I think some of you are reading too much into the comments and taking them the wrong way. People are just happy that, unlike many other gay characters in the media, this does not feel exploitative. If Kung Jin was more feminine and flamboyant, of course there would be nothing wrong with that, but do you seriously think NRS could have handled it as well without making him into some kind of parody? Because that tends to happen a lot and I'm SO glad that was avoided here.

I mean, at least you know you're being hyperbolic because I don't think it should be taken that way at all.

What happened here?!? Are people really just looking for an argument?

I think accusing people of being homophobes for liking the subtlety of Kung Jin's homosexuality is ridiculous. First of all I think its great and I am gay myself. When I say the subtlety is a good thing I mean in the way that it doesn't come across as forced, it was natural, it came up in conversation.

And they don't make a stereotype of him. Sure there are feminine guys, and there is nothing wrong with that, everyone should be the person they are. However when gay people are consistently represented in entertainment as camp and promiscuous it becomes tiresome.

Forced diversity has a tendency of ruining narrative. It would be like having a bunch of white transgendered people star in a remake of New Jack City, or having Ghostbusters with an all-female cast.

@T-Rex: I can't help but find it comical that you presume to know exactly what's best for the LGBT community ("I've said this before, but it's shit like this that's setting the LGBT movement back about a decade or two"), and moreover, you presume to know what form of expression LGBT identity should take in advance in order to be politically advantageous/efficacious.

Mostly your comments suggest a lack of imagination about how a so-called flaming gay character isn't necessarily reducible to a caricatured stereotype. I could attribute this lack of imagination on your part to your lack of actual experience interacting with gender non-conforming people in the real world, as evinced by comments such as "How likely are you to see one outside of NYC and the San Francisco Bay Area?" It's harder to picture a variety of forms of identity expression if your experience is limited to picking fights with perceived queer people on tumblr.

I know I'm totally setting you up for a "I have queer friends!" rejoinder, which, fine, maybe you do, maybe you are queer or gender nonconforming yourself, which, again, kudos! But you strike me as someone who is less interested in learning about the things that you "just don't get" and more interested in occupying a defensive, resistant posture that can only affirm the absolute irrationality of the people who disagree with you. Perhaps next time before you presume to know what will or will not set LGBT people back decades, you could research the topic and hear more from the folks who are actively involved in this struggle. And many of them blatantly disagree with the logic that the fight for LGBT acceptance is coextensive with making gay people more palatable to straight people.

It was handled tastefully given the tone and context of the scene, it could very well have been forced into the story as a way to pander to a particular group in order to bust sales, but it wasn't.

For now is just a little piece of backstory that explains why he abandoned the Shaolin, that's it. Is not Tumblr or SJW taking over, nor it's a stepping stone for gay rights and equality. Let's drop the slippery slopes.

And this sums up my feelings about Kung Jin's homosexuality perfectly.

Nailed it.

Omg, some of you have completely twisted others words or completely ignored Them. Sexual preference or orientation whatever, it is not a personality and yes believe it or not people CAN choose how they act. No one is asking homosexuals to be quiet or even bashing drag queens in general, im talking about the walking negative stereotypes that make the community take 5 steps back because they wanna show their ass. Every group has them. It's ok to be a women, just don't be like someone of the set of mean girls, it's ok to be black, but spare me the gang bang personality. Some of you say all this stuff about gay history that has nothing to do with what where talking about.

As for knowing what's best for gays, I am a minority myself. Using that combined with common sense, I think I should be able to say that given how people think, when well know members of a group act like dummies it does not help their image as a whole. It's sad, but that's how the mind has always worked. I don't need to be gay to know that.

Actually, history has everything to do with what we are talking about (as it so often does).

Respectability politics is a term used to describe exactly the sentiment you're expressing. Namely, that individuals in minority communities should police their own behavior to cater to the expectations and values of a majority culture. In the examples you list, being a "mean girl" doesn't really fall under a politics of respectability (bitchy wealthy white women aren't exactly an underserved community).

But there's a major difference between telling Regina George she's a spoiled brat and telling black men that they should be more "respectable." The latter gets used to further a political discourse that is racist. The former is not used to oppress wealthy white women.

Basically, you're articulating the Professor Xavier/Magneto divide, which as we know, was riffing off of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, and the ideological divide between MLK and Malcolm X.

I'm not trying to say it has to be one way or the other. Just pointing out that respectability politics is a thing, and sometimes it gets invoked to stifle difference and dissent, and to blame marginalized groups of people for their own marginalization.

I was not saying that gay men should be limited to one personality type, I was saying that, disrespectful, shade throwing, rachet, drama queen are not appropriate because such behaviors are not appropriate regardless of what you like. I don't need a history lesson on drag queens. That's like me saying I can't stand someone like Kanye west and find Morgain Freeman's personality more appropriate and tactful and someone just starts discussing slavery. It makes no sense and it completely misses the point.

