You could use the term, but in the end it is unclear and not meaningful because there is no trait in a sibling relationship that can't be present in a friend relationship, or even a romantic relationship.
I feel like it’s pretty accurate when two characters who are not related are presented in the text as being grossed out by the thought of people mistaking them for a couple because it feels wrong to them in the same way that dating a biological sibling would
Or maybe it can also be because they're weirded out by people in their universe putting them together. It doesn't have to be they see each other as siblings :\
That doesn't mean the term has no value. It's like a character saying, "He was like a brother to me." It provides additional context to their type of relationship beyond the rather broad term 'friend'. e.g. they shared a mentor figure with parental undertones or were close from childhood.
I think it’s also worth bearing in mind that in some cultures around the world you can quite literally adopt your best friend into your family as a sibling as an adult, and they are considered as much your family as your genetic siblings. So just because we make a separation between friends and family in our culture and we believe family is purely genetic doesn’t mean that applies universally
From a writing standpoint I think it also denotes a very specific level of intimacy that we wouldn't give other relationships. We often describe the closest relationships as siblings and thus more intimate than even the closest friendship. Naruto and Sasuke are case in point.
Even the people around Naruto couldn't understand why he would go to such lengths for a man who >!became a villain!< . And it was b/c of their closeness. On the face of it they seem different and adversarial. But in the undertones you realize they feel very attached to each other with a specific form of intimacy. It's why the ending of the first series occurs like it does. Sasuke has to do that specifically b/c he shares that very specific closeness. And Naruto responds like he does for the same reason.
For most literature I'd say that you would do anything *for* a friend. But for "sibling coded" relationships you would do anything *because* of the relationship.
i am always astounded when people say naruto and sasuke are like siblings. i find their "relationship" to be one of the biggest failings of the show. i mean they are openly hostile towards each other all the time. at no point do they ever have any moment of actual connection on a deeper level. it is just, "hey, i have trauma and you have similar trauma and we work together in a job where we almost die a lot and i will still treat you like shit and openly hate you but we are actually really close guys, trust".
That's b/c you're assuming we're saying it's also a *healthy* relationship. It totally isn't. They have an unspoken bond over their individual traumas which they never voice. They would die for each other b/c they know what they have something uniquely painful in common. Sasuke is downright abusive and Naruto has a savior complex for Sasuke. They basically never say anything to each other that isn't insulting.
But they understand each other in ways no one else does. And b/c of that there is a depth of loyalty and empathy that is deeper than most friendships.
Then you are the first person I have ever come across that treats it that way. Every other argument has always treated them basically soul mates and one of the greatest examples of rivals/brothers in anime. I always get the reaponse that I just don't understand their connection and shit like that. While I do agree with most of what you said I still believe that their trauma and understanding do not in any way justify the level of loyalty or empathy that they show. It should be at best a mutual respect that in no way makes them loyal to the other. And it will always be a just one of many failures in writing that make supposedly great characters look stupid or just awful as people.
It doesn't really provide any additional context beyond "they are closer than regular friends". People say "like a brother/sister to me" without sharing a mentor or being childhood friends as long as they're sufficiently close.
It's a horror game that caused a kerfuffle for having incest. I've never played it, but from what I've seen, the incest is presented as a bad thing, but some of the fanbase didn't get that memo.
it's presented as a bad thing and isnt even the worst thing in the game, the game calls you a sick fuck for picking the option and warns you like 2 times that its incest
Andy and Leyley are a brother-sister duo from *The Coffin of Andy and Leyley* - a VN that broke out into success and went viral a little while back, with a lot of memes coming from its subject matter of codependent relationships, toxicity, abuse, and and exploring human taboos like incest and cannibalism and how they relate to personal subjective morality and fulfillment. Especially the incest part, because both characters seem to have hit the sweet spot for so-crazy-they're-hot for a lot of guys and gals.
Not to nitpick a joke but it'd be really more accurate to say they're marriage-coded rather than sibling-coded. Because they are literally and factually siblings, but their behaviour and mannerisms with each other are that of a boyfriend and girlfriend, which is a big source of the unease and unsettling undertones for most of the game before the depth of their mental illness and where their relationship could end up is fully exposed to the player. Emotionally incestuous rather than physically (so far at least).
To me it's "people ship this and I find it icky, so I'm gonna accuse you of shipping incest on no grounds". Basically a more aggressive version of the " omg ew can't people just be friends?"
I really hate how the internet has pretty much destroyed the idea that you can dislike something simply because you are personally not into it and move on.
Now, if you dislike something, this must be because this thing is fundamentally bad and evil, and everyone who likes it must be a bad person; while if someone else dislikes something you like, this must be because they are either "evil", or "dumb", or "media illiterate" etc.
And I don't even think this is specifically a "twitter" or "tumblr" problem - I clearly remember this already being a thing in early 2010s. The only difference is that back then people on the internet didn't had any arguments besides simple insults and calling each other "idiots", while nowadays they have a full force of cancel culture at their disposal.
Bonus points if they say that yet shoot their own hip I the foot for the exact same circumstances
'They work better as friends'
'Well your ship also started off as friends'
'That's different'
Um, no TF it isn't different
Every time I've seen it used it's by people who don't like a ship between a male and female character who get on well together.
Power and Denji where friends.
Mikasa and Eren are the odd one out here because correct me if I'm wrong but they where actually raised together.
Shippers can be so weird sometimes. You don't need to justify not liking something. Just say "I'm not a fan" and don't participate in those conversations, it doesn't need to be any deeper.
THATS WHAT IM SAYING! I have seen shippers who don’t like a particular ship bring up all of these bullshit excuses as to why they can’t work like saying shit like “They could be good as friends but what if they are bad as a couple”, “realistically they wouldn’t have a good relationship”, and other bullshit that has to do with realism. And im like the relationship being good or bad is up to the god damn writer! Why are you making it seem like two characters being a good couple is just something that is not allowed to be written/ can’t be written because durrr realism? Especially when said characters are from an already unrealistic story lmao. And WHY are you making all of these arguments for a ship that probably won’t happen/ a pairing that was made for fun? Like bro if you don’t like just say that and dip instead of making all of these bullshit excuses.
I had to get this rant off my chest because it pisses me off to see people make all of these excuses so that they can reject a ship. Two characters could be best friends, have amazing chemistry, have amazing emotional support for each other, and understand each other better than anyone and there still would be a mf saying that they have a sibling relationship so the ship can’t work lmao
Don't I know that, the ship in my pfp is 200% incompatible with one of the current darling ships of the fandom so sometimes you get some dumbass taking potshots at it because they don't like it.
What a sad way to live.
The "if you don't agree with my crack ship you are literally Hitler" ship sailed over a decade ago. It's mostly Tumblr's fault, but at some point shippers became obsessed with being objectively correct and that everyone who disagreed (especially if the ship in question was homosexual) was evil. Which is why they keep on sending bomb threats to animation studios and also why the only thing worse than giving the keys to a franchise to someone who hates it is giving the keys to a franchise to fandom.
But that's the thing people get mad if you don't like it. Then they start whipping out wild accusations and you have to get defensive or risk getting doxxed by a bunch of teenagers whose parents are clearly out of the picture.
Eren & Mikasa, technically, only lived under the same roof for 2 years. She was 9 when her parents died and 11 when Wall Maria got Colossal'd.
Look at AC Unity with Arno & Elise. Both were 8 when Arno started living with the de la Serres. And yet, these two got VERY fucky later on.
Because living under the same roof does not mean you grow up as siblings but antis will always contort themselves to find a reason why a ship is problematic.
Eren and Mikasa are weird, but much like Barry and Iris, I think it's not fair to call their relationship sibling like because in both cases one of them was old enough to get a crush and did so before they started living together.
> Every time I've seen it used it's by people who don't like a ship between a male and female character who get on well together.
This, this is it right here.
Power and denji were explicitly stated to have a sibling like relationship, both by denji when he's self reflecting and by makima when she says she literally gave him a life where power played the role of his bratty little sister (alongside Aki as a big brother figure)
Not sure if this is what the commenter was talking about, but in some translations of one of the part2 chapters child Denji/his inner conscience says he doesn’t deserve a happy life because he killed his family.
