It's totally okay! ♥ I am offended, but not for the reason you think. I hope I don't sound too harsh in here, I'm genuinely just trying to explain, not to judge or attack.
We're going to have to agree to disagree about Vanille, but it bothers me that you would write off what you can't deny is her most significant personal relationship as "just fanservice". Do you have any evidence for saying that? Any interviews with directors or producers or writers where they said, "We threw in some hints about girl-on-girl action, because we know that sort of thing makes money"? Because if you do, then I'll back off and just be sad at humanity. But if you don't, then I have to take it up with you.
What if I said, I think Vanille's chemistry with Hope is only there to pacify homophobes who would be up in arms about a positive portrayal of an otherwise obvious lesbian relationship? Would you say that's ridiculous? If Fang were a male character, the way she was originally planned to be according to her wiki page, would you still think their relationship was just fanservice, or would you think there was something more to it?
It's complete dismissal. It's saying, "Sure, it's there. But it doesn't count!" Yesterday rainfall argued with someone saying that Thirteen from House is just exploitation, which is a more Western way of saying "just fanservice". Thirteen is openly bisexual, dates men and women on the show, and left the show to literally live the rest of her short life with a woman that she cared about so much that even a cynic like House could see how happy she was and realized that he shouldn't distract her with his miserable existence. That's exploitative? How could that be any more fair of a representation of her sexuality? At what point does something stop being exploitation, or fanservice?
I'm going to use as an example another fandom I was in: Code Geass, aka No One Will Ever Compare To Our Fanservice. This is what fanservice is:
It's fanservice when Code Geass finds repeated excuses to show us ass and tit shots; to get its female characters naked; to dress everyone up in silly or sexy costumes -- despite being a serious dramatic show. It's also fanservice when side-material makes the female characters gossip about how the main male characters might end up making out with each other, and dresses them upin girl's clothing -- several times. It's a pretty good show, honestly. It's just terribly, terribly fanservicey. You have to ignore the deeply exploitative and occasionally distressing official art. Go ahead, Google "Code Geass fanservice" and have a great time. But it's not fanservice that those two main male characters are important to each other! That's just part of the story.
It's not fanservice when two female characters care for each other more than anyone else, have been together for literally centuries, repeatedlyhug and gaze into each other's eyes significantly, think and worry about each other constantly, more than once sacrifice themselves for the other... It's not fanservice when they ultimately give their lives to combine into one being to sleep together in a crystal pillar for the rest of eternity in order to save mankind. That's their entire story, and it's not fanservice. It's just part of the story. And it's inherently pretty gay.
It's one thing to say "I don't care for it" and another thing to say "They're only pretending to be lesbians for cold hard cash-generating purposes." That takes something that you're admitting is present in the canon, and delegitimizes it by saying it's 100% cynicism, thrown in there to appeal to a niche market, literally just an attempt to trick gullible fools like me into seeing something that they didn't want to be there.
So if you do have a quote, I apologize for inflicting this long essay on you! But people do say that, and do think that, and don't realize that what they're saying is, "There's no way anyone could actually want to show two women in a caring relationship! Why would anyone want to use subtlety to portray an underrepresented and often-marginalized minority in any form of media? It can only be a jaded tactic to earn more money."
I think their relationship and their significance to each other is beautiful; not exploited or fanservicey in any way. I don't think everyone is obligated to ship it. Shipping is a matter of preference! And if you want to ship Vanille with Hope, or with Serah or Sazh -- go right ahead. That's cool! Even if Vanille had kissed Fang full on the mouth in their last moments (and if they did, would that also be fanservice? or would that officially be gay?) you would still be 100% entitled to ship her with Hope.
But it sounds a little homophobic to say that Fang and Vanille's relationship was straight characters playacting at lesbianism as a marketing ploy that I fell for, and it has no actual bearing on their characters, like they're just actors playing out a movie scene and then the real Vanille only has chemistry with Hope.
