The Entire Ash/eiji/shorter Friend Group Is LGBT All At Once

My favourite thing about the Xianle trio is just how sickeningly codependent close they are. Like, what do you mean you haven’t been friends in 800 years, your friend group fell out in the most painful and traumatic way it possibly could have, and you all have the absolute most reason to hate each other- but in The Cave Of 10,000 gods Mu Qing and Feng Xin were absolutely appalled at the disrespect to their prince. They were fiercely protective, refusing to let Xie Lian bear witness to what they thought was an incredibly perverted insult to his honour. They went toe-to-toe with one of the most terrifying ghosts who ever lived, all in defence of him, and did so without ever thinking twice. They dragged him through that cave system with desperately protective determination, caring for him fiercely despite being misinformed about the situation, and even though they had no obligation to. I’m biting people. Mu Qing and Feng Xin never stopped caring about Xie Lian. He’s no longer their prince, he’s no longer their employer nor even their friend, but they would still put their lives in peril for him. Even when they thought he was a violent criminal (Lang Qianqiu ily but pls kys) they visited his palace to give him medicine for his arm (something about Mu Qing brushing off his injury and saying it isn’t that bad cause all martial gods get injured, then being the first in line to go heal him is so sickening and vile I love him) and make sure he’s alright, then physically fought over the implications from each other about the other having been a bad friend. All of the bullshit trauma, all of the heartache, all of the reason they could have to not give a shit about him, and they were throwing hands over who was a better friend. I hate them. (I love them.)

Hey, don’t cry. Make the honey drink from Ponyo, okay?

OH BOY THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO SAVE AS A DRAFT

is this a safe space to say that if he was real this man would not be safe from me

There would be nowhere he could go where I would not find him and ask him out. Asexuality be damned, he could be go to the ends of the earth and I would sense him like a shark and chase him with speed previously unseen by humanity. He could be hiding in a little house in the ass crack of the turtle holding up the planet and I would show up at his door with a rose between my teeth. I want him biblically. I want him in a way that would make Jesus himself rise from the ground and punch me in the throat. Then Jesus would see this man and join in instead.

I need everyone to understand that any time I ship a m/f couple it is in an unmistakably queer way. Never once have I shipped a heterosexual m/f pairing, you understand.

why he kitty

The way Qi Rong reacts to Xie Lian's praise is my Roman Empire.

Look how happy it made him

Then how mad he got when he realized how he reacted

The unpacked trauma is crazy

https://www.tumblr.com/squaloropera/749207242108256256/hey-ask-me-about-the-inherent-heteronormativity-of?source=share

Okay explain because I'm interested

Oh thank god. You will regret this.

Now, the first thing to do here is to explain exactly what I mean by ‘top/bottom’ discourse. What I’m referring to, specifically, is people arguing over fictional characters (usually) and their preferred positions in penetrative sex. These characters being gay, almost exclusively. Pretty fucked up, but now that we have that point of reference, I can explain better. Now, there is no inherent heteronormativity in thinking a character prefers to bottom or top, but the discourse here is usually where the problem lies. First of all, roles of ‘top’ and ‘bottom’ aren’t exclusive. A top can bottom, a bottom can top, there is no set rule. Thinking anything otherwise dangerously borders on ‘____ is the girl of the relationship cause he only ever takes’ territory. This is the heart of this heteronormativity claim. In general, this discourse will be in the comments of any fanart or fanfiction of a gay fictional pairing that happens to be sexual. Usually, you’ll find at least a few comments of ‘Nooooooooo, ____ totally tops!’ and with the expectation that said character should always be the more sexually dominant one, even if there’s no penetrative sex being displayed and the word ‘top’ is being used to refer to sexual dominance. The core of this discourse is never actually about the actual meaning of ‘top’ and ‘bottom’, but in fact the words are being used in place of ‘the girl’ and ‘the guy’. If you replace ‘____ is the bottom!’ with ‘____ Is the girl in the relationship!’ it suddenly makes the comment make sense, and also reveals the sinister nature of top/bottom discourse.

I hope this was coherent, lol.

Fucking. I keep getting comments like ‘How would you know his character better than the author?’ And ‘Just cause you don’t have the kink doesn’t make it heteronormative:/‘ and I don’t vibe with it. I realise y’all couldn’t utilise reading comprehension enough to get through the original post, so this might not help cause you’re still illiterate, but maybe it’ll send you in the right direction.

(Yeah it was only two people and three comments, but I’m nipping this in the bud because I would rather rip my own eyes out of my head and bury them in my garden than actually try and debate barely-literate heterosexuals.)