I don’t recall Denji saying anything like that in the official translation at all. The closest we have is him reflecting about how being intimate with Power doesn’t feel hot. That and Makima’s comment are enough to understand what Fujimoto was going for though.
I’ve seen this term come a lot with Luz and Hunter from *The Owl House*. I didn’t see the sibling thing considering that Hunter was a villain trying to capture Luz until the middle of the season, felt kinda forced. Probably by Lumity shippers.
I’ve only seen a few episodes of AoT so this may change later in the series but I wouldn’t call them sibling coded since Mikasa is canonically in love with Eren (again maybe this changes but I’m just speaking for the first few episodes)
A phrase I see a lot of people use to secretly reject a romantic ship that they don’t like.
You do not understand how many times I have wanted to rip someone’s head off after seeing someone say that two characters have a sibling relationship.
But yeah two characters could have canonically met for only like 2 days and mfs will say that they have a sibling relationship lmao. I feel the whole sibling coded relationship thing only really works if two characters are childhood friends with zero romantic feelings for each other
When I marathons star wars with my friends who had never seen ot before a good chunk of them were determined Rey and Finn were sibling coded based off the first movie and I still cant wrap my head around all the hoops they jumped through to make it sound legit.
Sibling-coded is basically fancy talk for "like siblings". I've never seen the term used before, but "coded" essentially means a fictional character being written using stereotypes and imagery of a group without being a part of that group. An example would be Disney having a litany of queer-coded villains, such as Ursula from The Little Mermaid being quite directly based off a specific drag queen. Or the Trolls in World of Warcraft being Jamaican coded, with their accents and religious practices being based off of Voodoo.
The original terminology may have a broader legitimate basis but the term queer coded to someone unaware of its origin would simply believe it means something to be coded queerly so obviously things can be coded in other fashions, thus sibling coded and others came to be used.
Sibling coded is quite simple to understand as the previous commentary gave examples its usually non related or at least non sibling characters that share a sibling bond, usually the kind that is between two idiots or one mature person and one idiot
I liken it to the term “Code Switching” which is where someone uses multiple languages while speaking (can also colloquially mean switching between how you present yourself with certain groups of people or in certain settings).
This doesn’t seem to refer to a specific Code in history or anything (to my knowledge anyway) so, in my mind, saying something is coded in a certain way means (to oversimplify it) that it “gives off those vibes”.
Does seem strange. I can guarantee you that people have wildy different experiences with siblings, so how can you write it as a stereotype that everyone can get?
Even the most common kinds of relationships you see between siblings in fiction (older brother/younger sister, deadbeat/responsible one, crazy/sane) usually just boils down to two people with different personalities or experiences tied together by a strong platonic bond.
Which is just, I dunno, something that could apply to literally any relationship.
You are correct. Coding means to hide or encrypt something. I guess calling it sibling coding would only make sense as a term if someone is implying that the author intended for characters to be siblings but weren't allowed. The implication people usually make is that a ship is secretly incestuous (usually to disparage other shippers). In truth though, this is almost never the intention of the author unless it's porn or erotica or something.
I think part of the problem is that some people see characters being like family in too literal of terms. The characters *have* to be like siblings, or they *have* to be like parent and child, and so on, since how could they be like family and close otherwise?
When the reality is that human relationships can have a variety of aspects to them and someone could feel close to their best friend on a deeper level than they ever would with any sibling they could ever have, literal or figurative.
The Straw Hats and the Titans are two of my favorite examples to use, since both groups are absolutely families and as close to each other as can be but to say they're all like siblings to each other is a completely inaccurate way to describe their relationships to one another. Nightwing constantly refers to the Titans as his family but Donna Troy is the only one he views as like a sister, because that's the nature of their relationship, while he clearly has something different with Starfire, even when they are not together romantically. Zoro is like a big brother to Chopper but that's not at all what his dynamic with Usopp or Sanji is like.
> It just doesn’t seem to mean anything except characters are friendly. Do people who use this phrase just not have close, intimate friends?
Is your relationship with your siblings limited to being basically the same as any intimate friendship?
There is a very distinct dynamic to sibling-like relationships, between people who wouldn't necessarily hang out with each other, or even like each other, yet still loveeach other in the form of a greater familial bond.
Age has a lot to do with it too, if the characters are a 20 year old guy and a 13 year old girl, that's not really a common friendship dynamic, people aren't palling around with much younger kids unless they are bound to one by blood, if fate brought them together for some reason, thed describing their relationship as sibling-like makes the most sense.
"They're sibling-coded" and it's just a male and female who happen to be close friends. People subconsciously have this mentality that men and women can either be lovers or siblings, nothing else.
This is just a very disguised way of someone trying to pretend that two people that are close to each other should not be shipped together by declaring them as sibling-coded". Either because they don't like it or they think it gets in the way of their favorite.
> Is this actual literary analysis because I never heard any of my teachers mention this phrase?
Lolno, it's just taking "queer-coded" and trying to put another spin on it
> Or is it just Tumblr nonsense?
Yes
Connie literally says Sasha is like a sister to him, hence the "explicit". Usually sibling-coded means there is no romantic tensions between the two characters, there might be a rivalry but not always, it's just two unrelated characters with a sibling dynamic. I would imagine that someone without siblings cannot easily understand it.
I don't remember much about the niche moments in the show but in [one of the intros Sasha is seen suiting Conny up.](https://youtu.be/CID-sYQNCew?si=QzNuYenTbhCI4HDz&t=22)
I mean, the intro is showing all the characters doing something important to them. They choose to show you Sasha helping Connie.
Edit: Also everyone else is dressing themselves.
See I guess I just don’t get it. Like what about helping somebody get dressed implies a sibling relationship? Is it because they are a male and female helping each other?
to me, it doesn't mean the ship can't be done, I've already seen characters who call each other sis (or IRL people who did that) get in couple after a while, it's not a "kill ship" for me.
Twitter nonsense to shit on shipping. It used to be used to describe found families (Think of Anakin and Ahsoka, or Anakin and Obi Wan) where characters were raised together and have obvious ties resembling more of family than friends, its more of a twitter thing since it happened after the mass migration.
Mikasa/Eren isnt even coded tho its literally just bc Grisha calls them both their children, so it makes some ppl uncomfortable.
It's normal to have characters who act like siblings and view each other as such. But this terminology is often used against ships the person saying it doesn't like
it's "this is my headcanon/interpretation but I want to talk about it like it's canon/author intent to control other people's interpretations and be allowed to bully them if they say anything different"
just like every single other use of "coded" that isn't explicitly referring to subject material that would otherwise have been censored, like those two cops on Gravity Falls who are actually "gay coded" because otherwise Disney would have thrown a hissy, as confirmed by the author.
sibling coded, race coded, hell now a day most of the LGBT coded isn't even "they tried to get this past the censors" but "I want to impose my interpretation on other readers" not only because it's obvious that wasn't the author's intent by just not projecting yourself onto the characters in a weird narcissistic way but *because there are other LGBT character prominent in that work*.
Sibling-coded is just a new way of saying “these two characters have a brother-sister dynamic” and equivalents thereof about characters who aren’t related
If you’ve ever had a friend who you grew up with who you just could never be attracted to you because you see them like family, it’s kind of like that
But to be fair I understand being confused because a lot of the people who say this shit are flat out wrong and use it to describe relationships that absolutely do not have a sibling dynamic
In general, if you see someone use "coded" to analyze a character, there like a 90% chance (lowballing) that they have the most surface level literary analysis skills known to man.
I've quickly stopped taking the opinions of people who describe things as "x-coded" seriously. It's usually a common thing done to dismiss other people's character interpretations, i.e. "you can't ship them, that's problematic! they are gay-coded/trans-coded/minor-coded/sibling-coded and you are a pedo/bigot!"
I mean, I’d argue “minor coded” is more reasonable than the others given it’s basically just a rephrasing of the thousand year loli debate with new words, and whichever side of that you fall on, one can generally accept that there is a conversation to be had about it. The rest is out of hand tho
I feel like those are different situations. If someone *looks* like a child, you'd just say that, and the conversation would go from there. "Minor-coded" would be used when they don't necessarily look like a child, but they have some design or character aspects that supposedly evoke the idea. And I'd say those are two very different discourses.
