A rant/discussion/analysis specifically about the queer themes in ULTRAKILL, and my annoyance with how the fandom treats those themes.
WORK IN PROGRESS, I AM NOT DONE.
Ultrakill, is a queer game. Despite the exterior of a FPS game about rummaging your way through the layers of Hell there are many queer themes in the game itself. Most people who play the game know the main stuff, or at least know one thing specifically: how Gabriel is gay and had his awakening in 6-2, and how he and V1 have some weird(queer) thing going on between the two; However, I feel as if most fans take that at face-value and only see that moment in game as the only queer thing in the game.
But I’ll start with the most known information, I’ll talk about Gabriel. In his second battle in 6-2 and after, it’s heavily implied that we as the player are watching someone unravel their oppressive teachings and questioning everything they knew about it. Literally, as Gabriel is an Angel. His entire second battle is him realizing that his feelings towards V1 weren’t anger, but passion; The filename for his wing texture in the second phase of his battle are titled “T_WingsEcstasy.png”, the line that plays for the second phase in that battle you can hear Gabriel laugh, out of enjoyment fighting with V1.
During the battle itself there are also many lines Gabriel voices out that carry some implications, such as him questioning this passion that he has yet to realize he’s feeling, and a reference to Closer by Nine Inch Nails.
"IS THAT THE BEST YOU'VE GOT!? (Laughter)"
"I've never had a fight like this before!"
"What is this FEELING?"
"Come on, machine! Fight me like an ANIMAL!"
After his defeat in the second battle, this is where everyone understands as Gabriel's “gay awakening”, he tells V1 that he needs time to think, and we witness the beginnings of him questioning and unlearning the things that God has taught him.
When it comes to information outside of the game, either in merchandise, official art or what the developers have said in streams there is also more information supporting Gabriel being queer, in fact the developers have mentioned many times how he is.
One of the merchandise that can be bought is a bodypillow of Gabriel, with the description “MACHINE, STOP LOOKING AT MY…”. The body pillow itself, on the backside, shows Gabriel surrounded by coins from V1’s marksman, including the gun itself.
When it comes to what the developers say about Gabriel being queer, I think these images speak for themselves.
(Images from the Twitter and the deactivated Tumblr account of Francishsie, who is an official artist for ULTRAKILL, and from a Reddit AMA for Gianni Matragrano, who is the voice actor for Gabriel).
Lastly for official art, there are many cases of Gabriel and V1 being shown in romantic contexts, such as in the NewBlood 10th anniversary art, where they are depicted as if they’re on a date, and the ULTRAKILL early access 4th anniversary art, showing V1 giving Gabriel a heart in a flower. Things to note is how Gabriel is blushing in both promotional arts.
While this one is a bit of a stretch, you could also make the argument for the NewBlood 11th anniversary art, where V1 and Gabriel are so close together it looks like they’re holding hands, but again that’s a bit of a reach.
On the topic of Gabriel still, I feel like there’s another aspect of his queerness that very few people acknowledge, and it's his gender (and lack thereof). In the Act II development stream for layers 5-7, Hakita explains how Angels, in ULTRAKILL, don’t have genders, this includes Gabriel.
“...so, uh, when we did the act 1 intermission, one of the things I wanted to do was have it so that gabe is never specifically referred to by gendered pronouns. They always say, like, ‘this one’ and whatever like that, ‘cause I was like you know, Angels don't need to be male or female because they don't reproduce biologically or whatever. They didn't have need to grow, like, gender roles or anything like that, and....but then, um, sort of as we were writing this [Ferrymans journal] I think I was like "okay, we have a problem". Basically all biblical language is masculine. You always have "he" this, "he" that, "he" that. So if you want to write biblical-sounding dialogue, you need to use "he". which is why we did the ‘he is the light in my darkness’ bit…and then I was like ‘okay well, fuck, uhh, how does this work out now that we have, like, this situation’, then I figured oh! Have fucking master stroke and it was like, so, the idea that I ended up coming up with is that essentially, uh, Angels dont have gendered pronouns or whatever by default, but as a sign of, like, sort of status, they use, like, once an Angel is high enough in status they start using, like, masculine pronouns for them, because that's like, God is referred to with masculine pronouns. so being referred to with masculine pronouns then makes them sort of closer to God's status, in a way. so, I managed to end up making it work out, luckily, into an interesting twist on how pronouns are used in our language."
(Transcript taken from this post on Tumblr.)
You can even see this in the intermission for Act I, where the Council begin using “it” and calling him “this one” instead of using masculine pronouns for Gabriel after his “mistake” of losing to V1.
Going back to the official art of Gabriel, in most of the promotional art he is shown in mostly “feminine” clothing, displaying his gender non-conformity.
GO BACK?