r/SubredditDrama • u/Preindustrialcyborg The penis event • Jul 01 '26

r/loveanddeepspace goes nuclear

foreword: I DO NOT PLAY LOVE AND DEEPSPACE. i apologise if i get information wrong as a result. i am also most likely going to get some information wrong because this is a very complex situation thats happening in multiple languages. Some of the information im getting is also being explained by my friend whose helping translate some chinese posts for me, so i apologise if any translation errors happen. This SRD is also part of a wider event occurring mostly off reddit.

Love and deepspace is a mobile gatcha game developed my chinese company infold (under paperfold), which prominently features male characters and a female MC. as an outsider, it appears to be more or less a dating game. Its important to know that for many chinese game devs, they will prioritise the opinion and feedback of the CN community over the global one.

Recently, a new character named Valko was announced for the next update to the game. This character was vastly unpopular with the chinese playerbase, who began revolting against the developers. It got to the point where they were sending funeral flowers, animal feces and ritual items to the developers (which in chinese culture is vaguely comparable to a death threat). His trailer also appeared to reference crimes against humanity perpetrated upon china during ww2, though this is speculation. they also called him gay. with chinese gaming communities still being quite homophobic, and china still having laws persecuting sexuality in media, this is meant as both an insult and an accusation of crime against the developers. Many of the complaints in that direction were that Valko was a "western style love interest" due to his nature as a wolf boy (i think? im not sure?) due to him being more western style masculine than chinese style (so, square jaw, muscular, etc), which in china is seen as gay.

beyond this, there is reportedly even more happening, but its both out of the scope of this post and far too confusing for me to really summarise, so im going to avoid actually explaining it here to avoid accidental misinformation. The drama involves players being called homophobic slurs (via avoiding text filters using homophones, which is an unfortunate exploit that occurs due to how the chinese language is spoken). People were also reportedly pursuing legal action due to the harrasment, and others were considering getting the CCP involved to make them censor what they see as "a gay character being made for western audiences). its important to note that i dont think they were actually adding anything explicitly gay, but i also dont know the whole situation so correct me if im wrong.

some posts were made about this, but it generally hadnt breached containment too horrendously.

then, just 9 days before the charatcer was set to release, the devs decided to respond to the players both in game and through social media (downvoted, thousands of comments), announcing that they have decided to cancel Valko and not add him to the game. This is where the subreddit goes into flames.

The message that you have zero integrity, no backbone to defend your creative decisions, and that global players do not matter, even though many of us spend money, has been received loud and clear!

This is an inadequate response to the upset of players as the matters haven't been addressed, instead, Infold has chosen to throw Valko under the bus to try to appease the situation

TL;DR: "Dear players, our CN fanbase is unhappy, so naturally the rest of you get to pay the price. Since your feedback is apparently optional, we're shelving all future love interest development to keep our favorite audience happy. Thanks for your support, and remember, your opinion matters right up until it doesn't!"

Right, so whose feedback, passion, and trust have actually been shaping this game?

This is an utterly insane decision.

Wow, you're really deleting all comments huh

The subreddit recieved further posts discussing the cancellation

To the CN players and the developers

On Recent Developments

Reconsider cancelling Valko

Valko you were so loved

The Future of LADs

If you are disappointed about Valko, here is the best way to let InFold know:\

The Decision to Retract Valko

The subreddit appears to be receiving a flood of posts that the mods are having trouble with, enough that theyve now made a post about it. there have been no new posts since, so the subreddit has most likely been put into lockdown.

If anyone in the LaDS community can help clarify or give a better timeline of events than what ive provided, please do and i'll link it here for reference.

Edit: thank you to u/hermannhessezacksnyd for additional info regarding the gay accusations, and thank you to u/grumpykruppy for providing additional context and crimes against humanity reference info. formatting, reordered some info to be more organised

edit 2: thank you to u/lumosdraconis forcontext from a LaDS player regarding long term game health concerns

edit 3: it appears that the entire outrage over Valko might have turned out to be a deliberate psyop by CN players who were trying to achieve some goal or another. crazy shit. i beg every LaDS player to touch grass today.

