Boards›Story, Art, & Sound

Zoe, Ezreal, and Disappointment

emPyriaN·11/7/2017, 9:16:10 AM·3 votes·7,853 views

Dear Riot,

Hi. My name is Joshua, better known as a multitude of names like Saku and emPyriaN, but on league, SlayerSakura. League of Legends is the first game I ever fell in love with, and we've had a love/hate relationship more tumultuous than one of Taylor Swift's ever since.

There's so much I've written here and deleted. From the story of how I started playing (I saw Heartseeker Varus and got really excited to see a gay character in a video game, even if a stereotype right after I'd come out, only to find he canonically had a wife after I was hooked.), to how terrible I am at League, to my extensive time away from League in Overwatch, but ultimately, I couldnt find a way to properly provide the setup to explain how much this means to me, so let me just give up once again and skip right to it.

I'm gay. When Tracer was revealed to be not straight, I was floored. I've been playing competitive online games for years and never once have I seen a company make a character like me. I have never seen a game company outright confirm that one of their characters isn't straight. There's tons of stuff that made it mean so much to me.

Tracer provides an excellent foil to Ezreal and Taric.

Riot has been dropping hints Ezreal and Taric are a gay couple for years (Ezreal being in Armor of the Fifth Age's art, for example) but haven't worked up the courage to openly claim them to have homosexual attraction; Tracer not being straight was unambiguously announced despite Overwatch being huge in South Korea, a place where homosexuality isn't as accepted as the United States and how it could hurt their brand there.

Riot has made skins upon skins (Star Guardian Ezreal, Armor of the Fifth Age Taric, etc.) that are obviously flamboyant for years and making it a major facet of their personality; for Tracer it wasn't made into a big deal, just a small part of her character we already knew and loved for other previous character development.

Lastly, after years of nearly 5 years of hinting and queerbaiting, Ezreal is actually dating Lux, a straight-passing relationship; as apposed to Tracer who is actually not straight-passing, no hinting and queerbaiting involved.

Zoe's voice lines make it abundantly clear that Ezreal and Lux are an item. I know it shouldn't bother me this much, but I just love your characters so much it hurts. It's so upsetting that you've baited gay fans like this for years. You make a flamboyant skin in Armor of the Fifth Age Taric, hide a vague, hard ot notice debonair Ezreal in the splash art, let the community run with them as a couple for years, throw Ezreal (who in older skins predating the gay suspicions was actually very heteromasculine, for example his pulsefire voicelines) into an all-girl star guardian line of skins to highlight his "gay" femininity, and then unceremoniously dump into Zoe's voice lines that he's dating Lux?

140 Champions. 140, and not a single one confirmed not straight.

Now I'm sure I'm gonna get one person who's like "XD FEMININITY DOESNT MAKE HIM GAY" and things about "NOT CONFIRMED DOESN'T MEAN THEY AREN'T THERE", "X COULD BE BI", and the inevitable "HAHA SOME OF THE CHARACTERS ARE DRAGONS WANT THEM TO BE GAY XDDDD".

This post isn't about that. It's about the fact that out of 140 champions, many of whom are humanoid, there is not one champ that is currently in-your-face not straight passing, and the ones they've been queerbaiting for years to the point where the comment section on Zoe's voice lines pretty much exclusively looks like https://imgur.com/a/hCpTv because the lux revalation is more exciting than anything else in the video.

There's so many semantics and I just don't have the time to write them all out and I'm sure the comments section will be a mix of "SJW GAYS WANT IN EVERYTHING REEE" and all sorts of other shit but I think deep down we all know that Riot, you can do better, and your gay fans deserve better.

Now let the downvoting begin!

30 Comments

Mystery Ghost11/7/2017, 9:36:35 AM12 votes

Taric and Ezreal have never met each other lorewise, these are just fanmade memes

GreenLore11/7/2017, 12:01:01 PM9 votes

Honestly,Riot has never really hinted at ezreal and taric being a couple,it was first and foremost a joke by the community.

Which is actually why I think it is a good thing that it isn't canon,because it'd be nothing more than a joke.

I'd be ok with pretty much every other homosexual couple,just not this one.

Hupsis11/7/2017, 10:52:03 AM5 votes

It's sad that gay people feel the need to have idols that show "typical gay characteristics". I get it that they want someone to identify with, but it feels like being flamboyant & gay is a requirement for someone to be an idol for gay people. A straight character who appears to be gay is a deceiver and instantly loses their position as a gay idol when it's revealed they are not as gay as people thought they were. This is probably the reason why riot usually doesn't confirm sexualities for their characters. And I'm fine with that. A little bit of mystery is more exciting than knowing for sure. (Ezreal could be bi... most certainly towards Taric)

"out of 140 champions, many of whom are humanoid, there is not one champ that is currently in-your-face not straight passing"

Sexuality has nothing to do with looks. You can be the most masculine guy in the world and still be gay. Why is sexuality of others determined by assumptions based on their looks? Sexuality isn't about looks. Gragas could be gay for all we know... would explain his drinking problems.

Femininity and masculinity are etched in our biology and they are further enhanced/dampened by our society as we age based on our biological sex. The way someone expresses themselves may be due to their gender identity molding their way of expression.

I'd like there to be more feminine guy or masculine girl characters. Breaking gender stereotypes would be ok as long as those characters would not be overly sexualized (happens way too much IRL anyways).

Maldini3011/7/2017, 9:26:37 AM3 votes

For all we know, most of the characters could be homosexual and only a few are straight. We don't have much clue about the champions' sexual orientation, except for some of them (Ashe & Trynda, Shyv in love with J4, etc.)

LitAF11/7/2017, 9:20:03 AM3 votes

So Taric wears pink and he's instantly gay? Nice stereotypes

Aatrox Mid 1v511/7/2017, 9:24:00 AM3 votes

{quoted}

Lastly, after years of nearly 5 years of hinting and queerbaiting, Ezreal is actually dating Lux, a straight-passing relationship; as apposed to Tracer who is actually not straight-passing, no hinting and queerbaiting involved.

First off, they didnt confirm anyone is dating anybody. All Zoe's voice lines told us is that Ezreal likes Lux, but she still doesnt even know who he is. Second, why are you bringing Tracer into this? Two different games.

{quoted}

I know it shouldn't bother me this much, but I just love your characters so much it hurts.

I cant tell you how to live your life, but maybe you should consider breaking away from this strong of an emotional connection to video game characters.

Niyumi11/7/2017, 9:39:07 AM3 votes

So much I want to say to this post, but that'd be "homophobic."

Sevens Sin11/7/2017, 10:45:54 AM2 votes

"queerbaiting" rofl Lux and Ezreal are pretty much confirmed not to be dating, it's just hinted that either they once dated or that Ezreal likes Lux. if having an openly gay character is so important to you then just play games that have openly gay characters, jesus christ.

Blood Magicks11/7/2017, 9:25:53 AM2 votes

Just dropping by to say the gay couples are Graves and TF and Vi and Cait. In fanon, at least, but Riot has partially endorsed them in the past.

Frozted11/12/2017, 10:52:51 PM1 votes

TL;DR can someone summarize?

Kynin11/7/2017, 10:07:46 AM1 votes

I dont think it is offically stated anywhere that Lux is dating Ezreal. I think Zoe just believes they are. We probably wont know for absolute sure if Ezreal is straight, gay, or bi until his lore and/or voice is updated.

Miragestallio11/7/2017, 1:10:32 PM1 votes

In Taliyah's Q and A, it was confirmed that she was bi I think.