How would the Dragon Ball fandom react if Jiren were made into a gay man?

[Seekeroftruth]

So we know that when it comes to LGBT+ representation that dragon ball has often done a poor job at presenting gay people in a positive light. The only two major examples we have are general blue, who was a villain and died a pathetic death at mercenary tao's hand and Otokotsuki, who plays an offensive stereotype of a gay man.



Given Sasuke Toriyama eventually take over of his father's creation and younger generation being more tolerant and accepting of gay people, it can be suspected that we may see more LGBT+ representation in dragon ball. Now, given that gay men don't have many strong, masculine male role models in fiction to look up to then what better way of extending an olive branch for past offensive content than to make a strong, male character in the series that just happened to be gay. A good person to pick for this role in my opinion is Jiren.

The reason I choose Jiren was because much of his backstory is still shrouded in mystery; lots of material to expand upon his character. Seeing that romance in the dragon ball universe is not the focal point of the series, we can easily make mention of his sexual orientation by him introducing his husband briefly in a scene, if Son and friends were ever to visit universe 11.



With that being said, I would like to know how would the dragon ball community within Japan and outside react to a strong male figure being shown as gay in the series? Given the amount of social steps put in place to make gay people more accepting in society, do you think this is no longer a risk for the series to take?

[MasenkoHA]

I think it would be hella progressive showing gay people can be boring and generic too.


But we know how the fandom overall would react. Blah blah PC culture. Blah blah Dragon Ball has gone woke. Blah blah gay agenda.

[ankokudaishogun]

Normal fans wouldn't care whatsoever.

WOKEsters would just cause a giant-ass mess of MUH REPRESENTUSHON

Anti-WOKEs would just cause a giant-ass mess of MUH WOKE CONSPIRUSHON

[VegettoEX]

Normal fans wouldn't care whatsoever.

What, pray tell, is a "normal" fan exactly? Beyond fascinated to hear your thoughts!

[JulieYBM]

Bold of you to assume that Jiren would be monosexual.

Jiren is attracted to power, whether he is willing to admit that he is able to respect those with power he accepts or not. In his confrontations with Son Gokuu we saw that Jiren faced a man who accepted all the possibilities but in his own internalized biphobia Jiren—perhaps childishly—fought back against Gokuu. Clearly, the death of his master left a deep trauma on Jiren's heart, leaving him unable to accept his own complete self. One can only pretend to be a monosexual for so long—speaking from experience here, myself—before the wider mental and physical effects of self-denial begin to trip one up and they make mistakes they otherwise wouldn't have. Son Gokuu forced Jiren to confront this about himself and once he did—finally willing to leave no stone unturned—Jiren was able to begin to expand his strength. No longer a warrior of solitude, Jiren finally acquired true status as a united fighting force with his comrades against injustice.

[PurestEvil]

It would definitely intrigue many people, but he'd still be a bland character at the end of the day, so very few would turn to like him.

[Inkei9001]

I think making a shit character gay as his only interesting point might be homophobic idk

[ChronoTwigger]

Being not human, he could reproduce by sporogenesis, by the match of 5 different sexes, totally asexual or whatever his race does, and any possible variance of it to qualify as 'gay' for his specie, that could be a totally different context than human one.
So, to me he doesn't qualify.

There aren't "good" gay representations as everyone can be gay. Maybe Goten is. You noticed only those 'badly' represented as they are actual parodies of extreme behaviours.
The same is for etero, you don't see any realistic relationship in DB. The most romantic scene happened in DBS and Goku ruined it by a bad joke.
Dragon Ball keep sexuality out of the narrative, Goku is practically asexual!

I dunno why people is adding moral weight to Dragon Ball, like it was a religion. It tell nothing of truth.

[Cursed Lemon]

How would it even come up? Jiren OnLY CaReS aBoUt GeTtInG sTrOnGeR so I don't think we would ever see it matter.