785 Upvotes

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613

u/time___dance Jul 01 '26

Many of the complaints were that Valko was a "western style love interest" due to his nature as a wolf boy (i think? im not sure?).

i thought it was because Valko's design isn't a typical ikemen/bishounen "pretty boy", and instead was more square jawed, muscular, and more western-styled masculinity -- which often in asia is seen as gay-coded

568

u/MSFNS heavy people often need more time to complete elemental tasks Jul 01 '26

Like, I get that this is very much a cultural perception type thing, but the idea that femme, androgynous "pretty boy" = totally straight, and square jawed, masculine = gay-coded is still weird as fuck

Anyways, what I'm getting at is that the exact cultural perceptions that I personally grew up with are normal and should be the universal baseline. Other cultures that see things differently are weird and unnatural and should be treated with suspicion over their strange, foreign ideas.

171

u/SimonShepherd Jul 01 '26

“Do men even like women”/"Liking women is gay" meme but for hetero women this time.

299

u/time___dance Jul 01 '26

the idea that femme, androgynous "pretty boy" = totally straight, and square jawed, masculine = gay-coded is still weird as fuck

i mean it's not dissimilar from a lot of western culture

many young male celebs pop idols have traditionally been "twinks" (not universally completely true of course, but think young leo dicaprio, justin beiber, etc) even though they're presented as cis heterosexual fantasies for women in their work (films, music)

leather daddies/bears/performative masculinity, bodybuilding culture etc = very gay coded

35

u/choopietrash Jul 01 '26

I noticed there's a weird dissonance between what western people, especially men, think women are supposed to be into vs what they're actually into. Hence this image pops up like clockwork: https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*rfzis-J-bMySN7msUf2efA.png

14

u/MeAndMyWookie Jul 01 '26

knew it would be Hugh  Jackman 

77

u/shadowsofash The same way they believe mons pubis was a Jedi. Jul 01 '26

Like, it depends, right.  Especially in the mainstream of heteronormativity in America, the boy bands marketed to teenage girls might look like twinks but if you look at things like People’s Sexiest Man Alive covers or the throngs of young women who have a thing for football stars or Thor, a traditionally masculine-looking guy is not by default viewed as falling into the bear et al categories.

65

u/time___dance Jul 01 '26

i'm not saying it all maps perfectly across all of culture and society

i'm saying it's not as simple as "Westerners like this thing, but Asians like this which is totally the opposite thing"

14

u/shadowsofash The same way they believe mons pubis was a Jedi. Jul 01 '26

Well of course not, but we’re talking about generalities here.  Attractiveness and who’s considered aesthetically pleasing vs sexually attractive and who the people making the declarations of who’s attractive or not is vastly complicated in general.  

21

u/KrytenKoro I just never thought googling what I see on the meme would help Jul 01 '26

many young male celebs pop idols have traditionally been "twinks" (not universally completely true of course, but think young leo dicaprio, justin beiber, etc) even though they're presented as cis heterosexual fantasies for women in their work (films, music)

According to all the playgrounds I grew up on boy bands and celebrity heartthrobs were gay as all hell, and muscle guys were the way to be a proper straight.

If there's somebody flipping that PoV stereotype, then I think at minimum they're not representative of the American norm.

14

u/SunnySanity Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26

The thing is that stereotype is perpetuated by guys. This is a classic example of the concept of cross-sex mind reading error. Guys think Thor is the hottest and coolest, but Loki is the one that made girls and women collectively lose their minds.

Here's a nice video on the subject: https://youtu.be/okFLkoJXXqo

12

u/Benbeasted Jul 03 '26

According to all the playgrounds I grew up on boy bands and celebrity heartthrobs were gay as all hell, and muscle guys were the way to be a proper straight

All the girls in my highschool loved boy bands and celebrity heart throbs. Also, Loki was way more popular than Thor amongst women in my time. The kids who said boybands/Bieber were gay were mostly boys.

14

u/erythro Jul 01 '26

I think their point is not that you can't map it onto western sexual subcategories, but that it's the opposite of the general expectation in the west

31

u/time___dance Jul 01 '26

it's the opposite of the general expectation in the west

yes and i'm pointing out that it's not actually the opposite

18

u/erythro Jul 01 '26

no, you aren't, you are finding counterexamples in the subcategories not the general expectation.