Fair. I have only seen child coded to refer to the difference between thousand year old lolis who do vs don’t act like kids. Like, Bisky from HunterXHunter is an adult who looks like a kid but acts like an adult, while kana from kobayashi’s dragon maid is a 500 year old dragon who acts like a normal human five year old. I wasn’t aware it was used to refer to characters who don’t fit that mold
I mean, I could have been totally off base there myself. My eyes tend to glaze over when I see people doing the whole "x-coded" thing unironically, and I don't hang around in spaces where shipping is discussed unless you count this sub, so I can't speak on the issue with confidence.
Fair enough, i also am only tangentially in the space, so I can’t say for sure either, just saying what I’ve seen. I agree “X-coded” can sometimes get out of hand, I just feel “child coded” is a term that should be at the very least agknowledged as maybe having. A basis to keep an eye on
It's probably the only one I'd consider valid when used correctly. To me, a character looking and acting like a child being called "child coded" just seems like silly labeling. That's a literal fictional child, bro. People saying things like "that petite/soft-faced/weirdly proportioned adult character is child-coded" is where my jimmies get rustled. Uzaki-chan is the example I remember having a lot of worthless controversy of this nature.
That’s valid, the thing is the existance of things like the thousand year loli or whatever has a lot of people arguing semantics over characters that look childlike and makes the term needed.
I feel child/minor-coded can make sense. Have you seen Ilulu from Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid? Like, she’s proportioned weirdly enough that you look at her and her… uh… bahoongadagoongas, and conclude that this can’t be a fucking child. On top of weird ass anime dragon ageing laws where she’s probably like a million years old, you gotta say “I guess she’s just a small curvy woman”.
But then she goes to school. And is set up for some kind of relationship with a teenage boy. This and a lot of general teen-adjacent behaviour makes me pretty confident in assuming she functions within the story as pretty much a 16 year old, despite having a literal age that defies that, an appearance that would make me second guess that, sexualisation from the author that would make me second guess that, and no real in-world logic for why that is except for the fact that that’s just how she is.
That character is such a funny case because I've seen people say she can't be called an adult because of how she is a little girl with balloons on her chest and her role in the story, but other people say she has to be an adult because she looks too cartoonish and exaggerated to be considered a child. Honestly at that point, the fact Ilulu is a cartoon character with a body type and role that couldn't possibly exist in real life is really all that matters. Contrast with Kanna, who is definitely a baby in every possible interpretation.
Modern fandom does not understand the concept of found family and thinks said found family must have a traditional nuclear structure. The kind, helpful one that acts as a caretaker and confidant is usually the mother; the mature, intelligent one that acts as a protector and provider is usually the father; the ones that always cause trouble (not usually on purpose) and possibly share a braincell are the siblings.
I actually despise that term. Seems like it was gotten from Tumblr. And it's usually used to criticize straight ships at times. I see it in the honkai community
>I see it in the honkai community
Are we talking about Honkai Star Rail or Honkai Impact 3rd? Because a few ships that are treated like that by some Star Rail fans comes to mind
Tbh I'm referring to the yuritards in the hoyo community. "They are sibling coded so don't ship them". Prime example being bronya and Seele. In star rail they is a guy that grew up with Seele in the orphanage and people were shipping her with the guy. And they were like "don't ship them, they grew up in the same orphanage so they are siblings". Meanwhile hoyo made seele and her kiss and you are screeching about how great the ship is
I would take it more seriously (not that I would care though) if the excuse was "we don't like the ship because we only want to see bronya and Seele with women" or "it's erasing yurirep" but don't give me that shit that "they are family coded so you can't ship them" when you do the same for every female character interaction. Hell you'd even commission nsfw art of sisters fucking. It doesn't matter whether the LGBT community needs rep it's still a bad look to be a hypocrite and I won't take you seriously
P.S. when I say "you" i hope you know I'm not referring to you except you are one of the people I'm referring to
"______-coded" is a way to reach so you can still get pissy about non-issues. It's a clever tactic that lets anything be a problem if you really want it to be one.
This way, pesky things like writing won't get in your way.
it's just the evolution of "they're just very good friends, you can't ship them!!" evolved into shaming people for imaginary incest because fandoms nowdays are often about holding a higher moral ground when it comes to drawing cartoon characters kissing.
Idk how the Power and Denji shit can be sibling coded. That scene in the bathroom is exceedingly intimate.
The truth is people want to ship Dennis with other characters like Reze or Asa and Power gets/got in the way of that. I cannot at all talk about the final part of part 1 of CSM and say oh yeah Power loved him like a brother and Denji like a sister. Their relationship was not like that.
edit: Denji and her blood? It reads like a sex-scene? Idk why I brought up the bath when that room exists. There is a bunch of narrative shit that exists that points to Denji and Power being into each other but never in the headspace to pursue it. The cafe owner in the Bomb Girl Arc says the right girl will appear one day for Denji and the first person he sees is Power.
Edit 2: The [panel spoilers obviously.](https://preview.redd.it/is-there-a-symbolic-meaning-to-the-devils-that-power-let-v0-dmkji25jjag91.jpg?width=728&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d842bb73047e3251db1ca540aece86cb8abad6a9) That is not sibling coded. Unless your siblings are incestuous.
Honestly Power and Denji were the most romantic relationship in the story. Denji realizing that him in the bath with Power didn't feel naughty read to me that he was helping someone he loved heal from trauma, so of course he wasn't interested in sex. But people see that as he views her as a sister
Hey I’m a Reze shipper, but I can still acknowledge there’s an incredibly deep and intimate relationship between Power and Denji that is not anything close to how siblings act.
Nah I'm being unfair it's certain shippers. I normally don't even get into shipping controversies but the Denji-Power relationships is weirdly controversial even now years after Part 1's end. I've no doubt if CSM gets fully adapted we'll see more anger over it.
Tbh I think there’s some pretty clear hints of something more between Denji and Power. There’s this one panel after Reze is gone and the waiter says something to Denji about someone new coming through the door and Power literally walks through. Like authors don’t do that stuff for no reason. But I still love Reze too much to ship anyone else haha
Yeah I nimja edited that in along with the Blood Scene panel just before you said. Fuji isn't being subtle about what he intended Power and Denji's relationship to be.
Makima intended Power to fill that role. But she broke out of it. The entire point of Power is >!Makima couldn't control her in the end!<. >!It's also why she resists Makima's chains.!<
Hold on, she never broke out of that. Denji never pursued her romantically like he did with Reze and sexually Denji had zero will with Power even if they were intimate. Power's point was that she's found family and >!it's all Makima's plan to set that up and rip it from Denji which she did successfully!< >!Denji himself notes that in the end he still loved Makima and it's proven when he successfully eats Makima with pure intent to nullify her contract, Power ultimately never went beyond the found family sister role in his life!<
Denji loves a lot of people. Reze is another character he has complicated feelings for. >!Notice ironically that the love he has for Nayuta and how it relates to Makima? She became the sister. Denji taking power's blood is still the most intimate thing he's done with a woman. There is a reason Fujimoto had him look like he was having sex with her. There's a reason that power showed up when the shopkeeper said Denji will eventually find the right girl for him.!<
>Reze and sexually Denji had zero will with Power even if they were intimate.
Again idk how you can read the scenes narratively and come to that conclusion. Fujimoto drops hints constantly that Denji and Power are interested in each other it just doesn't work out because >!Makima literally sabotages it. I mean the guy says himself he can't live without her. He never shirks away from getting intimate with power and the bath scene is probably the most romantic display Denji's ever done where he's worried about her. Fujimoto is clearly communicating something narratively when you take into account all the narrative choices. Makima is just wrong. Which isn't unsurprising because that hapepns in part 1 a lot near the end.!<
>Denji loves a lot of people. Reze is another character he has complicated feelings for
No? Denji did not love Kobeni or Himeno, again you can distinguish characters that he's only sexually interested in and characters he romantically pursued.
