On the Bamco Sorey/Mikleo situation

In response to the various asks and discussions, I’m basically saying this: Bamco is being quiet about the Sorey/Mikleo situation. I’m not saying that I don’t wish they could be straightforward about the nature of it- I’m just saying that they actually could have very good reasons for doing so, because their approach is very realistic given the actual political and religious environment modern media has to deal with in today’s world. We’ve made progress, but we have a long way to go before such things aren’t controversial. If they labelled Sorey and Mikleo as gay upfront, a LOT of people would judge the characters and there could be a huge negative impact by losing a huge chunk of their target audience, ESPECIALLY given that the relationship as presented in the game is in no way overt, sexualized, or anything that should be offensive. In fact, it’s handled the exact same way every other official Tales couple has been handled. If anything, Hideo Baba has given us MORE confirmation for them than he has with any other couple I’ve seen, by explicitly stating, in teh official guidebook, that Sorey/Alisha, Sorey/Rose, or any m/f relationship would not work for Sorey, and that Mikleo is “his one and only.” That’s more than I can recall him EVER confirming about other relationships, especially not the secondary/subtext only ones like Zelos/Lloyd (which must defer to Collete and Lloyd if we’re talking OFFICAL couple, not just a ‘canon’ couple in a game with multiple endings).

Basically, the way Bamco is doing this allows them to DELIVER the kind of relationship a lot of us want to see, without creating a lot of negative hype about it that will cause a lot of people to judge these characters based solely on the relationship status before even playing the game. It’s sad that such measures are necessary, but it is very practical. If Bamco didn’t want to give us this kind of relationship, Hideo Baba wouldn’t have confirmed the things he did. But Japan is not really any more open about same sex couples in mainstream things than the USA, really. Just because yaoi is attributed to Japan doesn’t make it mainstream. And as for the chaste romance, Japan is apparently MUCH more reserved about displaying romance/intimacy/affection in a given series if that is not the focus. The kind of casual touching you see between Sorey and Mikleo is actually VERY comparable to what you might see between a heterosexual couple in most mainstream, non-romance series. At least, that is what I have learned from friends who have spent a significant amount of time studying Japanese language and culture.

No, it’s not good that Namco has to be sneaky about this relationship. But they’re not denying it, or even trying to hide it, or treat it less seriously than any het Tales couples. The relationship is a beautiful, powerful, pure force, and slapping a label on it just to appease fans that want to take a mile now that he’s given us an inch, while potentially losing a large number of people that probably wouldn’t find it offensive in game, could be disastrous for the game.

I am not saying you have to agree with this stance, I am just asking that people take a step back and try to understand the situation first before being so quick to judge. After all, it’s because people are so quick to judge that Bamco has to be quiet about their relationship in the first place. Otherwise, their beloved characters would simply be judged because of a label instead of on their own merits, which is, I think, what Baba wants.

