive to this stuff and i see where you're coming from. i loved their flirting but honestly never expected it to go anywhere, especially with handsome jack who i think is just a flirt in general haha. i think an option at the end to say you liked vaughn or something could have been cool, but I don't really see anything malicious/homophobic in how it turned out.
In fact it kinda rubs ME the wrong way that you don't see any significance in a canon, happy lesbian couple but call queer baiting when guys don't get together.
I'm not trying to be mean, but what "male homosexuality" are you talking about? I'm legit confused. What, was there some Rhack or something I missed? And seriously, I really doubt they're queerbaiting. People said the same thing about TWDG when Kenny made a joke about how Luke and Nick "looked like a match". This is ridiculous.
He seems to be confusing Rhys' admiration for Jack with attraction. That's about it.
Jack wasn't gay like at all and as far as we know Rhys wasn't either. You're mad because your made up character traits weren't real.
I wonder if Ryhack shippers ever stop and consider that maybe, just maybe Rhys and Jack arent gay? Rhys admired Jack thats it. Nowhere in the game it implied that he had the hots for Jack and Vaughn. Why cant 2 members of the same sex(and opposite sex) respect, admire, like each other with bringing romance into it.
I look up/admire to to alot of influential women whether fictional or real but that doesnt mean im suddenly lesbian. This post sound like something straight from tumblr.
Flirting? What are you talking about?
yeah, there is such a thing as "guy love"
https://youtu.be/lL4L4Uv5rf0
Rhys and Vaughn's relationship had been established way before the events of Tales.
Hm, not sure what you're really talking about. Almost feels like you're pretending to be non-straight in order to paint LGBTQ people as ridiculous.
If there had been lots of jokes about how bad gay people are or something, then yeah I'd see where you're coming from, but simply not offering a romance option in a game where the romance has barely any presense anyway is not homophobia.
Did I miss something? When was Rhys flirting with Jack? I thought he just admired the guy. Have you played borderlands?
Please play all the borderlands games first pumpking. "Adding homosexuals" is a thing that has happened since borderlands 1.
If i recall, here's a list of characters that I REMEMBER are queer.
Maya
Zer0
Brick
Lilith
Moxxi
Axton
Probably Sasha
ALmost obviously Jack
Athena
Janey
Sir Hammerlock
A litteral Jail full of Gay people in The Secret Armory of General Knoxx DLC.
Shank
Chad
The Brother of the security guard in EP4
And many more because i haven't played the games since 3 months ago and i havent played tps.
When did this happen? When did they said being homosexual is bad?
It isn't in the borderlands universe as i already stated. If you say to Fiona that Rhys likes someone else it could also mean that he's talking about Vaughn. Second, when did they queerbaited?
EDIT If anyone knows who else is missing in the list, please tell me so i can update it
Classical. The only positive representation is the one with the two men together. Classical tumblr thinking.
Every time I see Rhack brought up in a positive lighting, I get confused. What's so healthy about that relationship? Other than the fact it's a relationship between a boss and their employee, it's just really not a positive relationship.
Now, Vaughn/Rhys, hell yeah. But here's the thing, I don't feel that it was baited. It's bro's doing bro stuff.
Who knows what Rhys' or Vaughn's romantic/sexual alignment are, who knows what'll happen if there's a second season. The best you can do is voice your opinion.
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Whoa whoa whoa.
There are plenty of tumblr blogs that do het ships. You can't just make that generalisation.
Seeing how he's not replying, I'm guessing that he's baiting.
it's just guy love between two guys :P
I know but that that ocasion was just too good to pass.
That's de-bait-able, but I wouldn't come back to a thread full of people questioning me so heavily either.
I'm not sure what their intentions are, but considering the response to their question was a resounding "no" I'm thinking maybe we should kill this thread before it escalates into something nasty...
fair enough
Agreed.
Also, more evidence that this guy's baiting-he only appeared today, and this is his very first post.
I don't think it was their intention to "bait", these are their legit views as a quick Google search of their username brings up a tumblr account saying the same things.
I can't see this discussion going anywhere positive and and due to threads like this causing arguments in the past i am going to close this one.