but i think that what really gets me about bully is just how casually and painfully realistically queer it happens to be
like, bully isn't a queer game, at all. in fact, it was meant to be a rockstar, white cishet teenage boy game. ableism, misogyny and whatnot really aren't missing
many many characters have been raised in their life and shaped by the creators around the gender roles and stereotypes even, say with the jocks, and all the homophobia that comes with the all-male, tough masculine aspect and yet the physical closeness of football
but then you have all these characters who are all different shades and experiences of queerness. jimmy himself is the protagonist on whom the player can project their own way of living their own sentimental life but is mostly written as being openly and confidently bisexual, and kirby is into boys but buried so deep into the closet that even just being seen with trent is enough to make him run away, and justin adores the jocks so much and also admits thinking sometimes that he's not interested in girls and has a passion for greek sculpture, and cornelius defies all gender roles by identifying both on stage and in relationships with juliet and can also be seen by other students holding hands with boys, and troy tries so hard to force himself to stop thinking about guys and seems to have a crush on russell, and derby and bif are rumored and suggested to be together but anything that happens does away from strangers' eyes, and peanut has this attraction for both johnny and lola but they both are tied together and with him with so many layers of complicated dynamics that make the attraction confusing, and gord is graceful to the point of almost stereotypically effeminate and yet so natural and unapologetic about it, and juri says a lot that he's so sure about girls liking strong and muscular boys but also casually asks his interlocutor if they ever wondered what it would be like to be of the opposite sex, and (if he was included in the final game) bob is openly gay and mentions the casual homoeroticism of wrestling and sports, and trent is flirty and bisexual and an aspiring actor implied to be into musical, and these are just some of the canon things that come first to my mind
it's about the way being a queer teen in a homophobic society can be so confusing and lived in so many different ways and how being queer affects each and every person differently and how none of these characters are solely defined by their queerness and yet it does affect their character and personality and how it all feels so real about it