I've Seen Some People Lament That Qiu Is "sadly Not ADHD But Very Relatable", I Was Curious If It Was

I've seen some people lament that Qiu is "sadly not ADHD but very relatable", I was curious if it was 'official' or if people were taking a lack of answer as a no? Not a judgment mind, I just don't remember hearing anything one way or the other

It's a lack of an answer. To be clearer, Qiu has ADHD. You'll find it out at some point, but I don't know at what Step it will officially come up in. I've generally tried not to give details, since I can't even say what part of the story it'd be confirmed in. The OL games come along as I create them rather than being fully outlined ahead of time. But to simply put it out there, that is what I'm going for with them.

happy halloween 👻

Saw an ask about an apparent problem of people drawing Qiu whiter than he is and whitewashing. With that in mind, I think you should hold the same standard for Tamarack for artists that draw her darker than she is to outright black. Tumblr and Twitter in general have an obsession with coloring traditionally white/pale characters the complete opposite race or adding details like kinky/coiled hair and see no issue with it but raise hell the moment a poc is one hue lighter. It erases their identity just as much as everyone says whitewashing does but everyone constantly falls back on the "only whites can be racist so changing their identity in art is okay!!" pipeline

Tamarack comes from a German family and is white, so please take the same level of importance when artists "blackwash" her or any other character in your series.

You know generally, I don’t like to use this blog to as a place to act like I’m the best, most correct person in the world and respond to things where I’m simply telling an anonymous person they’re wrong. I’m just someone who has people following me because they like the stories this company makes.

However, this is something that people should know. If our POC players draw our characters having a darker skin tone than they do in-game and/or give them a different hair texture, that’s alright. I’ve fallen off on reblogging stuff on Tumblr but it’d still be liked or reposted on Twitter.

Whitewashing means far more than the literal act of a single individual making someone look white in a fanart. If a trans player wanted to headcanon a cis character was trans, that’s one thing. If a cis person decided to take the only trans character for miles and insist they are, in fact, cis, well that’s another matter entirely. Your experience with your race and your experience based on sexuality or gender aren’t the same things, it’s not a one-to-one comparison at all. But can people who don’t get it at least start to see how there can be a difference in impact here?

The people who are oppressed in this country aren’t hurting you by trying to enjoy the media that most of the time intentionally excludes them. POC weren’t the ones dehumanizing white people in horrific ways. The overwhelming majority of stories and representations of heritages out there have been and still are white people’s already. Anyone reading this who was thinking along the lines of what’s in this ask need to get comfortable understanding and accepting that. And if you don’t, maybe you should find another game because I’m not going to “protect white identities” from being drawn as people of color. In fact, I think it’s actually really nice if our characters are fun and comforting to people of color so much so that they’d like to imagine those characters being included in their own culture. I think it’s strange that someone would be angry about it.

ROUND 1 MATCH 1

Qiu propaganda:

“i love them sooooo much i was completely head over heels for cove but then i found out about qiu lin and ol2 and they took that spot in my brain IMMEDIATELY. that should say enough. also i just really want them to win this time </3”

“They're my beloved :] and also the only OL character not disqualified so I had to hdjdbdj I just wanna see how far they can go now :]”

“Genderfluid ADHD monarch. They enjoy mountain biking and ballet. As a kid, if they're set to Crush, they'll desperately try to find a way to link the MC's favorite color to themselves in an attempt to impress. They're the most popular kid in town and for good reason. Can be sharp as a tack, especially in social situations, but also can be so endearingly stupid.”

“Listen. Listen to me. Here's why Qiu Lin deserves the win (ha)

- They're a trans POC love interest (specifically genderfluid and chinese-american)

- They spend a lot of time in Step 1 (the first part of the game where everyone is a kid) being super nice and trying to accommodate for you

- They specifically try super hard to bring you (and Tamarack) into their already established friendship group

- (It doesn't work out super well initially but they're trying, be nice)

- Qiu's also just. Super sweet when you're set to have a crush on them in Step 1

- Like, their word count almost doubles when they have a crush on your MC

- There's one part of the game where you can bring up your favourite colour

- On a friendship route (or if you're set to neighbours), Qiu will maybe make a short comment about something related to your favourite colour

- On crush? Qiu stretches so far to tie your favourite colour back themself. Your favourite colour is green? That's the colour of their jacket!!! It's black? Like their bike, did they mention their cool bike!!! It's white, [imagine this is in italics] the inside of their house (no, really)!!! [end of imagining this is italics]

- They're also set to have an arc about much they accommodate for others and how they go from over accommodation in Step 1 to no accommodation in Step 2 to finding a balance in Step 3

- Also, like, they do in fact go through gender identity issues. In fact, they spend Step 2 not quite knowing their gender identity fully

Now, vote for Qiu!!!!”

