anon · 8mo
Hello, please excuse if my English comes off incomprehensible! I wanted to ask you, since you’re experienced in analysing gnsn characters and their references to literature, if a character had references to literature works written by a queer poet, does that make the character indefinitely and explicitly queer as well? Or can these references be purely references without dictating a canon sexuality? I personally feel the latter, but I’d like to know your thoughts! I’ve seen people crucify others for shipping these characters with the opposite gender, and while I personally don’t pay mind to and couldn’t care for ship discourse, I’m still curious about my first question. (Context, or rather the source of my dilemma is from H*SR, can’t dm you the analysis on twt but you can search up Av3nturine and Osc@r W!lde, specifically his work ‘The H@ppy Prince’) (sorry for the censors I don’t want this showing up in search results 😭)
The only things I know about hsr is what I see on tl from mutuals who talk or rt about it 😔 the blond little guy is very pretty but I don't know much about his story or the relationship with other characters, so I can't rly comment on that, but about the question: it depends.
I wouldn't say that if a queer author is referenced in media that it immediately gives the work queer subtext or coding, but Oscar Wilde is one whose queerness was an integral part of his work. Even if the devs chose to reference The Happy Prince blindly only for narrative purposes unrelated to a character's sexual orientation.. the couple in the story is still gay and their relationship is an important part of this work by an iconic queer author who wrote from a queer perspective.
In terms of what I've seen hoyoverse do with authors in genshin, they do choose some not just because of the content of their works but also who they were as a person (things like their legacy, their role in history, their importance in their respective field), even if it's a small reference it feels quite intentional in the bigger context. For example, Alhaitham has a line at the end of his demo that references a poem by Rabindranath Tagore ("the profoundest eternal questions are met only with a boundless and eternal silence") and I don't want to ramble but it does feel that referencinh this specific poet from the perspective of this specific character in the context of Sumeru has a purpose.
I haven't played hsr and I don't know the lore or how the writing works, so my opinion doesn't matter, but that's my very uninformed answer