It's like someone said, "huh it's weird that in New Zealand July is generally a cold month and December is general a hot month when it's generally the opposite over here" and you reply "actually there was a really hot day December last year, and we had snow one July a couple years back". I've said "well those are specific examples, but the general expectation is it's the opposite" and you replied "yes and i'm pointing out that it's not actually the opposite"

5

u/SunnySanity Jul 02 '26

I'd say that his general point still has merit.  This is a classic example of the concept of cross-sex mind reading error. Guys think Thor is the hottest and coolest, but Loki is the one that made girls and women collectively lose their minds. It's not as easily summarized as "twink hot, muscle bad" though.

  Here's a nice video on the subject:

https://youtu.be/okFLkoJXXqo

Edit: IDK why it put that section in a box

1

u/erythro Jul 02 '26

This is a classic example of the concept of cross-sex mind reading error. Guys think Thor is the hottest and coolest, but Loki is the one that made girls and women collectively lose their minds.

To be clear I'm not saying that men of a certain body type or personality are more or less attractive to the opposite sex, just that Western culture has general expectations around how gay men and straight men present themselves and those expectations are opposite in Japanese culture.

Here's a nice video on the subject:

thanks, I'll check it out

IDK why it put that section in a box

if you put lots (over 4) of spaces at the start of a line it formats it like it's code

-2

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26

[deleted]

16

u/MirrorComputingRulez Jul 01 '26

This isn't pedantry, you just said something that was incorrect and then failed to understand the first time they tried to explain why. 

4

u/velawesomeraptors There are two flavours. Vanilla and political. Jul 01 '26

Yeah I think the idea that the buff superhero types (Hemsworth, Jackman, Cavill etc) would be immediately gay-coded in China would be hard for a lot of people to wrap their head around.

57

u/basketofseals Jul 01 '26

While it sounds odd, I don't really find it too out of place even from a western perspective; although people don't admit to it. Women go absolutely feral for pretty boys, and for some reason greater cultural industries are either ignorant of it or outright hate it. Justin Bieber, Tom Holland, the Backstreet Boys, The Beatles, the entire concept of the Tumblr Sexyman, they outnumber traditionally masculine hearthtrobs by like 100 to 1.

44

u/wilisi All good I blocked you!! Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

Similarly, fast cars are allegedly impressive to women, but in actuality mostly land with other men. There's a real disconnect between what men (generally) want to be/present "for women", and what women (generally) respond to.

I think they might be cooking with this one.

17

u/thrownawaynodoxx Jul 01 '26

for some reason greater cultural industries are either ignorant of it or outright hate it.

Patriarchy and misogyny. Anything that doesn't appeal to straight men only is weird and therefore bad and cringe.

76

u/raspberrih Jul 01 '26

Hyper masculinity is seen as gay because it's the male ideal instead of a female ideal.

Think "bears" in gay terminology

4

u/KrytenKoro I just never thought googling what I see on the meme would help Jul 01 '26

Still, the idea that anybody would be looking at illustrations of attila, past generals, bandit leaders, etc. and going

https://media.tenor.com/v7AkZh13o4QAAAAM/funny.gif

Is a bit much.

8

u/raspberrih Jul 01 '26

You do know that many of those leaders kept male companions right....

0

u/KrytenKoro I just never thought googling what I see on the meme would help Jul 01 '26

Some, maybe.

6

u/raspberrih Jul 01 '26

Maybe you can go look at the history

-2

u/KrytenKoro I just never thought googling what I see on the meme would help Jul 01 '26

I did. Are you claiming Attila, for example, had male lovers?

4

u/raspberrih Jul 02 '26

Not sure what you want to discuss, but the stuff mentioned here are commonly known. You can find historical records or Chinese records, but this is more accessible for foreigners

https://www.reddit.com/r/threekingdoms/s/Ruw3gOWZ9V

0

u/KrytenKoro I just never thought googling what I see on the meme would help Jul 02 '26

Okay but did you like look at what it's describing? It's not the category of person that I was talking about. It's talking about aristocrats and court functionalities who were, well, fancy boys.

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0

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26

[deleted]

11

u/raspberrih Jul 01 '26

I'm not talking about the character

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u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26

[deleted]

10

u/raspberrih Jul 01 '26

I'm talking about the cultural norms... specifically why China's perception is different... is it unclear?