P.S.: Fanfiction.net has 120 Fang/Vanille fics, 60 Hope/Vanille fics, and 350 Lightning/Hope fics. I think Lightning/Hope is the real threat you should have an issue with, since it isn't canon, and it is kind of creepy. Meanwhile, my secret FFXIII love, Sazh/Lightning, has fewer than 20...
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We're going to have to agree to disagree about Vanille, but it bothers me that you would write off what you can't deny is her most significant personal relationship as "just fanservice". Do you have any evidence for saying that? Any interviews with directors or producers or writers where they said, "We threw in some hints about girl-on-girl action, because we know that sort of thing makes money"? Because if you do, then I'll back off and just be sad at humanity. But if you don't, then I have to take it up with you.
What if I said, I think Vanille's chemistry with Hope is only there to pacify homophobes who would be up in arms about a positive portrayal of an otherwise obvious lesbian relationship? Would you say that's ridiculous? If Fang were a male character, the way she was originally planned to be according to her wiki page, would you still think their relationship was just fanservice, or would you think there was something more to it?
It's complete dismissal. It's saying, "Sure, it's there. But it doesn't count!" Yesterday
I'm going to use as an example another fandom I was in: Code Geass, aka No One Will Ever Compare To Our Fanservice. This is what fanservice is:
It's fanservice when Code Geass finds repeated excuses to show us ass and tit shots; to get its female characters naked; to dress everyone up in silly or sexy costumes -- despite being a serious dramatic show. It's also fanservice when side-material makes the female characters gossip about how the main male characters might end up making out with each other, and dresses them up in girl's clothing -- several times. It's a pretty good show, honestly. It's just terribly, terribly fanservicey. You have to ignore the deeply exploitative and occasionally distressing official art. Go ahead, Google "Code Geass fanservice" and have a great time. But it's not fanservice that those two main male characters are important to each other! That's just part of the story.
It's not fanservice when two female characters care for each other more than anyone else, have been together for literally centuries, repeatedly hug and gaze into each other's eyes significantly, think and worry about each other constantly, more than once sacrifice themselves for the other... It's not fanservice when they ultimately give their lives to combine into one being to sleep together in a crystal pillar for the rest of eternity in order to save mankind. That's their entire story, and it's not fanservice. It's just part of the story. And it's inherently pretty gay.
It's one thing to say "I don't care for it" and another thing to say "They're only pretending to be lesbians for cold hard cash-generating purposes." That takes something that you're admitting is present in the canon, and delegitimizes it by saying it's 100% cynicism, thrown in there to appeal to a niche market, literally just an attempt to trick gullible fools like me into seeing something that they didn't want to be there.
So if you do have a quote, I apologize for inflicting this long essay on you! But people do say that, and do think that, and don't realize that what they're saying is, "There's no way anyone could actually want to show two women in a caring relationship! Why would anyone want to use subtlety to portray an underrepresented and often-marginalized minority in any form of media? It can only be a jaded tactic to earn more money."
I think their relationship and their significance to each other is beautiful; not exploited or fanservicey in any way. I don't think everyone is obligated to ship it. Shipping is a matter of preference! And if you want to ship Vanille with Hope, or with Serah or Sazh -- go right ahead. That's cool! Even if Vanille had kissed Fang full on the mouth in their last moments (and if they did, would that also be fanservice? or would that officially be gay?) you would still be 100% entitled to ship her with Hope.
But it sounds a little homophobic to say that Fang and Vanille's relationship was straight characters playacting at lesbianism as a marketing ploy that I fell for, and it has no actual bearing on their characters, like they're just actors playing out a movie scene and then the real Vanille only has chemistry with Hope.
P.S.: Fanfiction.net has 120 Fang/Vanille fics, 60 Hope/Vanille fics, and 350 Lightning/Hope fics. I think Lightning/Hope is the real threat you should have an issue with, since it isn't canon, and it is kind of creepy. Meanwhile, my secret FFXIII love, Sazh/Lightning, has fewer than 20...