Maidenless Behavior

Since I got into Elden Ring, I’ve been listening to what I call “the Dark Souls podcast,” which is actually called Bonfireside Chat. Most of the Elden Ring episodes are currently only available through Patreon, but the hosts’ non-current games podcast, Watch Out for Fireballs, is free and open to everyone.

I really like Watch Out for Fireballs, as I value the hosts’ opinions even when I don’t share them. To give an example, a few years ago they posted a 4.5-hour episode about Ocarina of Time, and I think it’s fair to say that they didn’t like the game. I love everything about Ocarina of Time and play it every summer, but I still really enjoyed the episode. It’s not that I agree or disagree with the hosts, but rather that I appreciate their perspective.

Anyway, their most recent episode is about Ender Lilies. I was excited to hear the hosts talk about Ender Lilies, but I had to turn off the episode after seven minutes.

They did not like Ender Lilies because you play as a girl.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, of course, but that particular opinion isn’t great. What the hosts said was more complicated than “I don’t like it that you play as a girl,” but not by much, and they only dug themselves deeper into a hole by trying to explain what they meant. I’ll write more about this later, but damn. Sometimes I forget that mainstream gaming culture is like that.

Re: Maidenless Behavior

I want to clarify a little:

Ender Lilies is a very gay game that includes very gay relationships and very gay gender presentations. This is not directly spelled out in rainbow-colored font, and I imagine that it might pass under the radar of people who... don't have a radar, I guess. As someone who hates rainbow capitalism flavored performative identity politics, I really appreciate that. It's not that the queerness of Ender Lilies is discrete, but rather that the game is not solely about LGBTQ+ Representation(tmtmtmtm).

What I'd like to write more about is why it's meaningful that you play as a girl, as well as how the transformation of the player-character relates to gender politics of purity and queer politics of solidarity. Obviously this is a Japanese game that isn't connected to American social movements, so I'm not trying to say that Ender Lilies is making a political statement, but I think it's remarkably well-crafted as a work of art that shines an interesting light on some of the more intriguing subtextual aspects of the Dark Souls series.

What I'm also reacting to is the delusion of people who think like this:
Elden Ring: Mohg May Be the Souls Series' Worst LGBT+ Representation
https://gamerant.com/elden-ring-mohg-dark-souls-bad-lgbt-representation-miquella-groomer-implication/

This is an unhinged interpretation of what's going on with these characters; and also, if you think Elden Ring has bad queer representation, let me tell you about Revolutionary Girl Utena lmao. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I hate it that LGBTQ+ Representation(tmtmtmtm) has to be perfect and pure and garishly branded as such in order for mainstream cultural critics to even try to look beneath the surface of complicated stories with queer themes.