Final Fantasy 14: Shadowbringersintroduced a new world with plenty of new faces. Somefan favorites among the fresh charactersare Ryne and Gaia. Both are young women around the same age, one being an avatar of light and the other being an avatar of darkness. Along with being opposing avatars, they are also quite different in personality. Ryne is bubbly, hopeful, and is quick to make friends while Gaia is colder, cynical, and suspicious of others.
However, these two very different women developed a very sweet bond with each other. Throughout the Eden questlines, they are worried about each other’s safety to the point of putting themselves in harm’s way to protect each other. When their names are looked up together, it is quite apparent that fans see Ryne and Gaia as a romantic couple. The hope is that they will be confirmed as a gay couple infutureFinal Fantasy 14content.
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Ryne And Gaia’s Romance
Ryne and Gaia are certainly the “opposites attract” kind of relationship. At first, Ryne really wants to beGaia’s friendwhile Gaia is slow to trust. Ryne’s openness and friendly demeanor eventually melt away Gaia’s walls and the two begin to go on dates with each other to buy jewelry and eat biscuits.
In combat, Ryne and Gaia are emotional on behalf of each other. When Ryne becomes Shiva and loses control of herself, the voice acting for Gaia is loud and upset as she crashes in and uses her dark powers to try to save Ryne. When Gaia is hurt or dizzy, Ryne immediately rushes to her to support her and make sure she is okay. The end of theEden questshas a boss fight where Gaia’s precious memories are slowly being erased so that she can reunite with her old boyfriend for when she was a part of the Convocation of 14. All the memories targeted to be lost are those with Ryne, further cementing how important their relationship is to Gaia.
It appears the two of them are inseparable since the end of the Eden arc. They both do not have many loving connections outside each other and official art for them has them very close and holding hands. Basically, the subtext says these girls are in love with each other. However, a lot of fans are split between being hopeful and cynical about whether the gay relationship will ever actually beconfirmed by Square Enix.
Confirmed Or Queerbaiting?
At this point, a lot of fans are already upset that Ryne and Gaia are not a confirmed couple and feel like they have been baited bySquare Enix. Queerbaiting is when queer relationships are used as a marketing technique in entertainment to attract audiences that are LGTQIA2S+ and/or allies. However, the entertainment never confirms a gay relationship so that they can keep their non-ally straight consumers on board. Queerbating has been a big concern lately, as it gives LGBTQIA2S+ identities a commodity sort of use in the entertainment industry. It gives the suggestion of representation, but never puts in the work to make it a reality.
Unfortunately, theFinal Fantasyseries does not have a history of confirming LGBTQIA2S+ characters. Characters have come close to actual representation in terms of androgynous gender identity, but all the rest is fan interpretation. In fact, the series has done harm in the past when it comes to gay representation, with its most well-known canon representation being from ascene inFinal Fantasy 7of a gay man assaulting Cloud.
Hope is not completely lost though, asFinal Fantasy 14does let same-sex player characters get married. According to Naoki Yoshida,Final Fantasy 14will keep going for at least 10 more years. The game is not done, so neither is the story of Ryne and Gaia. There is a small chance they could be confirmed. For now, however, fans will have to do with content created by the fandom. There is plenty of fan-fiction and fan-art out there of Ryne and Gaia living their best lesbian lives.
Final Fantasy 14is out now for PC, PS4, and PS5.
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