Replaying FFX-2, Ramble on Homosexuality in Spira, and Story Buglets

[dagas_isa]

Yes, completely and totally replaying FFX-2, not from a New Game Plus (and God knows I've got some uber ones), but from the beginning, with the goal of getting 100% along the way. The Spira story bug is rising, as well as the rant bugs, and my general adoration for Rikku/Paine.

I don't know why I like that pairing. I suppose it just makes sense, at least as much as Rikku/Gippal or Paine/Baralai and it appeals to my inner lesbian. AND in my little imaginary fic universe, I can plot out Rikku and Paine's feelings better as a couple than I can in their straight pairings.

The question of course is in the expression. I can't write fluff; it comes out sounding false, so I usually focus on one characters thoughts or those characters connected to the world.

And thinking about Rikku/Paine in Spira makes me realize that Spira itself is not likely to be homophobic. The game makes the assumption that the vast, vast majority of people on Spira are heterosexual, yet there's nothing in the game that even seeks to condemn homosexuality.

Look at the teachings of Yevon. Nothing is never mentioned about modesty in dress; just look at how some of the followers of the religion are taught. Most of what Wakka-the-religious-fanatic talks about is a hatred of machina, Al Bhed, respecting the temple's authority, and hard work. Sexual morality and conduct doesn't seem to be nearly so big a deal.

I'm sure there are homophobes in Spira, but their revulsion is likely something personal, not something they are taught by authorities. I'm also definitely sure that there are Spirans who do value heterosexual family and production of offspring, Besaid Island, for example. Just look at how eager everyone on Besaid was when Lulu had Vidina. The villiage pretty much is a family, and they welcome new members. Besaiders might look down on someone who chooses not to have a child, or who enters a situation where they cannot have children, but I don't see them condemning anyone outright based on sexual preference.

Then there are people like Cid, who probably doesn't care if most people are gay, but sees such a trait in his children as yet another form of rebellion. Cid values being looked up to and leading people, but he's made some pretty unpopular/bad decisions regarding the Al Bhed and his children. Not to mention with the rise in social status of the Al Bhed in Post-Sin Spira, they no longer have the need to band together. Rin's dream of making his own home, the fact that the predominately Al Bhed machine faction is now one of Spira's largest employers of former Yevonites shows this. In the end, I can see him dreaming to see at least one of his children married well to someone of the opposite sex and giving him a grandchild who will look up to him, even though that's an improbability.

So, while there are some problems that go along with Rikku and Paine being together romantically, I don't consider it to be the point where it has to be the center of a long drawn out plot about how the world rejects them and their kind of love (not to mention, I find those sorts stories about gays and lesbians to be really, really tiring), just those lingering side problems, like how to deal with her father, and the annoyance of people who don't know better automatically assuming heterosexuality.

A personal note: I read/write shoujo-ai to explore my own confused feelings, and thus I write what interests me. Love between women interests me. Portrayals of persecution does the opposite, especially because most are terribly one sided.


So, to sum up the entirety of that rant, I feel this urge to write an extended Rikku/Paine story, but don't want to make it exclusively Rikku/Paine. Which means I need a plot. I've got a couple vague themes, but they definitely need fleshing out and somehow put together in a coherent story.

1. A lack of Sin and a growing reliance on technology is making the 'magical' phenomena of Spira disappear.
   
2. Rikku and Paine become sphere recorders looking for lost memories among the ruins of Zanarkand
   
3. Someone seeks to create a world for Aeons and dying magic.
   
4. A faction-neutral sphere library being set up somewhere.
   

Anyway, it's late, and I'm tired, so I'm gonna finish watching the Hana Kagari video (song is seriously catchy), and then go join Muu for the the sleeps.

Comments

[ourdailymask.livejournal.com]

here via ff_press

I'm going to disagree with you about most of this. Spira has spent a thousand years living with Sin, which kills a huge proportion of the population. The only way for communities to survive is to have a lot of babies. I can't see Yevon condoning any kind of relationship that doesn't result in reproduction. I'm not saying that Yevon would persecute people in same-sex relationships, because they have bigger things to deal with. Also, they only need one group to persecute at a time, really, and the Al Bhed make a better target than scattered same-sex couples. I think that Yevon would definitely disapprove of same-sex couples, though.