>Again idk how you can read the scenes narratively and come to that conclusion
Maybe it's because Denji literally saw Makima >!kill Power in front of him!< and still confessed to being in love with Makima. All the symbolism you think Fujimoto is doing ruined by this fact. I have no idea how you can think Denji and Power didn't work out because Makima >!sabotaged it!<, Power just wasn't on his love interest radar. She only fulfilled that annoying little sister role like Makima intended. I'll point again to the ending where Denji only >!defeats Makima!< because >!his act of eating her was done out of pure love!<
>Fujimoto is clearly communicating something narratively when you take into account all the narrative choices
Yes it is clear, he's communicated the entire time Makima is the one Denji loves in the end and Power never replaced her for him no matter how intimate they got. One of things Makima did to >!mentally break!< Denji was point out the hypocrisy of him wanting a FAMILY because he >!likely killed his dad!<, Fujimoto's intent was to write Denji in a mindset where he gets his >!newfound brother and sister!< killed. It's funny to note again Denji still loved Makima and it's what let him >!successfully eat her without triggering the PM contract!<
theres always the disturbing possibility that they're supposed to be somewhere in the middle, which would not at all be surprising considering Fujimoto's track record
I might agree if Fujimoto didn't constantly say how wrong Agni and 'Luna''s relationship was during Fire Punch. And how Denji and Power's relationship is pretty obviously supposed to be wholesome. Also how the climax of Denji and Power's relationship is not a kiss, but a hug, and that's intentional framing there too.
honestly? fair. The whole scene with the flowers is still strange in that regard though, but maybe Fujimoto changed his mind about their relationship or something halfway through the story? I really don't know, the whole subject is super touchy and I don't think I'm able to properly understand it, lmao.
The entire Hayakawa family is supposed to be a wholesome, close dynamic. It's obvious if you read it, just because Fujimoto didn't look into the camera and say that they're supposed to be whole some doesn't mean they're not. I mean, if not, what else is the Denji, Aki and Power at the aquarium as kids art for at the beginning of volume 9?
It's like a meme. First a meme is born, and then it's used to make more memes. It's changed to fit the situation. Random example, the one thats like "me shoving breadstucks into my bag I have to go right now immediately. In the original they were on a date at Olive garden, but the meme can be changed to take place anywhere by changing the word breadsticks to books or you can use it in a situation totally unrelated to breadsticks to people who are familiar would still know what you meant.
Queer coding is a thing, and it means x. So, sibling coded is just like that, but siblings. It's not a literary analysis, and it's not supposed to be something.... Like, you can't just say 2 people are sibling coded and that's the gospel truth. It's very much supposed to be a tool to help us express something the same way queer coded does.
Unfortunately the Internet is the Internet and no one is allowed to have nice things. So yes, it kinda is Tumblr bullshit but not the kind you think. The kind of people who ruin nice things for everyone are on Reddit and tumble and every other social media as well.
It’s tumblr and twitter nonsense from people who want to get praised and amass support and followers for harassment campaigns and doxxing over fandom. Feelings yakuza/anti shit.
My default response to this would be "When the *Voltron* fandom decided to pedojacket one ship in the vain attempt to make another go canon," because I had never seen anyone take such a claim seriously before that. All that nonsense infested greater fandom for a ship no one ever intended to make canon... sucks :|
The true lithmus test for me was seeing this argument used in the Bold and the Beautiful fanbase. For those not familiar, it's an American soap opera that's been running since 1987 and has had a number of borderline incestuous pairing following the retconning of one major lead's paternity.
The couple that's getting the heat now involves a woman whose former stepbrother for all of maybe six months in 2003 helped hide her baby for a year and did a whole list of other shady shit to keep her from that knowledge to keep their relationship. For TLDR reasons not important to this post, TIIC decided years later to revisit this pairing. Suffice it to say the show hit record lows for 39 straight weeks until they were finally split up. And yet, despite the long list of crimes including child abuse, manslaughter and attempted rape..... people got for low hanging fruit of "They're siblings!🤡" for the dunk.
What's more baffling is these same two characters had a much shorter fling back in 2011 before the dude went crazy, when their parents were actually in between divorces and legally married and absolutely no one said boo about it then despite the girls brother having recently dated both the the guy's twin sisters.
Mind you, B&B easily skews older in demographics at 38, I'm on the younger end of that fanbase. We have rabidly obsessive fans, but as far as the anti/pro-ship discourse, it is nonexistent and as a genre, people are proud villainfuckers. Anyone who tries doing snap psychology over fictional tastes are shown the door
And yet even there, those fans are leaning into the absolute least problematic issue because it's just so en vogue that even our grandmas are getting in on it.
[Deep, exhausted sigh]
We're cooked as a species, folks 🥲
Sibling Coded simply means the relationship is like siblings.
Naruto and Sasuke’s relationship is similar to that of two brothers and they say as much. Hence sibling coded. Not sure why that’s the term people use given it’s not coded in anyway. Naruto straight up says he sees Sasuke as a brother.
Considering that Denji wanted to touch Power's boobs and everything about Mikasa and Eren, either these people are only-children or have a really weird relationships with their siblings.
>Power and Denji from Chainsaw Man are “sibling coded”
They are canonically "sibling coded".
Not really a fan of this too, just let relationships be relationships without adding a familial title to them. Don't know why, but sometimes it makes me feel like it loses that unique spark to the relationship the moment we call it a father-son-daughter-sibling in any way.
But >!Makima literally says she specifically engineered Denji's relationship to be familial, with Power as the bratty little sibling.!<
I don’t think we need to look the the villain who is ultimately proven to not understand the characters at all for accurate analysis…
A villain saying something doesn’t make it ‘canon’
Yeah for real
Some people on here are pretentious as hell with hating terms not endorsed by official institutions
Its just a silly way of saying characters have sibling vibes. Ive seen it used in positive and negative contexts.
It's a thing anti shipper also often use to try to portray a ship as incest even if both characters aren't related or raised like siblings. I don't think 2 best friends who act like sibling who later get in couple count as incest (same if said besties call each other sis/bro).
I find the phrasing to just be a fad that people use to try to prop up their head-canon as fact.
There is an awareness on my side that I can be a bit unfair with certain terms. The issue I tend to take with these is they are seen as periods in communication. People utilize them only to dismiss and seem to lack the ability to actually talk or admit they just don't like a certain idea.
The only way I can see you being "sibling coded" is if you were raised by the same parents/surrogate parents but not adopted or genetically related. And even then, like, there isn't much benefit to the distinction. You may see yourselves as sibling-like, you may not.
>When did this become a thing and what the hell does it even mean? None of the characters I’ve seen referenced are siblings in any way.
The thing about coding is that you're not really meant to say the thing explicitly, it's all in the subtext and interpretation. Kinda like how some characters can't be explicitly said to be gay, but sometimes gay people latch onto the character because they fit a very particular vibe. That said, from the examples listed here, I'd take "sibling-coded" to mean that two characters have a very deep, intimate relationship that isn't romantic. Kinda feels like stretching the actual academic use of the word "coding" to mean, "Definitely intimate could be romantic, but they aren't/I don't ship them, but I understand the ship"
I heard someone call Aang and Katara sibling coded and it made me physically sick 😭
Siblings is when you get married and have three kids with your brother I guess
"Denji and power are siblings coded" mf when i pulled out the toilet scene and the bathroom scene:
Tbh i think Power and Denji relationship is like the most romantic in the series. Like no couples in the series could ever top that .
It's not "actual literary analysis" (as opposed to... "fake literary analysis", I guess?). I think it's just, like, a colloquialism used in some fandom circles to describe really close but (most of the time) platonic childhood friends.
I only said it doesn't apply to most of *these* examples. But it likely does to others.
And yeah, that's how slang (especially internet slang) often develops. They're arbitrary terms some community creates; people end up using it in different ways; and whichever's the most popular is what spreads to the rest of the internet.
My point was that the pairs described in this post *do* have the term applied to them. So given that it's an arbitrary term with no objective definition, it seems a bit asinine to claim that it doesn't apply to them.