[JulieYBM]

Jiren is totally crushing on Gokuu! He just won't admit it because he internalized toxic ideas about justice. Poor bastard, I find his arc and petulantness really cute but he definitely needs to let himself be happy. I really liked how Episode #131 let him reach catharsis.

[Wrigglything]

That would be an interesting proposition, but unfortunately, as mentioned earlier, they would also get backlash from not only those kind of folks as well as get banned or censored from countries where LGBT representation is not seen in the best light, to put it mildly.
They can certainly give it a shot, but I have that neither Shueisha, Bandai Namco and Toei would be super interested in it given its downsides. This franchise has enough bad PR as is.

[Jiren The Alpha]

I don't get why people use General Blue as an example for how bad gay people are treated in Dragon Ball, when he was one of the strongest members of the RR and actualy won against Goku and Krillin, even krillin said that he was strong and Blue only lost because of Goku's plot armor (or the Cereal Dragon Balls lol). Most of the RR human members got one shotted and Mursaki got a pole up his ass unlike Blue who got beat by the best assasin on earth (and Arale who could break the earth with one punch). I would say thats pretty good for a gay character created in the 80's (am only talking about the manga version and not the Toei one).

But anyway, if Jiren was gay then the the fanbase would rage quit because of him being a homosexual and more "manly" looking then they would ever be.

[MasenkoHA]

I don't get why people use General Blue as an example for how bad gay people are treated in Dragon Ball, when he was one of the strongest members of the RR and actualy won against Goku and Krillin, even krillin said that he was strong and Blue only lost because of Goku's plot armor (or the Cereal Dragon Balls lol). .

Idk probably something to do with the pedophile scene or the general portrayal of being a sissy who gets afraid of a mouse and Bulma acting sexy (because she's a woman and not because she's minor)

That might be why people don't like Blue's portrayal as a gay man in Dragon Ball idk

[JulieYBM]

I don't get why people use General Blue as an example for how bad gay people are treated in Dragon Ball, when he was one of the strongest members of the RR and actualy won against Goku and Krillin, even krillin said that he was strong and Blue only lost because of Goku's plot armor (or the Cereal Dragon Balls lol). Most of the RR human members got one shotted and Mursaki got a pole up his ass unlike Blue who got beat by the best assasin on earth (and Arale who could break the earth with one punch). I would say thats pretty good for a gay character created in the 80's (am only talking about the manga version and not the Toei one).

But anyway, if Jiren was gay then the the fanbase would rage quit because of him being a homosexual and more "manly" looking then they would ever be.

Don't make your one canonically queer character a Nazi.

Don't leave your protagonist characters' homophobia toward said Nazi without criticism.

Don't make your monosexual gay character a pedophile in the cartoon adaption.

Really easy shit to do. Supremely easy.

[DBZAOTA482]

Won't make him any less boring and generic.

[super michael]

I don't get why people use General Blue as an example for how bad gay people are treated in Dragon Ball, when he was one of the strongest members of the RR and actualy won against Goku and Krillin, even krillin said that he was strong and Blue only lost because of Goku's plot armor (or the Cereal Dragon Balls lol). .

Idk probably something to do with the pedophile scene or the general portrayal of being a sissy who gets afraid of a mouse and Bulma acting sexy (because she's a woman and not because she's minor)

That might be why people don't like Blue's portrayal as a gay man in Dragon Ball idk

Goku is afraid of needle, that doesn't mean anything. As for General Blue I don't recall him doing anything that would be considered being a pedophile. I remember two guys in a helicopter that wanted to do something with Bulma, but that is way before General Blue is introduced.

General Blue died against Tao Pai Pai due to his skills and high power. His defeat was cool.

As for Jiren we don't know what he likes and hates, he is a huge unknown other than wanting justice and power.

[MasenkoHA]

Goku is afraid of needle, that doesn't mean anything.

Context matters.

The joke with Goku being afraid of a needle is "This is the strongest guy in the world and is recovering from the toughest battle of his life so far and he's afraid of a needle like a child"

The joke with Blue freaking out over a mouse is "Haha as tough as this guy seems he's really a sissy gay who screams like a woman when he sees a harmless little mouse."

