Two kind and understanding guys raising 4 kids = bad gay rep, but a rich, powerful man intimidating and coercing a poor lower-class painter into sketchy sexual situations is totally fine? Come on now. Even you have to see how weird that is.
What you mean by Gay rep???? Accordingto who?? The story?? They can be seen as straight friendship platonic bestie (The story didn't explicitly says they have romantic feelings with no debate).
Can be seen as platonic bestie, no confirmation from the author, and most importantly the story is not BL Gl = straight friends
Idgaf about problematic gay rep (aka bad mean evil gay character). That never be a problem at least its actual gay. The problem is you all shippers delulu bringing hate to the community.
Olly x Qifrey being more hurtful to the queer community than POTN is a hilarious take. Surely you're not so dense that you can't see how contradictory your thoughts are? Y'all be out here defending your "dark" fics because it's just fiction, but suddenly it's not just fiction when someone ships two good guys who have a deep and emotional relationship? Suddenly you believe fiction has real world consequences? Come on now. Y'all can't have it both ways. Either fiction does have real world consequences or it doesn't.
u on a coke rant every day i envy u for not having a job omg
Let’s be honest, especially as we celebrate Pride Month: we should absolutely respect authors who write friendship exactly as it is purely platonic from start to finish, with no misleading moments, no ambiguous framing, and no soft coding that leaves people guessing. It’s fair when they later say plainly, “These characters are just friends.” But there’s a clear line between honest platonic storytelling and manipulation: authors who intentionally add soft, intimate‑seeming, or ambiguous interactions solely to tease fans, generate buzz, keep engagement high, and sell more content with zero actual plan to ever confirm or develop a queer romance aren’t being allies. That’s just queerbaiting, plain and simple: exploiting our hunger for genuine, meaningful queer stories as a cheap marketing trick.
This is exactly what happens with pairings like Coco × Agott and Olly × Qifrey from Witch Atelier. Fans take every small act of care, every shared moment, every promise of loyalty, and twist it into something romantic even though the story never frames it that way. And no amount of mental gymnastics, over‑analysis, or headcanon will turn subtext into actual representation. No matter how many people read between the lines, it never becomes confirmed queer representation. Real representation only counts when it is what the creators intentionally choose to write and make canon.
As long as every line, every gentle touch, every declaration of care or even “I love you” can still easily and reasonably be read as deep platonic friendship, found family, or brotherhood sisterhood it is not queer representation; it is just friendship. Compare that to actual stories whether BL GL or stories where queer characters are explicitly framed from the very beginning: their identity, their attraction, and their romantic feelings are clear, never blurred, never confused with familial or platonic bonds. If the author never confirms it, never writes it as intentional, and never lets it be a real part of the story, it does not matter how much you stretch subtext or make up your own version, it is not representation.