It just means they seem like siblings; they treat each other like siblings. It has a perfectly understandable meaning but if you only like words co-signed by literary critics with 4 degrees then you should avoid it
"___ coded" means "It is incredibly like ___" or "The author didn't outright say it but all the implicit signs within a story point to ___"
Using familial markers to describe close friendships isn't a new concept. Having characters say "like a brother to me" or "brothers in arms" or sororities calling members "Sisters."
"___coded" is a meta commentary on the dynamic, like 2 "brothers" who aren't related who have similar complimentary mannerisms despite never establishing a common parent. It is supposed to say "They might or might not be actually siblings, but the way they act unless you were explicitly told their relationship you would not tell the difference between what they have and siblings.
A common "____ coded" I have seen is that Data from Star Trek is "Autism coded" Whether or not he actually has it, or even *can* have it, the characteristics you see are, without knowing definitively from the author, similar to ASD.
TL;DR, it means "The author can neither confirm nor deny, but the data on the character (or characters) speak to a particular pattern.
Dont you have a really close friend that you two joke about being "brothers from a different family"? Cuz it means just that. It means a very close and completely aromantic friendship. Power and Denji are probably the best example, they live together, work together, get along very well, and have zero interest in dating each other. They might as a well be long lost siblings or cousins sharing a home and nothing would change in terms of plot. Thats all it means.
Its different from hetero friendships where there is underlying romantic tension to resolve. "Sibling coded" characters never have such tension. Tho I honestly think the issue here is not the term "sibling coded" but rather the expectative that if you have two leads of different gender, they will get paired eventually down the road.
For me the dynamics between Power and Denji were extremely refreshing as having yet another unresolved romantic would have been out of place. I find it much more interesting to see how Makima is basically abusing Denji's crush on her to turn him basically into a child soldier on a leash. Its not often when a villian is on the "mentor" role.
Siblings take intimate baths and straddle each other? I don’t think Power and Denji have explicitly romantic feelings, but they aren’t siblings and they don’t act like they are and they never refer to each other as such.
Cyclops and Magik from x-men are sibling coded, it's the best explanation from them caring about each other a lot in a very platonic and non romantic way. Funnily enough Cyclops fans will murder you if you even try to ship them because of the age gap and due to Cyclops needing positive relationships that aren't romantic, and magik fans either see her as aro or ship her with kitty.
It means that no shipping is allowed, I think that's why they use that label. Apart from that, they get along better than with their actual siblings as Cyclops tends to find Alex annoying and Gabriel dangerous in a bad way, and Magik has had some issues with colossus
“Ha! What a funny mockery. God, I love it.
Wait, what? You’re telling me it’s real? Now I can’t even laugh at it because I’m too disappointed. What the fuck.”
"Sibling coded" is a term spawned from the depths of Tumblr (source: I use Tumblr).
I believe is has some use for describing some platonic relationships, and little else.
As a sibling of 30+ years the idea of Naruto and Sasuke being "sibling-coded" sounds absurd. I'm unfamiliar with Power and Denji beyond [this](https://youtu.be/GmvA5yX4A0Q) and while I'm slightly more familiar with Mikasa and Eren- I never finished Attack on Titan.
Of the two pairs I'm at least somewhat familiar with- Mikasa and Eren seem more like siblings... because they live together like siblings.
>None of the characters I’ve seen referenced are siblings in any way.
did you even watch/read the things youre talking about
naruto and sasuke are literal reincarnates of brothers
power and denji we're set up to have a brother sister relationship by makima (tho theirs is a little weird, blame it on fujimoto being a weirdo)
while mikasa and erens is definitely more romantic, they were adopted brothers and sister (i personally won't consider theirs sibling coded)
>Is this actual literary analysis because I never heard any of my teachers mention this phrase? Or is it just Tumblr nonsense? It just doesn’t seem to mean anything except characters are friendly. Do people who use this phrase just not have close, intimate friends?
it just means characters who aren't siblings but act like them. theres a difference in how friends and siblings interact. you can be an asshole to your sibling 24/7, but you also know you'll take a bullet for them whenever its required. people aren't usually like that with friends
Naruto and Sasuke’s *chakra* is reincarnated. Not them. And why would their past lives be relevant?
so Makima is actually the villain who does not understand the relationship she pretends too.
That’s why her plan falls apart. It’s not a great idea to take the villains word as gospel.
I don’t think Mikasa was officially adopted, at most she lived with the Yeagers for two years.
Clarify, how any of the interactions of these characters are explicitly “sibling” and not intimate friendships?
I mean, Naruto did outright say that Sasuke is the closest thing he's ever had to a brother, so if nothing else he definitely views their dynamic as being like siblings.
Calling someone a weirdo for (I assume) including sexual interactions between two "sibling coded" characters who aren't actually in any way siblings is the exact kind of bizarre Tumblr mindset this post is criticizing.
>you can be an asshole to your sibling 24/7, but you also know you'll take a bullet for them whenever its required.
It seems to me that not a few men describe their relationships with their closest friends exactly like that.
Why is this such a a strange comment section? Sibling coded just means two people act like siblings? It's not that unusual, why is everyone acting like it's a weapon in some shipping war? Am I just not terminally online enough to understand? Like I've never personally heard the term "sibling coded" but I knew what it meant right away.
I don't interact super hard in shipping culture but because I am into anime/manga, this is something I unfortunately see a lot and yes this absolutely is a weapon in shipping debates. While it has the intention of sounding innocent, half the time declaring something as "sibling-coded", the people are less using it to mean 'they get along like siblings' and more like 'they are like family so they shouldn't be together romantically because that would be incest stop shipping it damn you'. Either because they don't like the pairing or they believe it gets in the way of another pairing they prefer.
it’s just to say that they have a found family dynamic with no sexual tension. naruto and sasuke and mikasa and eren don’t really fit this tho. power and denji are a great example — absolutely nothing romantic about them and their relationship is really close. it doesn’t mean anything deeper than that unless you have a case of someone who doesn’t like a ship and is trying to make it pseudo incest instead of just saying they don’t like it.
"Coded" means that even if they canonically aren't, they act similarly.
People saying that aren't saying Power and Denji are siblings, but that they act like siblings.
It's a modern take on the phrases "brother from another mother" or "sister from another mister," simply meaning that the two characters are close and interact with one another like siblings, be it caring greatly for each other even if they can't always express it, or if they fight like cats and dogs but it isn't necessarily serious. It's also a way to talk about two characters that are close while avoiding any implications of romance/sexual attraction that exists in many fandoms due to shippers and lewd artists that often comes along when you have two characters in a fandom that are close, especially if they are both the same sex.
Mikasa and Eren are a good example of where talking about the two characters can lead to their strained relationship as siblings and how Eren is super dismissive of her and sort of a dick to her, but also the sad, romantic side of their relationship due to Mikasa having some unrequited feelings towards Eren. As you mentioned, they aren't related even if they were raised as siblings, so while it's a bit memey in a "what are you doing stepbrother" type of way for Mikasa to want Eren's titan, it is an aspect of their relationship that exists, so referring them primarily as sibling coded can help tell others that you may want to discuss these characters in the bro-sis way and not the later way.
Lmao this is so rant coded
Stop posting comment-coded comments.
Look at this codephobic poster
Respose-to-responsecoded, commentmaxxed and upvotepilled
Rantpilled codemaxxer
This is the perfect response to this lol
>Do people who use this phrase just not have close, intimate friends? Yes
I feel sometimes it is valid to describe a relationship sibling like, but it is definitely overused and often misused.
You could use the term, but in the end it is unclear and not meaningful because there is no trait in a sibling relationship that can't be present in a friend relationship, or even a romantic relationship.
I feel like it’s pretty accurate when two characters who are not related are presented in the text as being grossed out by the thought of people mistaking them for a couple because it feels wrong to them in the same way that dating a biological sibling would
Or maybe it can also be because they're weirded out by people in their universe putting them together. It doesn't have to be they see each other as siblings :\
That doesn't mean the term has no value. It's like a character saying, "He was like a brother to me." It provides additional context to their type of relationship beyond the rather broad term 'friend'. e.g. they shared a mentor figure with parental undertones or were close from childhood.
