The official Animal Crossing: New Horizons guide revealed the relationship between Flick and C.J.

[fallenchaoskitten]

I don't know if I'd call it a "west" thing, unless you mean west coast, because I think it's more of a regional thing. Where I am from in the west, partner has almost always primary meant someone such as a friend or team mate, or like I said before someone sharing a common interest or goal. Partner In Crime, Business Partner, Dance Partner, a partner on the police force, partner like cowboys say, The only time it was used for married couples would be based on the context.

*crackles knuckles*
In a lot of "the western world" aka USA because idk why when people refer to "the western world" they are basically ALWAYS talking about "White America"/USA.

Not a call out. Had to distinguish that before I could further the explanation. =3

We are talking World War I time to probably the late 70s? much of the LGBT community referred to their same sex significant others as "partners." They used the phrase they could easily, and quickly, cover as a "business partner" or "ya know, like my bff partner in crime!" should they be in a situation where it could be unsafe for them to be outted...

Things have changed a lot since those times. Less covers are needed than before. Thus, it is not as common as before. The term is still used today in heavily religious areas or where you can still lose your job if you are not heterosexual.

... anyways, i don't personally ship the couple.
I just wanted to clear up some confusion is all. =3

 

[RomanRichter]

The post about this on the New Horizons subreddit got really nasty. People who said that they weren't in a relationship were being told that they were wrong and vice versa. I can see this going the exact same way.

/s Because we always play games only for that, aren't we?
Who care about actual game quality, we got "partners" here, aren't that more cute and important?

 

[Jared:3]

People are too quick to come to conclusions and this is one of those examples

 

[Bugs]

Flick is too good for CJ anyways

he should be with a beetle man.

 

[fallenchaoskitten]

Flick is too good for CJ anyways

he should be with a beetle man.

He would get along so well the the Lazy personality with all the bugs in their floors.

 

[Amissapanda]

My two cents is just this: Let people think/believe whatever they want about the characters. It's not hurting anyone. Whether they think it's canon or headcanon---it literally can't hurt you and doesn't affect you. Fictional characters aren't going to have their feelings hurt or anything either. Anyone can choose to believe whatever they want.

I always found this sort of thing tiresome in fandoms. Imagining has always been part of the fun for me. I shipped my villagers based on interactions and other things. No sense in telling people how they can or can't have fun with the characters. : ) Enjoy it the way you want to enjoy it. You're not imposing on anyone else by doing so.

 

[aibo]

The animosity surrounding this topic is exhausting. You can't have a discussion about this kind of thing without parallels being drawn to crazy twitter users or viewing people as purposely being offensive on the other side of the spectrum. Sucks.

My opinion is this: Nintendo would never explicitly tell the public that any of their characters are gay. They are terribly stuck in the past and only just now have localized Nintendo games become more liberal towards different identities. Remember Tomodachi Life?
When I read the dialogue for CJ in the game, I was personally pleasantly surprised because the dialogue seemed to so obviously imply romance between the characters, which I wasn't expecting. Despite my not "shipping" them, I definitely fall on the side of the spectrum that thinks that connection was made on purpose. And if you disagree with me, it really shouldn't matter, because it was such a small sliver of dialogue that it should be very easy to ignore- as well as the people that are upset about it, because in my experience it seems to be pretty contained to certain users and threads.

Dunno. Being "roommates and business partners" doesn't necessarily point towards romance or rule romance out.

I think people should just have fun with the game the way they like.

 

[Cranky Squirrel]

The localization team knew what they were doing. They designated them "partners" in the English language version so we could make the connotation that they are a romantic couple if we wanted. Nothing in the game guide suggests otherwise. To say roommate and business partner doesn't mean they can't have any other kind of relationship with each other. If it's ridiculous to say that the coupling of them is cannon, then it's equally as ridiculous to say that it's cannon that they aren't a couple. The actual in-game text is purposefully ambiguous in order for the player to read into it whatever we want. There are no "right" answers here.

