floppyamon:

I’m gonna ignore the tone in this ask and answer your questions bluntly

Bury Your Gays is a trope specifically for queer romance where a (usually queer) author would only be able to write a m|m w|w love story if one of the characters dies in the end. This is due to homophobia, wanting to pluck at cishet heart strings to grab their attention for the novel, etc. That’s why so much LGBT media from the 1900s is sweet and sad and ends with the horrible death of one of them. Since then this trope has expanded to encompass fleshed-out queer characters who died for the sake of Straight guilt

Shiro and Adam’s relationship was done, finished, wouldn’t have made narrative sense for Shiro to still want to be with Adam; Adam was another voice that told him he couldn’t do anything since he was sick. Shiro didn’t think of Adam once during his time in space, not during his happiest memory, not during his video diary, and not when he asked Dr. Holt to punch Iverson. They were not a happy couple, they were exes for years and two drastically different people

Adam is also a character who we know next to nothing about except for these facts

1.) He was one of the most skilled pilots in the Garrison
2.) He once loved Shiro until he got tired of Shiro wasting his “remaining” time on training and not with him
3.) He was one of the only pilots qualified to go fight a giant alien ship, hence why cadets are in charge of the next best super weapon after they pass

He has approximately ten lines, and then dies. He was not a fan favorite (fanon Adam is though), he was introduced and killed in the same season. The staff told us that Adam would not be a recurring character, and that was true. But most importantly, Adam was directly juxtaposed with Keith: “Don’t expect me to be there when you get back” scene then transitions to the “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves that you can’t convince me is unintentional scene” where Keith is quietly waiting outside of Shiro’s pod for 15 seconds of silence before transitioning to another scene.

So no, Adam isn’t a Bury Your Gays. He’s a Situational Sexuality. Situational Sexuality is for queer characters who die, but it makes sense in the context of the story. This context is usually a horror story, a war story (bingo), or any story signaled to have an awful ending.

I’m personally not gonna judge Adam’s death till next season since VLD likes to work in pairs (introduce something in the first 13 eps, finish it in the next 13)

And as for why Shiro is an example of great rep, I cannot think of a single reason why in a society where LGBT characters are jokes and perverts why having the military male fantasy character who is also Japanese (and not emasculated because of it), disabled (but it’s one of his greatest strengths) chronically ill (and managed to fight stigma against him), who doesn’t display toxic masculinity (despite being very masculine), who respects women in earnest, who literally had his life torn to shreds and crawled out of it victoriously time and time again is a good example of rep and not the beanpole with pubes for hair, sorry 🤔