Ai propaganda:

“alright fuckers buckle up tight cause its ai propaganda time. heavy on spoilers but i must make the glory of ai mikaze known to the world

ai mikaze is from the idol series uta no prince sama. he is part of the group quartet night, and he sings and also plays the synthesizer. during his route in the game, he was revealed to be a robot, created as a replacement for a former idol named aine who committed suicide in order to escape the stress of being an idol — the attempt however was unsuccessful and he’s been in a coma since. as such ai was created as a copy of aine, and their brain activity was linked — anything ai saw, learned, felt, and experienced would likewise be felt by aine while being unconscious.

ai is very curious in nature and enjoys learning as much as he can, and is also very hardworking, constantly putting maximum effort into his activities as an idol. he is known for having a “sharp tongue” however he is just blunt due to the way he thinks and processes situations because of him being an artificial intelligence. furthermore, since he is an a.i., ai states that he does not feel emotions and instead observes and studies those of others — when quartet night was assigned to be mentors to the group starish, ai mentioned he was interested in natsuki and syo as “test subjects.” despite this, he has been shown creating close relationships with his peers in both qn and starish over time

one instance of ai’s interpersonal development is shown by his faith in starish during the second season of the anime. while overseeing the group, he was worried for them while they were preparing for the performance competing for the utapri award. reiji commented on the fact that ai was worried, as it was unusual for him — later, ai was questioning reiji’s “belief” in starish, how he could be worried about them, and also questions what his heart is. while getting accustomed to more personal relationships, he is shown to sincerely care for starish, particularly because he has mentored syo and natsuki, then questions why he feels that way

another example is ai’s change in perspective regarding the idol group he is in; quartet night, formed by the idol agency shining entertainment, consisting of members reiji kotobuki, ranmaru kurosaki, ai mikaze, and camus. (fun fact, the idol that ai was created as a clone of was close friends with reiji during his time he attended saotome academy, which is an idol school associated with shining entertainment). the members of qn are very different in both personality and background, thus they often tend to get into arguments and are not quite as close as the members of fellow idol group starish, whom they mentor, are, rather they are more standoffish with each other — as much as reiji tries to get them to get along, his attempts often backfire and do not last long. ai often acts as a mediator when ranmaru and camus argue, but he still views the others as merely acquaintances and colleagues. 

i cant speak much for what happens with qn in the games bc i have not played them (curse you broccoli for never localizing them…) so i will talk about what happens in the anime. theres one episode in particular where their conflicts become so bad, reiji confesses he is fed up with trying to make them all get along and leaves. the other 3 wait for him to come back- but he doesn't. they reflect over their experiences together as a group and go off to find reiji, where they all come to agree that they may not explicitly be friends, however they work very well together and enjoy being teammates. this was character development for ai, showing that he was able to learn to accept and appreciate his teammates. so not only has he been shown to care for his juniors, but he has also grown to appreciate his own teammates 

finally, we come to his route and story. as previously stated the original games were not localized and i cannot read japanese so what i do know of his route is through summaries and such. in ai’s story, the playable character/mc, haruka, is tasked with writing a solo song for ai. as she did in the anime, haruka takes some time with ai to go out together so she can learn about him and determine how to write the song. as this progresses, ai becomes fond of haruka — this is unknown to him at first, however he eventually comes to realize he has fallen for her. from the uncomfortable feeling while trying to play the song arrangement, to admitting he worries for haruka, to wanting to experience memories he didn't have (thanks robot brain) with haruka, to starting a romantic relationship with haruka. ai essentially went from believing he could not feel human emotions, to experiencing enough of them to be able to love someone. additionally, while being with haruka, ai is able to embrace his true self and accept that, while he is an android, he is also capable of feeling and loving, just as humans do. he was also able to accept that, despite him being made as a copy of aine, ai is also very much his own unique person with his own unique experiences and feelings, and became more confident in his existence.

all of these events demonstrates ai’s immense character growth — from a nonchalant workaholic to someone who genuinely cares about those around him. he was able to accept who he is and become more of his own unique person. not to mention how absolutely sweet he is to haruka, he is so doting and loving despite not knowing wtf he is doing or feeling its actually so adorable. and can we also take a second to talk about how stunning his voice is (SHOUTOUT TO AOI SHOUTA YOU'RE DOING GODS WORK) like, his range, the mix of the calm, almost melancholic sweetness and the ability to pour powerful emotions into his singing despite not initially understanding such emotions, and how well his voice complements the others. he also is simply just stunning. i mean look at him. HES BEAUTIFUL.

ai has captivated me since the moment i looked into utapri and downloaded shining live (a fallen soldier… rip). everything i've learned about him as i've dug deep into the series has made me love him more and more. please appreciate this beautiful lovely guy known as ai mikaze”

Why tf does my friend have Vines on VHS lmao