 

[JKDOS]

Flick is too good for CJ anyways

Agreed. CJ is a bit annoying with all his talk of streaming and subscribers.

 

[Mello]

not sure how that guide changes anything. roomates with benefits?

 

[JKDOS]

Dunno. Being "roommates and business partners" doesn't necessarily point towards romance or rule romance out.

Technically, your spouse is a roomate.

 

[aibo]

Technically, your spouse is a roomate.

Nintendo has truly cracked the secret to mastering "representation but really not at all"!

 

[trashpedia]

When I first read “partners”, I implied it to be more of business partners than a romantic relationship.



But tbh the headcanons and ships are rlly cute tho so I really don’t care if people ship them or not.

 

[MayorMudkip]

Nintendo has truly cracked the secret to mastering "representation but really not at all"!

This. Love to play my favorite game: "Is It Queerbaiting Or Is It Queer People Trying To Sneak Some Representation Into The Thing In A Way Their Bosses Can't Argue With?"

(It can definitely be both)

Maybe one of these days Nintendo will move past the Tomodachi Life era of queer denialism. The fact that they allow games with queer content to be published on the Switch is legitimately a good sign, and kind of wild when you think about how recently it was that they wouldn't allow any sort of gay stuff within a ten foot radius of the 3DS.

 

[JKDOS]

Maybe one of these days Nintendo will move past the Tomodachi Life era of queer denialism.

I don't know. Gracie was man until AC was westernized.

 

[Larimar]

I'm honestly so relieved to come onto this 4 page thread to see people being really chill with other, thank goodness

But yeah onto the topic: personally I find saying them dating in canon is giving Nintendo too much credit more than actually annoying people x'D Nintendo is a tad notorious for avoiding LGBT representation lately, but given that this series has canon relationships verrrry loosely, I dont think its necessarily too bad in this game. But of course that's just me, I still would've loved LGBT representation regardless! There's not really any reason to not to include it.

Plenty of game companies, big and small, have included LGBT representation, yet they're still very much in-business. I really dont think Nintendo, a multi-billion company, would be at any risk of failing if they included one (1) lgbt character. Have you seen how many people claim they're going to "boycott" a game company over something like this or otherwise, only for them to straight up forget about it and keep supporting the company anyway? Or how theres so many people who wish to continue to support the company that the dent is practically unnoticeable? Sure you might think theres a lot of people complaining, but they're simply a very vocal minority. But that's my personal observation :O

I think Nintendo is fully capable of taking the risk. To say that theyll lose a significant amount of sales is an understandable assumption at first glance, but seeing as how people threatened many game companies with "taking them down" over something they dont like and it didnt work at all lately, I think we're waaay overestimating the actual power these people have.

 

[Krissi2197]

Agreed. CJ is a bit annoying with all his talk of streaming and subscribers.

Could just be a persona. A lot of actual youtubers and streamers have a reputation and image they like to hold up to standards so that's likely why CJ acts the way he does. He doesnt want to let that persona down.

 

[ForbiddenSecrets]

I will say it would have been nice to have them as a couple just because AC relationships are just kind of there. There would have been no deep drama, one of them wouldn't have been killed and then called 'representation' anyways, their whole life wouldn't have been based on their sexuality like so much media likes to make non-hetero lives out to be. It would have just been a fish bro and a bug artist who also happen to like each other a lot.

 

[Cranky Squirrel]

Is there anything in the text absolutely defining the characters as two males? I don't think it's a stretch to read Flick as female. Is Flick ever referred to in-game as he/him?

 

[Ace Marvel]

An example of Nintendo's "inclusion" is at a restaurant in pokemon x/y, there are two men eating together, and if you talk to them they say something like "We're just 2 guys enjoying a meal together. Nothing wrong with that..." so everyone assume they were a gay couple.

But I don't see Nintendo making direct reference to a same sex couple in a game anytime soon.