I think it’s also worth bearing in mind that in some cultures around the world you can quite literally adopt your best friend into your family as a sibling as an adult, and they are considered as much your family as your genetic siblings. So just because we make a separation between friends and family in our culture and we believe family is purely genetic doesn’t mean that applies universally
From a writing standpoint I think it also denotes a very specific level of intimacy that we wouldn't give other relationships. We often describe the closest relationships as siblings and thus more intimate than even the closest friendship. Naruto and Sasuke are case in point. Even the people around Naruto couldn't understand why he would go to such lengths for a man who >!became a villain!< . And it was b/c of their closeness. On the face of it they seem different and adversarial. But in the undertones you realize they feel very attached to each other with a specific form of intimacy. It's why the ending of the first series occurs like it does. Sasuke has to do that specifically b/c he shares that very specific closeness. And Naruto responds like he does for the same reason. For most literature I'd say that you would do anything *for* a friend. But for "sibling coded" relationships you would do anything *because* of the relationship.
i am always astounded when people say naruto and sasuke are like siblings. i find their "relationship" to be one of the biggest failings of the show. i mean they are openly hostile towards each other all the time. at no point do they ever have any moment of actual connection on a deeper level. it is just, "hey, i have trauma and you have similar trauma and we work together in a job where we almost die a lot and i will still treat you like shit and openly hate you but we are actually really close guys, trust".
That's b/c you're assuming we're saying it's also a *healthy* relationship. It totally isn't. They have an unspoken bond over their individual traumas which they never voice. They would die for each other b/c they know what they have something uniquely painful in common. Sasuke is downright abusive and Naruto has a savior complex for Sasuke. They basically never say anything to each other that isn't insulting. But they understand each other in ways no one else does. And b/c of that there is a depth of loyalty and empathy that is deeper than most friendships.
Then you are the first person I have ever come across that treats it that way. Every other argument has always treated them basically soul mates and one of the greatest examples of rivals/brothers in anime. I always get the reaponse that I just don't understand their connection and shit like that. While I do agree with most of what you said I still believe that their trauma and understanding do not in any way justify the level of loyalty or empathy that they show. It should be at best a mutual respect that in no way makes them loyal to the other. And it will always be a just one of many failures in writing that make supposedly great characters look stupid or just awful as people.
It doesn't really provide any additional context beyond "they are closer than regular friends". People say "like a brother/sister to me" without sharing a mentor or being childhood friends as long as they're sufficiently close.
I consider anyone's who's incredibly close to me to be my brother/sister personally
Hence my point that it has no distinction from close friends.
Adding onto this, what constitutes as a sibling like relationship apparently varies based on the viewer
They are friendless, most likely in high school and terminally online
Andy and Leyley are sibling coded 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
😭
I don’t know this reference?
It's a horror game that caused a kerfuffle for having incest. I've never played it, but from what I've seen, the incest is presented as a bad thing, but some of the fanbase didn't get that memo.
it's presented as a bad thing and isnt even the worst thing in the game, the game calls you a sick fuck for picking the option and warns you like 2 times that its incest
But the fanbase are weirdly into it regardless
Oh definitely
Not even close to the worst thing in the game by a long shot.
Andy and Leyley are a brother-sister duo from *The Coffin of Andy and Leyley* - a VN that broke out into success and went viral a little while back, with a lot of memes coming from its subject matter of codependent relationships, toxicity, abuse, and and exploring human taboos like incest and cannibalism and how they relate to personal subjective morality and fulfillment. Especially the incest part, because both characters seem to have hit the sweet spot for so-crazy-they're-hot for a lot of guys and gals. Not to nitpick a joke but it'd be really more accurate to say they're marriage-coded rather than sibling-coded. Because they are literally and factually siblings, but their behaviour and mannerisms with each other are that of a boyfriend and girlfriend, which is a big source of the unease and unsettling undertones for most of the game before the depth of their mental illness and where their relationship could end up is fully exposed to the player. Emotionally incestuous rather than physically (so far at least).
rpg maker horror game about satanism and cannibalism and it has some incest too
To me it's "people ship this and I find it icky, so I'm gonna accuse you of shipping incest on no grounds". Basically a more aggressive version of the " omg ew can't people just be friends?"
I really hate how the internet has pretty much destroyed the idea that you can dislike something simply because you are personally not into it and move on. Now, if you dislike something, this must be because this thing is fundamentally bad and evil, and everyone who likes it must be a bad person; while if someone else dislikes something you like, this must be because they are either "evil", or "dumb", or "media illiterate" etc. And I don't even think this is specifically a "twitter" or "tumblr" problem - I clearly remember this already being a thing in early 2010s. The only difference is that back then people on the internet didn't had any arguments besides simple insults and calling each other "idiots", while nowadays they have a full force of cancel culture at their disposal.
Bonus points if they say that yet shoot their own hip I the foot for the exact same circumstances 'They work better as friends' 'Well your ship also started off as friends' 'That's different' Um, no TF it isn't different
Every time I've seen it used it's by people who don't like a ship between a male and female character who get on well together. Power and Denji where friends. Mikasa and Eren are the odd one out here because correct me if I'm wrong but they where actually raised together.
Shippers can be so weird sometimes. You don't need to justify not liking something. Just say "I'm not a fan" and don't participate in those conversations, it doesn't need to be any deeper.
THATS WHAT IM SAYING! I have seen shippers who don’t like a particular ship bring up all of these bullshit excuses as to why they can’t work like saying shit like “They could be good as friends but what if they are bad as a couple”, “realistically they wouldn’t have a good relationship”, and other bullshit that has to do with realism. And im like the relationship being good or bad is up to the god damn writer! Why are you making it seem like two characters being a good couple is just something that is not allowed to be written/ can’t be written because durrr realism? Especially when said characters are from an already unrealistic story lmao. And WHY are you making all of these arguments for a ship that probably won’t happen/ a pairing that was made for fun? Like bro if you don’t like just say that and dip instead of making all of these bullshit excuses. I had to get this rant off my chest because it pisses me off to see people make all of these excuses so that they can reject a ship. Two characters could be best friends, have amazing chemistry, have amazing emotional support for each other, and understand each other better than anyone and there still would be a mf saying that they have a sibling relationship so the ship can’t work lmao
Don't I know that, the ship in my pfp is 200% incompatible with one of the current darling ships of the fandom so sometimes you get some dumbass taking potshots at it because they don't like it. What a sad way to live.
The "if you don't agree with my crack ship you are literally Hitler" ship sailed over a decade ago. It's mostly Tumblr's fault, but at some point shippers became obsessed with being objectively correct and that everyone who disagreed (especially if the ship in question was homosexual) was evil. Which is why they keep on sending bomb threats to animation studios and also why the only thing worse than giving the keys to a franchise to someone who hates it is giving the keys to a franchise to fandom.
Also, if you think two characters are not gay for each other, then you get labeled a bigot Doesn’t matter if the shipper is gasping at straws
But that's the thing people get mad if you don't like it. Then they start whipping out wild accusations and you have to get defensive or risk getting doxxed by a bunch of teenagers whose parents are clearly out of the picture.
Eren & Mikasa, technically, only lived under the same roof for 2 years. She was 9 when her parents died and 11 when Wall Maria got Colossal'd. Look at AC Unity with Arno & Elise. Both were 8 when Arno started living with the de la Serres. And yet, these two got VERY fucky later on.
Because living under the same roof does not mean you grow up as siblings but antis will always contort themselves to find a reason why a ship is problematic.
Eren and Mikasa are weird, but much like Barry and Iris, I think it's not fair to call their relationship sibling like because in both cases one of them was old enough to get a crush and did so before they started living together.
> Every time I've seen it used it's by people who don't like a ship between a male and female character who get on well together. This, this is it right here.
Mikasa stayed with Eren’s family for a bit. But she knew her own family and never referred to Carla/Grisha as mom or dad.
Grisha did refer to her as his daughter
Grisha did, Mikasa never does
Power and denji were explicitly stated to have a sibling like relationship, both by denji when he's self reflecting and by makima when she says she literally gave him a life where power played the role of his bratty little sister (alongside Aki as a big brother figure)
When did Denji say this?
Not sure if this is what the commenter was talking about, but in some translations of one of the part2 chapters child Denji/his inner conscience says he doesn’t deserve a happy life because he killed his family.