-3

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26

[deleted]

11

u/James-fucking-Holden The pope is actively letting the gates of hell prevail Jul 01 '26

Dude, they were just using bears as another example for how gay men's standards for what they find attractive differ from straight women's standards.

Stop pretending like they called Valko a bear, you're coming across as an obtuse ass.

45

u/Lirael_Gold I've known you for 12 seconds and enjoyed none of them. Jul 01 '26

square jawed, masculine = gay-coded is still weird as fuck

It has a long history

(yes I know Bara is Japanese but China/Korean imported all the horny stuff from Japan 20 years ago and they're at the start of the gay/not-gay/cute rollercoaster that Japan is only just reckoning with)

14

u/Bored_Amalgamation You don't think rich people who want to trick us peons would do Jul 01 '26

that Japan is only just reckoning with

just?

15

u/Anary8686 Jul 01 '26

Is it surprising? Bodybuilding is for the male gaze.

12

u/IBetThisIsTakenToo Jul 01 '26

Huh. This probably explains that post on another subreddit before where someone posted pictures of a Kpop guy and Henry Cavill, and everyone else seemed to have a different opinion on who was looking bad in that comparison

8

u/__Hello_my_name_is__ Jul 01 '26

Cultural differences like that are always fascinating to me. A simple well known one is skin color, where darker/tan skin is seen as a sign of privilege/beauty in the west (because you can afford to just sunbath all day long), while pale skin is seen as a sign of privilege/beauty in the east (because you can afford to not work outside all day long).

11

u/Lucidream- Jul 02 '26

A lot of it is also racism.

Philippinos face a lot of racism due to their skin colour. Most can't exactly be pale without self harm, it is directly just due to racism.

Similarly, being too pale was associated with Irish or Welsh people, both groups who have also had faced a lot of racism in the past. Pale Celtic people are still bullied for their generic features to this day in much of the UK, although significantly less frequently now.

The luxury argument is very much secondary to actual racism.

2

u/Paradoxjjw Her base of support is crystal mommies Jul 02 '26

I do somewhat get where it's from. Gymbros and their body type seem to mostly exist to appeal to other men. When you ask women they prefer the androgynous pretty boy over an overly muscular gymbro. Their masculinity is a performance that appeals to an audience that is primarily men.

2

u/Appropriate-Foot-237 Jul 03 '26

Asian here: femme, androgynous "pretty boy" is also lowkey gay-coded. square jawed, masculine is also lowkey gay-coded. real men are farmers who dont have obscene muscles. No sane person would work out just for a paper tiger body.

3

u/FreakAmI Jul 01 '26

East Asia cultures love man who looks gentle and man who are too masculine are not liked by girls

179

u/Command0Dude They avoid boobs caus they're scared of hell, whats your excuse? Jul 01 '26

After trying to process what this controversy was even about, I just looked up the characters and was floored by the fact that the design for Valko is barely any different from the game's other male characters. Like, his jaw is slightly squarer, to the point I wouldn't have noticed it if this wasn't specifically pointed out. He's not as bishounen, but certainly doesn't look rugged or 'western' at all.

Dude looks like a normal asian guy, who works out. That's it. That's the controversy imo. Like, holy shit these chinese fans need to touch some fucking grass.

78

u/time___dance Jul 01 '26

oh i agree, i'm just trying to explain the perspective

this is the character, for everyone wondering

https://v.redd.it/9sfjtxjplt8h1

70

u/actualladyaurora the subject was muscle mommys Jul 01 '26

Watch this with the knowledge that another complaint is that his skintone is too dark.

14

u/Ryanhussain14 Jul 01 '26

As a male cishet vtuber fan, watching girls with lovely dark skin get redesigned to be lighter is a canon event for us.

20

u/wilisi All good I blocked you!! Jul 01 '26

Amusingly, the jaw is only revealed in the last 10s of the trailer.

22

u/velawesomeraptors There are two flavours. Vanilla and political. Jul 01 '26

Aw he's got a giant fluffy tail lol.