I never said anything like, "gays need to be more respectful." I keep stressing that no one should want to act a certain way that would be distasteful in any group.

Individuals should police their personality again regardless of what they are. Some of them most racist, sexist, predudice people I have come across are the one's screaming opression when most of the time it's just them being an intolerable douche.

There is nothing wrong with gay men, there is nothing wrong with feminine men or drag queens. There is something wrong with assholes that come and all genders and colors.

....Wait, what should I be ashamed of thinking again?

From what I gathered, you must happy we have a gay character but you must not be happy at the way it was presented because it means you don't understand anything about the plight of gays.

It was literally a quick two-line exchange that added a bit to his character and clearly drummed up interest and discussion.

Wound up liking him way more than I thought I would because of it, and the fact that he's smarter than he initially let on. Was worried about him, but he turned out a good character.

@eroslove You are so wise!

This thread has over 110 replies over five pages. MKO is just unhealthily obsessed with this topic.

Apparently people can't play unrealistic, extremely violent video games without having a character that they can "relate to". That's all this boils down to.

They were talking about this on Redeye tonight. The entire panel agreed that the line was a very tactful way of introducing a gay character. TV's Andy Levy remarked "I do think...I think we've come a long way, though, as a society when we can admit that a gay video game character can kill someone in an incredibly gross way just as well as a straight video game character can."

Quoted for truth. It was tastefully dropped in for those who cared about his back story and not thrown in the faces of others who couldn't care less. No more, no less.

For the sake of comedy, let's pretend you're a ninja turtle.

Leonardo leads!
Donatello does machines!
Raphael is cool, but rude!
Michelangelo is a party dude!

And this here is MikeyRu, he's uh... the gay one? He does... gay things?

Are you getting it yet?

In other words, is being gay the main thing that people first learn about you, or is there more to you than that?

Despite what identity politics-obsessed SJWs would tell you, your genitals don't have to define you as a person, the color of your skin doesn't have to define you as a person, and as Jin here proves, not even who you fuck has to define you as a person.

WHO YOU ARE AS A PERSON DEFINES WHO YOU ARE AS A PERSON jesus fucking christ I can't believe I have to spell obvious things out.


And if you act like a stereotype, you don't get to feel upset when people will treat you like a fucking stereotype instead of a real human being.


Okay.

Stop and actually listen to what you're saying.

You're actually trivializing a surprisingly tasteful and well-written portrayal of a character who feels like an actual person and has things to offer besides his sexuality, and instead advocating for more shoehorned, annoying, pandering, in-your-face, shittily written characters who only serve to tick off a box on the token minority checklist.


Are we officially through the looking glass at this point? Is this real life?


If anything, this just goes to show that there's no pleasing the SJWs. :/ They finally get the gay character they've been clamoring for, and their reaction is "B-BUT HE'S NOT GAY ENOUGH!1"

NRS, if you're reading this, let this be a lesson.


Holy false equivalencies, Batman!

So is the game banned in Russia yet?

Slopes be slipping

also funny vid

Yeah, no. I fail to see how a girl telling you how many dicks she sucked today has anything to do with a gay character in MKX. Nobody is suggesting NRS make a gay character who talks about the different kinds of sex they have. Where the fuck did you even get that from?

As for Ninja Turtles, instead of flirting with April all the time, why couldn't one of them be gay and flirt with Casey? Is that shoving gayness down your throat?

Dude, T-Rex.

You're kinda ignorant.

First off, the term SJW gets misused and bandied about wayyyyyyy too frequently. SJW is in of itself, a good thing. Social Justice is a good thing. Anyone who says otherwise needs to go live in certain middle eastern countries or russia where being the wrong thing gets you killed, and then say how much they like it.

The REAL "SJWs" are not the fanatically obsessed people who hate the majority and demand this, this, and this. A real "social justice warrior" is going to speak out when a game is blatantly sexist. Backlash against MK9 for the women being half naked when it makes no sense - like Sonya for example - was quite justified despite the game being awesome. Backlash against the Gamergate assholes? Also deserved, since those pigs decided to slander a woman because they didn't *get* her game.

The fact that Jin is hinted at and confirmed to be gay is progress. GOOD progress. A real "social justice warrior" isn't asking for a character to wear a t-shirt that says "I'm gay." They're just asking that things are fair, and that there's some representation in the media.

The people who however, who might demand half the roster be flamboyant gay people... the people who demand two characters be shipped as gay (even when they aren't) and then call you insensitive when you're calling them out on it (for those who watch Vikings, this is a thing lol) - these people aren't SJWs.

They're called Tumblr Warriors. They are idiots. They are to the left what the bigoted douchebags are to the right. The difference is that we keep the Tumblr Warriors off in their own little corner mostly, and we allow the bigoted douchebags everywhere.

Those people don't exist though. Not in this conversation anyway, so it's bizarre it keeps being brought up.