Firstly, I don’t claim to know MXTX’s characters better than they do. What I do claim to know, however, is how character writing works. I fucking hate the claim of ‘But how would you know it’s ooc better than the AUTHOR?’ like. An author is fully capable of writing their own characters in a way that doesn’t line up with their established personality traits. While Hua Cheng is MXTX’s character and I can’t tell them what to write, I am well within my rights to point out how little sense it makes with Hua Cheng’s established character to be some rough dom sex bully. He’s literally the most caring, devoted, protective person on the planet toward Xie Lian. Not to mention, MXTX didn’t even write him like that even in the uncensored version. There’s a way more concise explanation (with a screenshot) of this in the reblogs, but I’ll explain briefly. While there is one scene in the uncensored version where Hua Cheng is acting rough and handsy, it’s also a scene where he’s blatantly acting outside of his own control. With his normal personality, he would never even touch Xie Lian without assured consent, let along make out with him like that. Also, he was handsy. No mention of bullying, cruelty or weird dom vibes. I was misinformed when I made my original post, because of everyone’s immediate gushing about him being a borderline sexual batterer, and that’s my bad. Also see the screenshot in the aforementioned reblog, where Xie Lian recalls Hua Cheng’s voice as being gentle and without coercion. Rough dom bully top abuser Hua Cheng is not and was never confirmed- but back to the original point, yes. An audience has full rights to point out inconsistent character writing where it exist. What, do I need to flash my media literacy license. Let me on the crime scene, I work for the FBI (Fans of Book Investigation).

Secondly, what kinks I have is irrelevant to my interpretation of media. I’m actually pretty fucking kinky, and I’m super into the whole rough sex, dom top, bullying thing. I think it’s hot as shit. That being said, I was still uncomfortable with this characterisation. Why? Because the idea of the designated ‘guy’ of the relationship (to explain that, while MXTX didn’t write either of them as the ‘guy’ or ‘girl’ in the relationship -thank god- fandoms often latch onto the idea that one character, usually the one who’s taller and less meek or polite, is the guy in the relationship. That’s why the shorter and nicer one gets feminised so violently) being sexually violent and insatiable is neither new, nor a foreign idea in heteronormativity. It happens a lot; the designated ‘man’ in the relationship is constantly horny and super sexually brutish, because tHe bOyFrIeNd wAnTs sEx bUt tHe gIrLfRiEnD sAyS nO cAuSe gIrLs dOn’T gEt hOrNy oR kInKy. It’s bullshit, and y’all need to stop pretending not to notice so your faves can stay unproblematic UwU.

I don’t care what the new, uncensored versions say. Hua Cheng being a rough bully dom top in bed is too heteronormative for me to ignore how it makes no sense for his character, sorry.

fucking. Take my reblog you beautiful fuck. How does it feel to be right about everything.

Sometimes I see people complaining about Ash and Eiji, saying how they are the definition of queerbait just because they don't do what you would normally expect a mlm couple to do

The thing about mlm ships is that they're too sexualised

You usually know the endgame when you see two boys having unexplainable sexual tension and it doesn't even take long to get them there, usualy by third chapter

Now, there are some good anime that potray healthy and normal mlm relationships, but people now mostly just read BL manhwa where relationships are mostly toxic or done for fanservice

And then fans like that decide to watch Banana Fish because someone told them they have a cute relationship (they usually ignore TWs but whatever) and decide to shit over them because they didn't even have a proper kiss like???

Do they need to fuck on screen to prove their love

Sometimes we forget that most of BL boys are young and sure, boys IRL do think about sex a lot but they also have feelings and want to love which most media doesn't show

Ash had trauma that could have been healed (maybe not comepletely, but enough to at least try and live a normal life) if he decided to live, but he didn't, and we can't just know what he would've done with Eiji if he went to Japan

Eiji is sweet and shy, we don't see much from his perspective, and we also don't really know much about him and why he was interested in Ash from the very beginning, you could describe it him being mysterious or it's just author's laziness lol (motives might be better explained in the manga where Eiji is a little more realistic to real boys)

And then you see those two just enjoying each other's presence and say YEAH THATS QUEERBAIT

???

When did it become unusual for two people to just enjoy having each other, it's not like you and your partner have this akward sexual tension moment every single second of your time lmao.

I would kill anyone for these three

Banana fish fanbase, community or whatever you call yourselves, I'm about to give an honest opinion and ask something super important here and I want to see if you all agree with me on this. So—can we all agree that these's three–👇

Are so underrated and most underappreciated. They are just so awesome and sweet, and it honestly hurts me to see that they don't get enough love and attention. (To me at least.)

They really respect their boss, is fully aware of the danger they have to face and they were super chilled when Eiji just suddenly showed up and gotten involved. (I adore his friendship with Kong and Bones btw🥺💓)

So, am I the only one who thinks like this or do you all feel the same?

for someone who likes not being awake so much, I sure do a lot of overtime