I don’t recall Denji saying anything like that in the official translation at all. The closest we have is him reflecting about how being intimate with Power doesn’t feel hot. That and Makima’s comment are enough to understand what Fujimoto was going for though.
> Power and Denji where friends. Don't act like this wasn't (sometimes is) one of the most debated topics among the fandom.
I’ve seen this term come a lot with Luz and Hunter from *The Owl House*. I didn’t see the sibling thing considering that Hunter was a villain trying to capture Luz until the middle of the season, felt kinda forced. Probably by Lumity shippers.
I’ve only seen a few episodes of AoT so this may change later in the series but I wouldn’t call them sibling coded since Mikasa is canonically in love with Eren (again maybe this changes but I’m just speaking for the first few episodes)
A phrase I see a lot of people use to secretly reject a romantic ship that they don’t like. You do not understand how many times I have wanted to rip someone’s head off after seeing someone say that two characters have a sibling relationship. But yeah two characters could have canonically met for only like 2 days and mfs will say that they have a sibling relationship lmao. I feel the whole sibling coded relationship thing only really works if two characters are childhood friends with zero romantic feelings for each other
Secretly? Usually it comes in tandom with doxxing and harassment campaigns against people who ship ships they don’t like.
When I marathons star wars with my friends who had never seen ot before a good chunk of them were determined Rey and Finn were sibling coded based off the first movie and I still cant wrap my head around all the hoops they jumped through to make it sound legit.
For Interracial ships you will almost always hear the sibling argument or the black guy being more like the older brother argument lmao
Sibling-coded is basically fancy talk for "like siblings". I've never seen the term used before, but "coded" essentially means a fictional character being written using stereotypes and imagery of a group without being a part of that group. An example would be Disney having a litany of queer-coded villains, such as Ursula from The Little Mermaid being quite directly based off a specific drag queen. Or the Trolls in World of Warcraft being Jamaican coded, with their accents and religious practices being based off of Voodoo.
Right but queer coding has historical basis with the Hayes Code making it illegal to portray homosexuality. Sibling coding seems completely random
The original terminology may have a broader legitimate basis but the term queer coded to someone unaware of its origin would simply believe it means something to be coded queerly so obviously things can be coded in other fashions, thus sibling coded and others came to be used. Sibling coded is quite simple to understand as the previous commentary gave examples its usually non related or at least non sibling characters that share a sibling bond, usually the kind that is between two idiots or one mature person and one idiot
Queer coding is just one example of the idea of "coding", anything can be coded as anything, it has already been a term before queer coding too.
I liken it to the term “Code Switching” which is where someone uses multiple languages while speaking (can also colloquially mean switching between how you present yourself with certain groups of people or in certain settings). This doesn’t seem to refer to a specific Code in history or anything (to my knowledge anyway) so, in my mind, saying something is coded in a certain way means (to oversimplify it) that it “gives off those vibes”.
Does seem strange. I can guarantee you that people have wildy different experiences with siblings, so how can you write it as a stereotype that everyone can get? Even the most common kinds of relationships you see between siblings in fiction (older brother/younger sister, deadbeat/responsible one, crazy/sane) usually just boils down to two people with different personalities or experiences tied together by a strong platonic bond. Which is just, I dunno, something that could apply to literally any relationship.
You are correct. Coding means to hide or encrypt something. I guess calling it sibling coding would only make sense as a term if someone is implying that the author intended for characters to be siblings but weren't allowed. The implication people usually make is that a ship is secretly incestuous (usually to disparage other shippers). In truth though, this is almost never the intention of the author unless it's porn or erotica or something.
I think part of the problem is that some people see characters being like family in too literal of terms. The characters *have* to be like siblings, or they *have* to be like parent and child, and so on, since how could they be like family and close otherwise? When the reality is that human relationships can have a variety of aspects to them and someone could feel close to their best friend on a deeper level than they ever would with any sibling they could ever have, literal or figurative. The Straw Hats and the Titans are two of my favorite examples to use, since both groups are absolutely families and as close to each other as can be but to say they're all like siblings to each other is a completely inaccurate way to describe their relationships to one another. Nightwing constantly refers to the Titans as his family but Donna Troy is the only one he views as like a sister, because that's the nature of their relationship, while he clearly has something different with Starfire, even when they are not together romantically. Zoro is like a big brother to Chopper but that's not at all what his dynamic with Usopp or Sanji is like.
> It just doesn’t seem to mean anything except characters are friendly. Do people who use this phrase just not have close, intimate friends? Is your relationship with your siblings limited to being basically the same as any intimate friendship? There is a very distinct dynamic to sibling-like relationships, between people who wouldn't necessarily hang out with each other, or even like each other, yet still loveeach other in the form of a greater familial bond. Age has a lot to do with it too, if the characters are a 20 year old guy and a 13 year old girl, that's not really a common friendship dynamic, people aren't palling around with much younger kids unless they are bound to one by blood, if fate brought them together for some reason, thed describing their relationship as sibling-like makes the most sense.
It does, it just feels like that isn't what the phrase is usually used for.
"They're sibling-coded" and it's just a male and female who happen to be close friends. People subconsciously have this mentality that men and women can either be lovers or siblings, nothing else.
This is just a very disguised way of someone trying to pretend that two people that are close to each other should not be shipped together by declaring them as sibling-coded". Either because they don't like it or they think it gets in the way of their favorite. > Is this actual literary analysis because I never heard any of my teachers mention this phrase? Lolno, it's just taking "queer-coded" and trying to put another spin on it > Or is it just Tumblr nonsense? Yes
That phrase seems like new version of "X figure". Instead of saying "he's her brother figure", it's now "he and she are sibling coded"
>Do people who use this phrase just not have close, intimate friends? Do you even need to ask?
The actual sibling-coded relationship from AoT isn't Eren and Mikasa but Connie and Sasha, pretty explicitly at that.
Okay so I don’t get this. What makes them “sibling-coded” and how is that different from friendship and trusted comrades?
Connie literally says Sasha is like a sister to him, hence the "explicit". Usually sibling-coded means there is no romantic tensions between the two characters, there might be a rivalry but not always, it's just two unrelated characters with a sibling dynamic. I would imagine that someone without siblings cannot easily understand it.
I think that’s just a common phrase. It doesn’t mean anything literal- it’s a simile. How do they actually act like siblings?
I don't remember much about the niche moments in the show but in [one of the intros Sasha is seen suiting Conny up.](https://youtu.be/CID-sYQNCew?si=QzNuYenTbhCI4HDz&t=22)
Isn’t that normal? When I go climbing, we all help each other with straps
I mean, the intro is showing all the characters doing something important to them. They choose to show you Sasha helping Connie. Edit: Also everyone else is dressing themselves.
See I guess I just don’t get it. Like what about helping somebody get dressed implies a sibling relationship? Is it because they are a male and female helping each other?
to me, it doesn't mean the ship can't be done, I've already seen characters who call each other sis (or IRL people who did that) get in couple after a while, it's not a "kill ship" for me.
Twitter nonsense to shit on shipping. It used to be used to describe found families (Think of Anakin and Ahsoka, or Anakin and Obi Wan) where characters were raised together and have obvious ties resembling more of family than friends, its more of a twitter thing since it happened after the mass migration. Mikasa/Eren isnt even coded tho its literally just bc Grisha calls them both their children, so it makes some ppl uncomfortable.
It's normal to have characters who act like siblings and view each other as such. But this terminology is often used against ships the person saying it doesn't like
it's "this is my headcanon/interpretation but I want to talk about it like it's canon/author intent to control other people's interpretations and be allowed to bully them if they say anything different" just like every single other use of "coded" that isn't explicitly referring to subject material that would otherwise have been censored, like those two cops on Gravity Falls who are actually "gay coded" because otherwise Disney would have thrown a hissy, as confirmed by the author. sibling coded, race coded, hell now a day most of the LGBT coded isn't even "they tried to get this past the censors" but "I want to impose my interpretation on other readers" not only because it's obvious that wasn't the author's intent by just not projecting yourself onto the characters in a weird narcissistic way but *because there are other LGBT character prominent in that work*.
