Is Minrah Gay?

[Peelee]

NOTE: The following contains massive amounts of over-thinking.... but rabbit holes are fun, so down one I go.

Ahh, the official Forum motto!

[CriticalFailure]

Doesn’t like beer is my favorite suggestion so far. I wonder if the dwarves have 12 step meetings for those who don’t drink.

[Schroeswald]

Until it comes up in comic I don't see how it matters. Ship it how you like it.

My personal headcanon is that she doesn't want children or wants to delay having them, which dwarves might see as a duty. This would explain her mother's attitude when Minrah went to visit her. Sigdi isn't the only dwarf mom who can use passive-aggressive guilt tripping to manipulate her offspring.

She’s already said:

didn't get to have kids. Or adopt kids. Or decide if I even want kids. I left a lot of kid-based options on the table!

So it’s not that

[Doug Lampert]

Doesn’t like beer is my favorite suggestion so far. I wonder if the dwarves have 12 step meetings for those who don’t drink.

+1

I can see it now: "My name is Minrah and I'm a teetotaler."

Step 1: Admitting we have no desire to drink. Our lives had become sober.
Step 2: Come to believe that Thor can restore us to drunkenness.
Step 3: Make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to Thor.
...

[GreyTraveller]

Doesn’t like beer is my favorite suggestion so far. I wonder if the dwarves have 12 step meetings for those who don’t drink.

She's excited about the prospect of grabbing a pint while waiting for resurrection, so probably not this one, either.

[woweedd]

That would cast the relationship between Haley's parents into a very odd light. Whilst I follow your logic, I suspect even Ian Starshine's paranoia has limits - at least on a Thursday.

All indications are that Ian's paranoia ratched up quite a bit after she died.

I can see it as a reason why, in a world where it appears that homo- and biphobia aren't really things, Haley would be closeted even unto herself about being bi; there's a certain anonymity in being part of the majority. Being (or even pretending to be) openly bi or gay or asexual or whatever not-straight orientation makes you stand out just that little bit more than you otherwise would have. Ian explicitly telling her to take this tack would make him extremely unsympathetic, so I kinda doubt (hope?) that he didn't, but even without him saying so, it's something of a logical extrapolation from the mindset of the man who declared that admitting one's mother happened to be dead was giving away too much information.

I more meant the idea that Ian kinda gave her the idea of repressing ANY sexual attraction, for the sake of not allowing someone to get close who could betray you. You can only trust family.

I don't think this is a universe where LGBT-phobia isn't a thing at all. If that was the case, Durkon wouldn't have felt the need to say 'inna strictly heterosexual "buddies" kinda way. Not tha there's anything wrong with tha alternative' when asked how much he loved Thor (the second bit makes very little sense in a universe where the alternative was never portrayed as bad, and the very urge to clarify something like that is telling), Belkar wouldn't have talked about being 'secure enough in [his] manhood' to hit on Roy (why would anyone think hitting on a male was a potential threat to anyone's manhood if it weren't for lingering internalized LGBT-phobia?), the Cliffport guard wouldn't have had any reason to "come out" as such, as he'd just have felt free to express his sexuality all along, and yes, I believe Haley wouldn't have suppressed her bisexuality either.

To me this suggest this is a universe that is pretty much analogous to the more progressive sectors of our own society: LGBT-phobia is not considered acceptable, especially overt LGBT-phobia, which pretty much only exists among bigots who would be ostracized for their views, but that doesn't mean subtler, internalized forms of LGBT-phobia don't still linger.

In that sense, I find it perfectly plausible that Minrah might be gay or bi and be perfectly fine with it from a rational point of view but still struggle with some hangups because of internalized attitudes. But I don't have any particular reason to believe this is what Thor was referring to.

True enough. I kinde took the universe's attitude towards LGBT as being a sorta worldwide art evolution: We're supposed to pretend it was always like this.

[RatElemental]

She's excited about the prospect of grabbing a pint while waiting for resurrection, so probably not this one, either.

Thor was the one who said pint, maybe Minrah prefers fruitier drinks?

[Peelee]

Thor was the one who said pint, maybe Minrah prefers fruitier drinks?

Assume it was indeed beer. Given that she had just told him, it would be a bit... odd, to be polite, to then say "hey let's go for a beer." Not to mention for her to be excited about it.

[ijuinkun]

Not because there's anything shameful in thinking Thor is a smokin' hottie, but just that we anglophones* are really weird about the word "love" and it's various potential implications.

This is where I think that the Greeks had it right with having names for four separate types of love--sexual love (eros), love between siblings/friends (philia), love between parent/child (storge), and aesthetic love (agape).

[Emanick]

This is where I think that the Greeks had it right with having names for four separate types of love--sexual love (eros), love between siblings/friends (philia), love between parent/child (storge), and aesthetic love (agape).

Yeah, even as an English major, it’s pretty hard to argue against the idea that that particular aspect of their language was far superior to English’s arrangement.

“Love” is a pretty expansive concept to bottle up into one singular word.

[Dr.Zero]

Yeah, even as an English major, it’s pretty hard to argue against the idea that that particular aspect of their language was far superior to English’s arrangement.

“Love” is a pretty expansive concept to bottle up into one singular word.

That is not only limited to Greeks.
You have no idea how awkward was for us, some years ago[1], to read/listen to literal translations of american movies, with children and parents saying to each other "I love you". Specially when the dude doing the translation didn't pay attention to the relationship and translated it literally. Ewww.

[1] We were, and mostly we still are, used to use some construct like "Ti voglio bene", sounding more or less in english as "I deeply care for you". Now I hear the "I love you" equivalent more often. I suppose this is cultural contamination. Still feels awkward for me, though.