It's true that the games don't mention it in any way, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't have some opinion. Yevon doesn't talk about how it hates bandits, either, but I would assume that it isn't all in favor of stealing other people's stuff. The only prohibitions the game does talk about are those necessary to the storyline: machina, non-guardians in the chamber of the fayth, and murder.

I'd be wary of assuming that sexual morality is a unified body that can be transplanted from culture to culture without change. For example, plenty of cultures think that marrying twelve-year-old girls to thirty-year-old men is totally moral. Many Americans would disagree, and yet share the same nudity taboos.

That said, Spira is definitely a place where you can have same-sex relationships without "the world does not accept us!" angst. Dislike, distrust, and even a little hate don't always translate into discomfort and weirdness as easily as they do into shunning and hate. You can write Spira like New York (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/07/nyregion/07marriage.html) as well as Laramie, Wyoming (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Shepard). (As an added bonus, you can do "I am attracted to a woman" without "I must be a lesbian and will never sleep with men again!" if you want to. Our culture is weird about sexuality.)

Really, what I'm saying is that homophobia doesn't always mean threats of violence and people spitting at you in the streets. It can be a lot like the world you're describing. Some people don't care all that much, and some people are slightly revolted by it. (Personally, I think that such revulsion is almost always culturally influenced.) Cid's mostly okay with it, except that he kind of wants Rikku to settle down with a nice boy and start a family. It doesn't require persecution.

[desertcoffin.livejournal.com]

Please don't write any more fanfic. FFX-2 fanfic is bad enough without people like you over analizing and bringing real world fanatics into play. If you want to make a fluff hook up with Rikku and Paine, don't disect the psyche of the people of Spira's view towards homosexuality since it's not even an issue. It's fanfic and your trying to make it realistic. It's a hook up fic, sweetie, not a Pulitzer Prize winning novel. Theres lesbians in it, thereby going with the code set down from the Trekkie slash that it will just be porn, and you don't read porn for the quality of the scene or the historical significance.

And before you spout of that Yevon is incomplete, get a clue and find the Ultimania and read several pages about Yevon, and how it is complete.

Finally, you can't get 100% on the first run through. You have to play it at least twice. Sorry to burst your bubble.

[auronlu.livejournal.com]

You can't get 100% if you go one way on the split, but you can, if you go the other way.

I don't like X-2, but I respect that some folks have found Paine and various aspects of the game worth salvaging.

I'd be offended by your remarks above except that I find them fairly laughable.

I will tell you a secret. There's this thing called speculative fiction. You take a world, a myth, a premise, and then explore issues with it. You can use even a crappy premise like Pokeman for it (though you're liable to get a rather young caliber of readers). You may do it seriously, or for fun. You may do it for self-indulgence, or to ponder the social issues surrounding it in a classic Trek way: transplanting real world stuff to a fictional setting can let you get a grip on it from a different angle. In fact, Dagas made it quite clear that she wasn't interested in exploring the problem of homophobia, fand in fact is trying to create a fanfiction story with a plot that has nothing to do with that. However, if she puts Rikku and Paine together, something the game itself toyed with, she can't turn a blind eye to the fact that she'll have to figure out how homosexuality would exist in this world. She could, of course, write it the way she thinks it should be based on real-life experience, for titillation or self-reflection, but that was not her goal here --contrary to your ranting -- rather, she's trying to write a fanfiction story that takes into account the fictional world's culture, so she has to ponder it before she can write it.

It's really puzzling to me why some people see the word "homosexuality" like a red flag and feel they have to butt in and mock someone's sexuality and life. It's only fanfiction, it's only a hobby, and should not automatically qualify an author for personal attacks by strangers.

I was drawn here ONLY because I find dagas' writing unusual and better-crafted fanfic than a lot of the the illiterate crap I've seen out there. I recently discovered her writing, posted a rec in my journal, and friends laughed at me for "discovering" a well-known author and said, "oh yes, she's one of the good ones." So "Crappy ass fanfic" is in the eye of the beholder. Except, of course, when people pre-judge. It makes you look foolish.

But everyone has different tastes. If you don't happen to approve of one writer's method for making sure hers isn't crappy-ass fic, by thinking and planning before she begins writing, and would prefer people just blurt out half-assed stream-of-consciousness fanfic that doesn't require any effort or work on the part of reader or writer -- that's your opinion, all right? You don't have to read it. The rest of us will look forward to it.