The Song of Achilles, the original Greek tragedy, follows the life of Patroclus and his intimate relationship to Achilles. It ends with a painful and slowly agonizing death of both the lovers and them reuniting in the afterlife. The story had captured the hearts of many in the LGBTQ+ community. I think it provided a relief to many to see a gay relationship from history, because it was a show of how we have always existed in this world. Furthermore, its unfortunate ending, I believe, provides that catharsis we needed. 

 Alien Stage is a Youtube animated series where people are paired up for a singing tournament and the loser dies. The show had paired up people that have been implied to have romantic interest with each other in these duels, forcing one to kill the other. There were two queer ‘ships’ that had taken the main frame, Ivan and Till, Mizi and Sua, and one straight ship, Hyuna and Luka. Alien Stage has gained a lot of hype, quickly catching the attention of fans 

This traces back to the way queer people have always been treated: hated, ostracized, and hidden. Something weird and out of nature, despite doing nothing wrong. There are multiple cases of persecution against the community, like the appeal on the case which legalized gay marriage to get it banned once more (Obergefell v. Hodges) and Japan’s ban on same-sex marriage. We have faced hate for centuries, only fairly recently being able to come out the closet in the most progressive of countries.

This is why queer content with tragic endings tends to become extremely popular-  because this is what we’ve seen time and time again in our history. I know there are many happy relationships, but these never seem to shine in the same light with the same type of attraction you see in devastating endings. 

Then came the term: doomed yaoi. It means a gay relationship that is tragic. The phrase is getting common, from what I see, on the internet which leads it to become more popular in the real world. It highlights the growing fondness for tragedy in the community. When “The Summer Hikaru Died” was animated, it grew in popularity and got labelled as doomed yaoi. The portrayal of sad queer media reads as a trend due to the popularity of the term and similar trends like doomed yuri (the lesbian version), the pattern of black and white haired lovers being doomed yaoi or, for yuri, black and pink hair. I think it really shows how popular unfortunate endings become in the community. 

Tragic queer content becomes famous because it reflects real history and current struggles. For a long time, queer people were not allowed happy endings in stories, and this pattern still affects media today.