[Goosefarble]

From the interaction she had with Thor and her palpable relief at his acceptance of it, my takeaway was that she was sexually attracted to Thor.

Also to weigh in on the whole "is LGBT-phobia a thing" in the OOTSverse, when Belkar tried to make "steaks" on the Mechane, he shouts "NO, YOU'RE A HOMOPHOBE!" at the cook, after obviously having been called it himself. That strip's pretty recent, too, so it stands to reason that the concept still exists in the world even if it was brought up in a jokey way.

[Peelee]

Also to weigh in on the whole "is LGBT-phobia a thing" in the OOTSverse, when Belkar tried to make "steaks" on the Mechane, he shouts "NO, YOU'RE A HOMOPHOBE!" at the cook, after obviously having been called it himself. That strip's pretty recent, too, so it stands to reason that the concept still exists in the world even if it was brought up in a jokey way.

Uhhhhh......

It's "homophone."

[factotum]

Uhhhhh......

It's "homophone."

Yeah, meaning a word that sounds the same but has a different meaning. The obvious joke in the linked strip being that Belkar confused "stake" (wooden thing to thrust through a vampire's heart) with "steak" (delicious meat product).

[hroþila]

Yeah, but the joke is also that Belkar doesn't know what "homophone" means so he assumed it was an insult, and a very natural reading of that is that he confused it with "homophobe".

[Liquor Box]

I don’t see how people think we won’t learn Minrah’s secret. Like, this was the first character beat she got, its gonna be dealt with, especially since Rich reminded us of it pretty recently.

Also, where did we get the idea that Rich likes to troll the forums? Like every one and awhile there are some minor jokes about some of our more complex curated threads but nothing he’s done really feels like trolling.

There's been a couple of times where I thought that the Giant might have put something in the comic, knowing that the forum would go crazy trying to work it out. For example, when Durkon said Belkar was his fourth favourite person to marry in the Order, I think the Giant knew we'd all be frantically trying to figure Durkon's preferences and guess his list of marriage candidates.

[Peelee]

Yeah, but the joke is also that Belkar doesn't know what "homophone" means so he assumed it was an insult

Yes.

and a very natural reading of that is that he confused it with "homophobe".

No. Most of the time when I heard jokes like this, it was the other way around - eg "you're a homosapien!" Given that Belkar has displayed no issues with that before, it really seems like just a low intelligence joke.

[KillianHawkeye]

No. Most of the time when I heard jokes like this, it was the other way around - eg "you're a homosapien!" Given that Belkar has displayed no issues with that before, it really seems like just a low intelligence joke.

It could be both, if we assume Belkar is low intelligence enough to not know that the -phobe suffix refers to a phobia and was reacting purely to the homo- prefix.

[Peelee]

It could be both, if we assume Belkar is low intelligence enough to not know that the -phobe suffix refers to a phobia and was reacting purely to the homo- prefix.

Again, he seems to have no problem when dealing with female Roy and Tarquin, so that seems unlikely. Not to mention that he didn't hear a "phobe" suffix. He heard a "phone" suffix.

[hroþila]

I took it as Belkar feeling insulted because he considers "homophobe" an insult because he isn't one and being a homophobe is bad. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Dr.Zero]

I took it as Belkar feeling insulted because he considers "homophobe" an insult because he isn't one and being a homophobe is bad. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Being a murderous little savage is bad, too. Usually B showed acceptance, if not glee, when he was called that, though.
So the "bad" factor alone is off of the table, I'd say.

Maybe because he likes to be a murderer and not a homophobe. But the reaction in that case doesn't sound Belkarish, I guess he'd be at most more like: "Nah, I'm fine whoever you like to bang."

I am more inclined toward the "he doesn't know what he means, so he took it as a general insult" interpretation.

To add to it, I think he used the "drag in fantasy" an "androgynous" while exchanging (friendly) insults with the elf, so...

[Vinyadan]

Bandana is gay. Minrah vaguely reminds me of her as a female helper who is accompanying the Order and has no ongoing romance-related plot. So the impression could come from that.

[Quizatzhaderac]

Her terrible secret is that she's "gay", but not gay in sense of being homosexual, gay in the sense of being overly cheerful and going around singing "hi-ho, hi-ho" all the time.

[KorvinStarmast]

I can see it now: "My name is Minrah and I'm a teetotaler."

She got a drink coupon for Valhalla and seemed pleased with it. While this would be funny, I'll vote against this one. (PS: nice post)

[Emanick]

Her terrible secret is that she's "gay", but not gay in sense of being homosexual, gay in the sense of being overly cheerful and going around singing "hi-ho, hi-ho" all the time.

This is now my new headcanon.

[Mad Humanist]

Perhaps she just really likes playing boardgames.

[Mad Humanist]

Perhaps she just really likes playing boardgames.

I mean we know that Dwarven culture is okay with "children" playing boardgames. However adults playing boardgames might be seen as dishonourable. So adults playing boardgames might be strongly against the culture but Minrah still likes to roll dem bones and Minrah is delighted that Thor is okay with it.

[npc revolution]

My guess is she's trans.

The hints lead me to think that it's not something we'd think of as flippant, but also not such a huge deal that the story's gonna focus on it. In fact, the story of her transition's already resolved. Thor knows her name, Thor gets it, it's sorted.

[Rektascensja]

I mean we know that Dwarven culture is okay with "children" playing boardgames. However adults playing boardgames might be seen as dishonourable. So adults playing boardgames might be strongly against the culture

That is pretty much not the case, with Durkon playing Parcheesi

[Mad Humanist]

That is pretty much not the case, with Durkon playing Parcheesi

Well maybe Human culture was finally rubbing off on him.