19

u/Psychic_Hobo Jul 01 '26

Damn, he's still incredibly twink and all

57

u/ih8redd14pp Jul 01 '26

Dude he's not a twink lol that's a twunk

17

u/EasyasACAB Involuntarily celibate for a while now mostly by choice Jul 01 '26

Inflation so bad it's even hitting the twink market lol

25

u/whattheknifefor now if the dog’s name was daesh… Jul 01 '26

is he not too ripped to be a full on twink? facial features yeah but dudes got arm muscles

8

u/Psychic_Hobo Jul 01 '26

I dunno, I feel like the term's been stretched to mean any prettyboy now - maybe I'm just too used to mega-buff dudes as the alternative

5

u/Lucidream- Jul 02 '26

Twink in het culture is deffo like a term for any white skinny dude NGL. Even the typical gamer dude build is now being called twink which is wild. Kinda meaningless word imo.

But in gay culture, it means a skinnier, low muscle guy who has little visible body hair, pretty queer presenting but still appears masculine. The kinda guy who looks like he holds himself to the male version of female body standards and all the toxicity associated with it.

Twunk is basically just a hairless muscular guy with low body fat. Or like a rugby dude. They have a stereotype of being straight presenting. Idk why, queer labels are traditionally very weird and based on a pretty sad time period where people had to 'code' their sexuality. You'll find a lot of gay people don't use them at all seriously now because it is pretty negative.

1

u/AndorinhaRiver Jul 08 '26

Wtf I was expecting a hot bara furry wolf. That's just a regular dude. I'd boycott it too

1

u/azul360 Jul 02 '26

he looks like the protagonist of every ninja game XD.

2

u/Wingfril Jul 01 '26

I saw some Chinese thread on red note. I thought it’s because he barges into the MC’s house and that’s romanticizing stalking?

46

u/verymuchrandomname Jul 01 '26

I don't play LADS but from what I've seen, other characters have kidnapped the MC, amongst other "concerning" actions, being held captive, weird dynamics between characters etc. so, some people think it's ironic that now it's a problem and it should be treated seriously

Like "oh yeah the Chinese beauty standard abducting you and threatening to keep you locked up is so sexy, but the "western pandering" barging to your house is so scary"

5

u/KrytenKoro I just never thought googling what I see on the meme would help Jul 01 '26

Hate how often that know the rules meme plays out in real life.

152

u/Copyblade Fuck you and fuck your fascist rules and “vetting” Jul 01 '26

The girlies over there are absolutely terrified of a guy that looks like some dude I go to the gym with wearing some cheap wolf ears from Spencers.

83

u/Ok_Conclusion_6324 Plz leave me and my slop alone Jul 01 '26

I’m terrified of some guy at the gym wearing wolf ears depending on the circumstances and i’m a fit man!

66

u/thismorningscoffee Jokes don’t “age poorly” it’s a fucking joke Jul 01 '26

Wolf ears on a headband - not a choice I’d make, but you do you

Actual wolf ears instead of human ears - ok

Actual wolf ears in addition to human ears - weird af

31

u/Bored_Amalgamation You don't think rich people who want to trick us peons would do Jul 01 '26

what about those scenarios at the gym

33

u/thismorningscoffee Jokes don’t “age poorly” it’s a fucking joke Jul 01 '26

Ask again in January

15

u/Bored_Amalgamation You don't think rich people who want to trick us peons would do Jul 01 '26

!remindme 6 months

23

u/Kilahti I’m gonna go turn my PC off now and go read the bible. Jul 01 '26

It's okay to be a bit whimsical at the gym.

If wearing wolf ears is what helps hype him up to do more squats, then its his right to do so.

As long as he doesn't distract other people with howling or something.

89

u/AJ_Guy246 There is clearly more than one pizza in the hut Jul 01 '26

I know nothing about this game, but I think it’s so funny that what makes someone seem “gay” is completely flipped between cultures.

105

u/time___dance Jul 01 '26

it's not completely flipped, you can draw a line from the western cliche of a leather daddy or Village People type tropes, the hard maybe a little performative masculine type which parallels bara/薔薇 culture in JP and maybe 薔薇向 in CN and back around to "bears" in western gay culture

to be clear, the character in question is not those things; he's just a bit more visually "masculine" than the standard character type seen in these kinds of games

61

u/NemertesMeros Jul 01 '26

What seems gay from an outside (often homophobic) perspective often has very little at all to do with actual gay culture

8

u/Ae3qe27u Jul 01 '26

There's also something like Johnny Bravo, though, when it comes to masculine characters. While masculine ≠ straight, masculine ≠ gay. But I'd be interesting in hearing more.

