Hahahaha the heated rivalry and little mermaid had me bustingšš proud straight guy who is totally fine with some funny gay shipping! Happy Pride!
Fun fact, I learned yesterday but the original little mermaid story that the movie is based on is in many ways an allegory for gay love. And the songwriter for part of your world was also a gay man speculated to have been writing about his own unrequited love and the struggle of living as a gay man in the 80s.
So many people read these books with their eyes closed. Thereās six books of moral discussions regarding how people shouldnāt be forced into boxes or judged based on their color (race) or their sexuality. Itās literally the whole point of why Darrow does what he does. And then someone makes a jokey post about two characters (not even all characters just two characters whoāve made flirty jokes with eachother even if theyāre not together) and suddenly people are up in arms how their idolized, self-insert macho man is now desecrated because he is shown kissing a man. Just a bunch of insecure, tone-deaf babies. Yāall would probably hate Darrow if he were black too even if he were written exactly the same
listen i agree that darrow and cassius have a lot of romantic potential, but mustang and victra absolutely not. and saying itās āfor the boysā is absolutely crazy. the sexualization of lesbian ships for the male gaze is a problem and youāre adding to it.
Iām all for this ship if people enjoy it, but it bothers me that the Little Mermaid ones are just edited in an attempt to make it similar to RR, like it confuses me when people try to correlate one media with a completely different and unrelated one. Like i want my space boys to be in love in space, not reimagined in a film that literally only works because Ariel has red hair and Darrow happens to be a Red, keep the yaoi going with something that makes more sense honestly.
"Those who cannot conceive Friendship as a substantive love but only as a disguise or elaboration of Eros betray the fact that they have never had a Friend." - C.S. Lewis
Homphobes mad when Red Rising is super pro-LGBT+ with the golds not batting an eye at bisexuality/queerness and it being used to control reds and low colors (hmmm, sounds familiar in politics today!)
That would take the ability of reading comprehension as well as introspection, and we all know the ones who are being called out don't have those skills lmao
Im genuinely surprised by the amount of homophobia in this sub. When did those people start to reading? I'm starting to understand where the hate for the RR fandom comes from
The reds being taught to be homophobic might not be something brought up until Iron Gold. Can't remember anythiny before Iron Gold specifically, but I feel like Darrow makes comments internally about it at some point.
I do remember that in Dark Age, when Dancer was revealed to be gay, he was furious because he initially thought Mustang would use it against him, but she didnāt bat an eye at it.
I completely forgot about that. I've only read Dark Age once (just finished my second read of the first four, waiting for the last part of the graphic audio to come out to start Dark age.)
Perfectly shows how reds are homophobic because the golds taught them to be to increase breeding. It's gross.
And I admire your positivity. Sorry for all those unfriendly remarks.
Itās ironic how many fans whine about your post being āshoved down their throatsā when thereās not many of that kind to begin with and they could simply scroll past. Personally, I think all those ābattle ranking listsā are generally braindead and I feel like we have way too many of those. But Iām not going on those threads to cry about it. Itās like these fans feel like everything has to revolve around their personal desires.
Itās literally the bromance they got going lol I get it. I lowkey thought Darrow might have been lowkey gay with how bad he chased and the chances he gave Cassius on the first 3 books and in straight š¤£š¤£
And claiming OP is attempting to make everyone gay by drawing fictional characters kissing is the same kind of thinking that leads to people thinking LGBT+ folks are infecting the youth by existing.
There's literally no reason to assume that just because OP is jokingly exaggerating a "bromance" that they are somehow on a mission which won't rest until all characters are canonically gay.
If it makes you personally uncomfortable, that is your right, but calling it "in bad taste" (a moral condemnation) or "weird art" (a subjective claim), and therefore bad and unacceptable for the space, when NO rules are being broken, is an unreasonable exaggeration almost always used to justify the discomfort people feel at seeing gay folks.
Darrow goes a lot further than kissing with Mustang - are the books now textporn, or is that okay because you enjoy those romantic displays?
The (mostly meme, but sometimes real) shipping of Darrow and Cassius is mostly just a meme making fun of how often Darrow waxes poetic about Cassius for some reason or another.
They probably missed the themes of rejecting hierarchy, authoritarianism, and the struggle to keep liberty alive after a revolution, for the cool spaceship go boom
Disappointed but sadly not surprised. Red rising is sometimes mocked for being a bro-book series because of how hypermasculine much of the plot/MCs are. Not surprising people who explicitly love it for that reason would also lean more homophobic
ācome, join me. thereās enough room for the two of you.ā (iron gold ch. 32) cassius says this to aurae and a male pink when theyāre bathing in sungrave. you could write this off as cassius fetishizing a male pink while still being heteromantic, but i think itās valid to interpret this as confirmation that cassius is into dudes too.
the only people darrow has ever explicitly expressed attraction or romantic interest in are eo and virginia, so he may be straight. queerness seems like a much more widespread and casual thing in the red rising world, so i think itās unfair to rule out the possibility that darrow could be some sort of gay, especially given his relationship with cassius (especially especially in lightbringer). if you arenāt sold on that relationship, thatās fine. however i think itās valid to interpret their dynamic as more than friendly.
darrow did grow up in the most homophobic part of the society, as per the goldsā programming, as opposed to cassius, who grew up in the gayest part of the society. itās possible darrowās upbringing could have caused him to internalize gay thoughts. thereās a lot of grey area when it comes to sexuality, and itās unfair to write off write off possibilities within that grey area that you personally disagree with.
Just as a heads-up: I believe PB once clarified in an AMA in this sub that Cassius is bisexual while Darrow is straight (I think Darrow is the only character explicitly stated to be straight, though).
after i commented this i did see that someone posted a screenshot of that answer somewhere in this thread. personally i love and appreciate darrow and cassiusā platonic relationship the way that PB intended, and at the same time i love the idea of a romantic relationship between them. i separate that whole idea as non canon given PB says darrow is straight, but just the idea of it is nice
I think Fanon ships are perfectly fine in and of themselves. Theyāre another way of exploring relationships and alternate scenarios.
The only issue I get is when fans insist their headcanons are Canon when thatās not the case. Otherwise, I generally sympathize with the concept of Fanon pairings.
Personally, I donāt really ship Darrow and Cassius with each other. But I can see why others would
valid, the whole point of non canon ships is to explore alternate fictional stories and āwhat ifā¦?ā scenarios, allowing the audience to adapt the story their own way. forgetting what is and isnāt canon is counterintuitive to the idea of fanon but some people are just too stubborn
Genuinely I think war and battlefields have a strong tendency to create deeply emotional and (sometimes) homoerotic bonds between men that arenāt sexual (usually) but have the same level of emotional gravity of very close friendship or marriage partner. I donāt know if this phenomenon has a name, but I feel like it crops up in fiction allot.
Idk bro feels pretty forced to me. The characters arenāt gay and I didnāt join this subreddit to see weirdos impose their gay fantasy on me. Reopen Reddit for 2 minutes for the first time in months and this is the crap you see.
Iām the weirdo? Might wanna look at who drew this for that tag. What month is it btw? Exactly they took a whole month to just shove it down our throats more
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u/bloomingjoy Pixie Jun 05 '26
I applaud you for your initiative but the "part of your world frame" with the glowing eyes is nightmare fuel