ARGH

[auronlu]

"I never understood why people liked pairing characters of the same gender together, or what gave people the idea that two characters were possibly in a romantic relationship—for any game, not just Final Fantasy XIII. I never personally tried to understand this because mentally, I could not imagine two characters of the same gender in a romantic relationship."

— well-intentioned, generally insightful commenter whom I really like.

The context: Dunquixote had a good write-up of first impressions about FFXIII. In response, among other things, I asked about how DQ saw the Fang/Vanille relationship. I should be able to accept differing interpretations.

However, "I can't imagine two characters of the same gender in a romantic relationship" seems a little different to me than "No, despite the hints, I don't think the game made it explicit what their relationship is."

I don't know how to respond tactfully. It's very important that I do respond tactfully, because this may be a moment for a little gentle consciousness-raising.

Except I can't, because I'm irked.

/frustrated

Comments

[auronlu]

Oops. I wound up borrowing heavenscalyx's first paragraph instead of the second, although someone else did that bit for me.

I am mindful that this all started when I excitedly asked, "So, what did you think of Fang/Vanille?" after DQ finished playing the game. So I started this, and don't want to come off like someone laying down a "gotcha" trap.

Which I wasn't. I'm afraid that instead I was engaging in that intellectually lazy habit of asking someone who, I assumed based on our past conversations, would affirm my view.

[sarasa_cat]

BTW, for the first time in AGES (like, a year?) FFXIII is being played on my TV right now. (So pretty.) I'm not the one playing, just watching. And being reminded at how Squeenix puts so much effort into gorgeous environments and soundscapes.

LOL. Oh no, didn't realize you accidentally started the whole thing. Gah. Well, I saw how the whole convo resolved so I'd say it was all good in the end.

[auronlu]

Thank goodness. Confrontation makes me so nervous.

It is very shiny. I so wish that someone had sat down and revamped the plot/story into a well-paced, cohesive, flowing narrative once all the different creative teams had fine-tuned the environments, characters and game mechanics. It definitely smacks of production by committee.

It strikes me as being a good story in desperate need of an editor.

Despite that, I love the characters and landscapes of XIII enormously. (Then again, I come from the fine old MYST tradition of gaming: "Screw plot! Trap the characters in books so we don't have to do anything with them, and leave their journals and fascinating artifacts scattered about as clues that you have to piece together to discover the backstory! Explore explore explore puzzle explore! Setting and ambiance! Trancelike music! Here, have an interesting alien critter sunning itself on a rock! Have a gorgeous alien landscape! We don't need no frickin' story arc!"

[sarasa_cat]

I can be a bit of a pit bull at times given that confrontation is something I am expected to deal with in day to day professional life but, yeah, there are times in fandom when I just do not want to deal with it.

FFXIII feels so much like production by committee. I've more or less forgotten what the story is about but I don't really mind. Pretty is pretty. I just enjoy the shiny and am all "story? what story?" Yes, very MYST like: just enjoy the atmosphere.

[flynn_the_cat]

I think it went well; I had a whole bunch of responses in my head, but you mostly covered them, so I just sat back and passed on (I think I was in a hurry catching up on stuff).

Assuming the best, that they genuinely just don't get it, because they never thought about it, and nobody sat them down and walked them through it, is probably the best possible response. If they DID mean it in bad faith then they get to pretend they didn't, and continue as a normal person, or just show themselves up as jerks and you educate everyone else. If they didn't mean it that way, then Good Has Been Done. It's having the patience and forethought to handle it with an open mind that is difficult.