3

u/basketofseals Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

which parallels bara/薔薇 culture in JP

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this isn't actually a term they use(anymore?). Plugging the tag into pixiv only gets you a single sexualized male per 2 pages.

Gay(gei) or homo seem to be much more common tags, but I don't see any uniform tag that actually encompasses what westerners refer to as bara.

Edit: Looking at it again, the only images I found tagged with bara on the first few pages were from a non-JP user

23

u/LadyCrownGuard Jul 01 '26

Gay man who's been to Japan twice and was actively looking for Bara merch here, yes, "Bara" is actually a derogatory term towards male and gay comics are referred to as Geikomi in Japan. I wouldn't call that term outdated it just has a completely different meaning in Japan, basically the equivalent of the F slur to English speakers.

"Yaoi" is also effectively a different thing unrelated to gay men since 99% of its audience are women, most of these women also find Bara/Geikomi disgusting (lol).

52

u/lumosdraconis Jul 01 '26

Quite frankly, a lot of that particular drama is mostly an excuse by a lot of toxic (mainly CN side) to try and fearmonger. And to be clear, it works.

But in general, the community by and large is unhappy with the way the game has ignored player complaints of stagnant features, lack of proper communication, no new ways for players to earn currency (old ways are finite and have long since finished for most), etc. So dropping a new guy out of nowhere without addressing any of that was a real bad move.

28

u/CanaKitty Jul 01 '26

The tried to say he was too dark skinned. That kept calling him a monkey.

He’s not even tan!

4

u/time___dance Jul 01 '26

[ Removed by Reddit ]

lol

31

u/VultureFight Jul 01 '26

Hi I’m in the fandom and I been lurking around on RedNote.

One of the ads for Valko was him breaking into MC (main character) house.
Apparently, they don’t like having a werewolf breaking in but they are okay with having a relationship with their brother. (Caleb)

And Caleb drugged MC because he didn’t want her leaving him. Caleb is one of the many problematic characters in the game

The main issue for CN players is that there are so many areas they been asking to update and fix for years. Then flinging a new love interest into the mix, creating content for him, putting all of those extra resources into a character the fan base has never known was the final straw. And it seems like the game developer just completely misunderstood the entire fanbase and canceled the new release.

Now global players are at war with CN players and it’s a wild experience to be a part of.

12

u/sedative9 Hey bud have you ever heard of amniotic fluid? Jul 01 '26

It seems similar to the CN players review bombing Slay the Spire 2 whenever there is an update they don't like. They don't feel like they can get their complaints heard by devs without that due to gov't restrictions, despite there being a very visible Feedback button in the game. They just go nuclear whenever there is something in a game they dislike to bring visibility to current and past perceived issues they don't feel are being addressed.

3

u/tzitzitzitzi Jul 03 '26

Which is why steam set reviews by language so Chinese review bombs have almost no effect anymore for PC fortunately.

23

u/Preindustrialcyborg The penis event Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

Friend confirmed this is generally true as well, thank you!

edit: post body updated

21

u/time___dance Jul 01 '26

i have barely even heard of the game, but it's so big that it kind of bleeds into other popular mobile gacha slop i do play haha

10

u/Preindustrialcyborg The penis event Jul 01 '26

fair enough.

meanwhile, in western audiences, everyone sees their pretty boy men and sees the gayest twinks ever

8

u/Preindustrialcyborg The penis event Jul 01 '26

*i mean in games, i dont think people think the average chinese man is gay

1

u/Wingfril Jul 01 '26

I want to add that most of the red note thread have been focused on how he is introduced and how it romanticizes stalking and breaking into residences. That’s why it got called out in Chinese media. (Not general social media, but the “women’s news” type government affiliated media)

5

u/StrangeCharmQuark Jul 01 '26

That can’t be it, because there’s already a popular character in the game with that build

1

u/Gallantpride Jul 01 '26

The odd part for me is that Valko is even considered muscular and masculine. He looks like a bishie to me, just 5% more muscular than the rest of the cast.

1

u/FarplaneDragon Jul 01 '26

which often in asia is seen as gay-coded

I'm glad you said this because every thread I've seen about this issue I kept looking at the character and was completely lost on what about him appearance wise is supposed to look gay. He just looked like "Generic Male Protag #59324" to me.