Mareon
Since: Aug, 2009
Jul 19th 2021 at 2:56:22 PM
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I mean in a need of a Love Interest and an interesting interperson dynamic There is really one choice. And I personly dig it.
RoundRobin
Since: Jun, 2018
Jul 20th 2021 at 1:25:23 AM
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^ That falls under Shipping Goggles and shoehorning, regardless of whether one "digs it" or not.
Maybe a sequel will give a more unambiguous interpretation to the relationship between Raya and Namaari, but for now (and going by what the movie shows us) they're frenemies.
- Fly, robin, fly! - ...I'm trying!
Ok... let's go there. Does the Ambiguously Gay trope apply to Raya and Namaari?
The Ambiguously Gay trope is when the creators of the characters present them in a way such that there is much onscreen evidence of exclusive same-gender attraction, but nothing is ever explicitly confirmed one way or another.
I fully acknowledge that Raya and Namaari already have a huge dollop of Les Yay from the fandom. But if you watch their interactions without the Les Yay goggles, it's hard to build a strong case for Ambiguously Gay.
They are two female warriors with an intense emotional history between them due to Namaari's childhood betrayal of Raya which caused the devastation of her tribe and loss of her father.
When they fight, there's a lot of banter that includes "terms of endearment" used as barbed taunts. "Dep la" is used a lot along with "Binturi". While the word, "dep la" does come from a Korean base "dep" meaning "beautiful", the novelization says in the Kunandra language it means "best friend"... which serves well as another barbed taunt.
I know that Kelly Marie Tran feels that Raya is gay and that there were romantic feelings between the two but that's Word of Saint Paul. There's been no official confirmation by the creators about either character's sexuality.
The statement that neither has a canonical male love interest is not a strong argument either. Raya was still a young teenager when her entire village was wiped out by the Druun and for the last six years she's been on a lone quest to locate Sisu. Not exactly conducive to having a relationship especially since she doesn't trust anyone from the other tribes.
Namaari is a princess of Fang with a strong, overbearing mother so it makes sense that her male suitors would be limited if not even pre-arranged. But regardless, in serving as Raya's foil, Namaari's love life isn't really relevant to the story.
Basically this trope comes across more as strong wishful thinking among the fans than actions & behavior shown by the creators.
EDIT: There's been no activity on these discussion. Contacted the trope makkarism by PM who prompted the need for it but they show no interest in pursuing a discussion on the Ambigously Gay. Going to remove those entries again.
Edited by rva98014 Hide / Show Replies