As for General Blue I don't recall him doing anything that would be considered being a pedophile. I remember two guys in a helicopter that wanted to do something with Bulma, but that is way before General Blue is introduced.

The Obotchaman scene in the Dr.Slump crossover. It is anime only but it's still inextricably tied to how the character is viewed.

[DBZAOTA482]

I don't get why people use General Blue as an example for how bad gay people are treated in Dragon Ball, when he was one of the strongest members of the RR and actualy won against Goku and Krillin, even krillin said that he was strong and Blue only lost because of Goku's plot armor (or the Cereal Dragon Balls lol). .

Idk probably something to do with the pedophile scene or the general portrayal of being a sissy who gets afraid of a mouse and Bulma acting sexy (because she's a woman and not because she's minor)

That might be why people don't like Blue's portrayal as a gay man in Dragon Ball idk

To be fair, there's no hard evidence Blue was even gay in the manga. Just really narcissistic.

I mean I'm not gay but if Bulma acted that way around me, I would be disgusted too. She was straight up slobbering over him.

[JulieYBM]

I don't get why people use General Blue as an example for how bad gay people are treated in Dragon Ball, when he was one of the strongest members of the RR and actualy won against Goku and Krillin, even krillin said that he was strong and Blue only lost because of Goku's plot armor (or the Cereal Dragon Balls lol). .

Idk probably something to do with the pedophile scene or the general portrayal of being a sissy who gets afraid of a mouse and Bulma acting sexy (because she's a woman and not because she's minor)

That might be why people don't like Blue's portrayal as a gay man in Dragon Ball idk

To be fair, there's no hard evidence Blue was even gay in the manga. Just really narcissistic.

I mean I'm not gay but if Bulma acted that way around me, I would be disgusted too. She was straight up slobbering over him.

Queer-coding exists for a reason. Queer-coding was originally created by queer filmmakers to express queerness in film and art without coming out and calling it that but that language was then appropriated by Hollywood in general to shit all over queerness. You can't say a character is gay but you can sure make sure that that gay little sissy gets shat on and framed like an evil, evil monster that must be slapped around a little at best and killed at worst. Older films did this all the time and we see that influence in Dragon Ball in how Blue is clearly a gay, gay little Nazi. Hell, Blooma and Kuririn literally call him an okama, which is slang for gay man in Japan.



Check out Are They Gay? on YouTube to learn about queer-coding. Other YouTubers have good videos on the subject but I have the memory of a banana peel and can't recall which videos those are.

[DBZAOTA482]

Idk probably something to do with the pedophile scene or the general portrayal of being a sissy who gets afraid of a mouse and Bulma acting sexy (because she's a woman and not because she's minor)

That might be why people don't like Blue's portrayal as a gay man in Dragon Ball idk

To be fair, there's no hard evidence Blue was even gay in the manga. Just really narcissistic.

I mean I'm not gay but if Bulma acted that way around me, I would be disgusted too. She was straight up slobbering over him.

Queer-coding exists for a reason. Queer-coding was originally created by queer filmmakers to express queerness in film and art without coming out and calling it that but that language was then appropriated by Hollywood in general to shit all over queerness. You can't say a character is gay but you can sure make sure that that gay little sissy gets shat on and framed like an evil, evil monster that must be slapped around a little at best and killed at worst. Older films did this all the time and we see that influence in Dragon Ball in how Blue is clearly a gay, gay little Nazi. Hell, Blooma and Kuririn literally call him an okama, which is slang for gay man in Japan.



Check out Are They Gay? on YouTube to learn about queer-coding. Other YouTubers have good videos on the subject but I have the memory of a banana peel and can't recall which videos those are.

That page describes what I'm talking about. The only "evidence" of him being gay was that he rejected Bulma's advances but I think it has more to do with Bulma acting like a hoe and not her being a woman.

Hell Blue got offended when they called him gay.