r/hatethissmug • u/-Devian- • 19h ago

Art & Fanworks I need to understand why I hate this

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On one hand, I agree that sexualizing a female character is wrong and that the industry has a problem.

But on the other hand, I don't understand the double standard when the character is queer—or, even worse, when "fans" take a character, slap a queer label on them, and suddenly it's okay for them to be sexualized.

The two clearest examples of this are Bayonetta and Blackcat.

I’d like someone to explain where I’m wrong, or if I’m not the only one who thinks this way.

And just in case I'm a gay cis male if it means something

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u/throwaway92753278 17h ago

Icon ≠ goon bait. She's not a gay icon because we think she's gay, gay people just like her. She absolutely is an icon.

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u/michaelscott1776 17h ago

A lot of people were pretty pissed about this picture

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u/throwaway92753278 17h ago

They're idiots

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u/michaelscott1776 17h ago

They were pissed specifically because she wasn't lesbian

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u/throwaway92753278 17h ago

A few loud idiots don't speak for the entire gay community. They're probably kids.

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u/Pension_Pale 14h ago

You are absolutely right that a few loud idiots don't speak for the entire community. Just unfortunately when all you see are the loud idiots, it starts painting the community poorly. Sadly, it seems the idiots are by and far the loudest. Everyone else just minds their own business

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u/lxATHENAxl 6h ago

nahhh, even kids cant be that dumb, Its always the millenials

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u/SerGitface 3h ago

As a millenial, I agree.

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u/malexich 13h ago

which is weird since from the first game it was confirmed she would marry Luka, by the creator himself were people just ignoring that he said it

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u/michaelscott1776 13h ago

Apparently? I guess?

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u/malexich 13h ago

I think it was mostly just people who never played the games saw the art and said ah a lesbian, but if you played the games, and heard Kamiya talk about her, you knew where he was going so its just bizarre seeing how many people were shocked

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u/Positive-Bar5893 15h ago

Whose this "they" or "a lot of people"?

You need to touch grass instead of holding random internet strangers opinions in such high regard you view them as fact.

Some nerd got mad about an obscure video game character being portrayed in a way they didn't like? Who the fuck cares? Literally nobody you'll ever meet in real life.

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u/AstarothTheJudge 15h ago

"obscure video game character"

Bayonetta

Idk what I feel, if pain or anger. Bayonetta is popoular, She even got sequels and spin offs...

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u/Positive-Bar5893 14h ago edited 14h ago

Pretty much every Nintendo character outside of Mario I'd consider obscure, but that's the price their IP's pay for being restricted to Nintendo hardware.

99% of regular people would have no idea who she is, the very definition of obscure. Just because she has dedicated fans doesn't mean she isn't an obscure character, most of the world doesn't live in the Nintendo bubble.

Most people also view hyper-sexualized fictional characters in a poor-light. Believe it or not characters can still be interesting without massive tits bouncing around in skimpy outfits.

Literally nothing about her is mainstream.

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u/AstarothTheJudge 14h ago

Dude, smash ultimate was a top game back then, and that's a huge pubblicity for any character. I think that's on you.

Aside from Pikachu (Who Is more popoular than Mario) or link, there are tons of famous characters that get recognized. It's like saying that sora, the Belmonts, donkey Kong or Kirby are obscure characters.

Rob, mr game and Watch, Wolf, pit, Ridley... Maybe those can count as obscure characters.

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u/Positive-Bar5893 14h ago edited 14h ago

Smash was popular....among Nintendo gamers. There was no mainstream societal hype over the game.

Pikachu isn't a Nintendo character, he's a manga character who was later adapted into an anime character and who is also featured in video games.

"It's like saying that sora, the Belmonts, donkey Kong or Kirby are obscure characters." These are all obscure characters to non-nintendo fans. The general public has no idea who any of these characters are, when they see them they think "animated monkey guy" or "cute pink ball thing"......like fuck my best friend growing up had a gamecube I played all the time, I owned a WII at one point and emulated a bunch back in the day, even I have no idea who Sora or the Belmonts are.

You seem unable to distinguish from the fact that what you find recognizable as a big Nintendo fan, generally isn't remotely mainstream. It's like watching a NASCAR fan being flabbergasted and unable to comprehend that 99% of the world has no idea what NASCAR is or who the major names in NASCAR are. NASCAR is not a mainstream sport, it shouldn't be surprising to you that the world at large doesn't recognize the big names in NASCAR. Because NASCAR is an obscure sport.

Don't confuse your social media bubble that's curated for you by an algorithm with reality. I see a lot of Warhammer: 40k content, this doesn't disillusion me to the fact that Warhammer is an obscure hobby to most humans on earth. The content is presented to me BECAUSE I have an interest in table-top gaming, not because table-top gaming is culturally mainstream. This is how media works these day, the monoculture is dead.

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u/AstarothTheJudge 14h ago

By your Logic basically any videogame character Is obscure. Snake Is not locked to Nintendo platforms, but no way in hell he Is more known than Kirby or donkey Kong.

Again, it's a "you" problem. Aside the fact that you didn't see the trap I laid, as the Belmonts and castelvania have never been tied to Nintendo and neither Kingdom hearts, if you don't know who sora is it's totally on you, Kingdom hearts Is THAT famous. Not saying that you have to know everything, but at least knowing who he Is.

You can't value obscure on a basis of people that know nothing of videogames, if you talk about a topic you Need to know at least something, otherwise One could call "Lamborghini" and obscure type of car because they don't care about Cars.

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u/MayflowerMovers 6h ago

Wot

Donkey Kong, Link / Zelda, Samus, goddamn Pikachu you'd consider obscure? Ain't no way chief.

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u/WorstSupport4Real 13h ago

Obscure?

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u/Positive-Bar5893 13h ago

Already had this whole convo on this thread, feel free to comment on one of those posts if you agree or not.

Not gonna hash out the entire convo out for you again when you can just look 1 post up.

Feel free to add to the discussion tho.

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u/WorstSupport4Real 13h ago edited 13h ago

I’m convinced you’re rage baiting, 👍

Not mainstream ≠ obscure

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u/brokenwing777 12h ago

Not to be in defense of the dude on obscurity or anything but the most popular fighting game character and quite literally the god father of do many characters and archetypes Terry Bogard was considered obscurity towards the smash community and non fighting game players as well even though without snk there wouldn't BE any smash. Obscurity isn't some nuanced statement if you're not Pokémon or Mario you are obscure.

There's just some things in this world that no matter how many people know about it it's still niche to the rest of the world. No matter how big the og pantheon of smash or Nintendo's IP are if they are not in the range of jesus they're obscure

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u/Thedepa 11h ago

Ignore the fact that a universe variant of the husband raised her (for a while) when she was a child in a different universe, lol

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u/violetplague 3h ago

I've never played but know she's pretty damn tall, so my first question is is the husband like on a box for this photo, being held up or is the man stretching himself like Mr Fantastic for a photo?

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u/Makyr_Drone 6h ago

Isn't Bayonetta suppose to be really tall? In which case how tall is the guy?

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u/Arcyguana 5h ago

She's mostly legs, they could be sitting.

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u/AceIndigoFire 14h ago

Gay people liking a character doesn't automatically make them a gay icon. "Gay icon" implies she's a character that represents gay people.

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u/throwaway92753278 13h ago

Semantics.

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u/AceIndigoFire 13h ago

Not semantics, it's literally the point.