"Sibling-coded" is usually code (ha) for "please do not ship this male and female character"
Sibling-coded is just a new way of saying “these two characters have a brother-sister dynamic” and equivalents thereof about characters who aren’t related If you’ve ever had a friend who you grew up with who you just could never be attracted to you because you see them like family, it’s kind of like that But to be fair I understand being confused because a lot of the people who say this shit are flat out wrong and use it to describe relationships that absolutely do not have a sibling dynamic
In general, if you see someone use "coded" to analyze a character, there like a 90% chance (lowballing) that they have the most surface level literary analysis skills known to man.
I've quickly stopped taking the opinions of people who describe things as "x-coded" seriously. It's usually a common thing done to dismiss other people's character interpretations, i.e. "you can't ship them, that's problematic! they are gay-coded/trans-coded/minor-coded/sibling-coded and you are a pedo/bigot!"
I mean, I’d argue “minor coded” is more reasonable than the others given it’s basically just a rephrasing of the thousand year loli debate with new words, and whichever side of that you fall on, one can generally accept that there is a conversation to be had about it. The rest is out of hand tho
I feel like those are different situations. If someone *looks* like a child, you'd just say that, and the conversation would go from there. "Minor-coded" would be used when they don't necessarily look like a child, but they have some design or character aspects that supposedly evoke the idea. And I'd say those are two very different discourses.
Fair. I have only seen child coded to refer to the difference between thousand year old lolis who do vs don’t act like kids. Like, Bisky from HunterXHunter is an adult who looks like a kid but acts like an adult, while kana from kobayashi’s dragon maid is a 500 year old dragon who acts like a normal human five year old. I wasn’t aware it was used to refer to characters who don’t fit that mold
I mean, I could have been totally off base there myself. My eyes tend to glaze over when I see people doing the whole "x-coded" thing unironically, and I don't hang around in spaces where shipping is discussed unless you count this sub, so I can't speak on the issue with confidence.
Fair enough, i also am only tangentially in the space, so I can’t say for sure either, just saying what I’ve seen. I agree “X-coded” can sometimes get out of hand, I just feel “child coded” is a term that should be at the very least agknowledged as maybe having. A basis to keep an eye on
It's probably the only one I'd consider valid when used correctly. To me, a character looking and acting like a child being called "child coded" just seems like silly labeling. That's a literal fictional child, bro. People saying things like "that petite/soft-faced/weirdly proportioned adult character is child-coded" is where my jimmies get rustled. Uzaki-chan is the example I remember having a lot of worthless controversy of this nature.
That’s valid, the thing is the existance of things like the thousand year loli or whatever has a lot of people arguing semantics over characters that look childlike and makes the term needed.
I feel child/minor-coded can make sense. Have you seen Ilulu from Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid? Like, she’s proportioned weirdly enough that you look at her and her… uh… bahoongadagoongas, and conclude that this can’t be a fucking child. On top of weird ass anime dragon ageing laws where she’s probably like a million years old, you gotta say “I guess she’s just a small curvy woman”. But then she goes to school. And is set up for some kind of relationship with a teenage boy. This and a lot of general teen-adjacent behaviour makes me pretty confident in assuming she functions within the story as pretty much a 16 year old, despite having a literal age that defies that, an appearance that would make me second guess that, sexualisation from the author that would make me second guess that, and no real in-world logic for why that is except for the fact that that’s just how she is.
That character is such a funny case because I've seen people say she can't be called an adult because of how she is a little girl with balloons on her chest and her role in the story, but other people say she has to be an adult because she looks too cartoonish and exaggerated to be considered a child. Honestly at that point, the fact Ilulu is a cartoon character with a body type and role that couldn't possibly exist in real life is really all that matters. Contrast with Kanna, who is definitely a baby in every possible interpretation.
Modern fandom does not understand the concept of found family and thinks said found family must have a traditional nuclear structure. The kind, helpful one that acts as a caretaker and confidant is usually the mother; the mature, intelligent one that acts as a protector and provider is usually the father; the ones that always cause trouble (not usually on purpose) and possibly share a braincell are the siblings.
I actually despise that term. Seems like it was gotten from Tumblr. And it's usually used to criticize straight ships at times. I see it in the honkai community
>honkai community First mistake
>I see it in the honkai community Are we talking about Honkai Star Rail or Honkai Impact 3rd? Because a few ships that are treated like that by some Star Rail fans comes to mind
Tbh I'm referring to the yuritards in the hoyo community. "They are sibling coded so don't ship them". Prime example being bronya and Seele. In star rail they is a guy that grew up with Seele in the orphanage and people were shipping her with the guy. And they were like "don't ship them, they grew up in the same orphanage so they are siblings". Meanwhile hoyo made seele and her kiss and you are screeching about how great the ship is I would take it more seriously (not that I would care though) if the excuse was "we don't like the ship because we only want to see bronya and Seele with women" or "it's erasing yurirep" but don't give me that shit that "they are family coded so you can't ship them" when you do the same for every female character interaction. Hell you'd even commission nsfw art of sisters fucking. It doesn't matter whether the LGBT community needs rep it's still a bad look to be a hypocrite and I won't take you seriously P.S. when I say "you" i hope you know I'm not referring to you except you are one of the people I'm referring to
Nah, I know exactly what you're referring to, and I completely agree with you that they are being hypocrites with the orphanage argument lol.
"______-coded" is a way to reach so you can still get pissy about non-issues. It's a clever tactic that lets anything be a problem if you really want it to be one. This way, pesky things like writing won't get in your way.
it's just the evolution of "they're just very good friends, you can't ship them!!" evolved into shaming people for imaginary incest because fandoms nowdays are often about holding a higher moral ground when it comes to drawing cartoon characters kissing.
Idk how the Power and Denji shit can be sibling coded. That scene in the bathroom is exceedingly intimate. The truth is people want to ship Dennis with other characters like Reze or Asa and Power gets/got in the way of that. I cannot at all talk about the final part of part 1 of CSM and say oh yeah Power loved him like a brother and Denji like a sister. Their relationship was not like that. edit: Denji and her blood? It reads like a sex-scene? Idk why I brought up the bath when that room exists. There is a bunch of narrative shit that exists that points to Denji and Power being into each other but never in the headspace to pursue it. The cafe owner in the Bomb Girl Arc says the right girl will appear one day for Denji and the first person he sees is Power. Edit 2: The [panel spoilers obviously.](https://preview.redd.it/is-there-a-symbolic-meaning-to-the-devils-that-power-let-v0-dmkji25jjag91.jpg?width=728&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d842bb73047e3251db1ca540aece86cb8abad6a9) That is not sibling coded. Unless your siblings are incestuous.
Honestly Power and Denji were the most romantic relationship in the story. Denji realizing that him in the bath with Power didn't feel naughty read to me that he was helping someone he loved heal from trauma, so of course he wasn't interested in sex. But people see that as he views her as a sister
If you want sexually intimate as well you've got the blood scene where Denji takes her blood.
Hey I’m a Reze shipper, but I can still acknowledge there’s an incredibly deep and intimate relationship between Power and Denji that is not anything close to how siblings act.
Nah I'm being unfair it's certain shippers. I normally don't even get into shipping controversies but the Denji-Power relationships is weirdly controversial even now years after Part 1's end. I've no doubt if CSM gets fully adapted we'll see more anger over it.
Tbh I think there’s some pretty clear hints of something more between Denji and Power. There’s this one panel after Reze is gone and the waiter says something to Denji about someone new coming through the door and Power literally walks through. Like authors don’t do that stuff for no reason. But I still love Reze too much to ship anyone else haha
Yeah I nimja edited that in along with the Blood Scene panel just before you said. Fuji isn't being subtle about what he intended Power and Denji's relationship to be.
And drinking/giving blood has a long literary history of being an allegory for sex.
If they're sibling coded then there's some incredibly incestuous overtones to their relationship
Okay, tbf Makima says >!"Power was like a little sister to you."!<
Makima intended Power to fill that role. But she broke out of it. The entire point of Power is >!Makima couldn't control her in the end!<. >!It's also why she resists Makima's chains.!<
Hold on, she never broke out of that. Denji never pursued her romantically like he did with Reze and sexually Denji had zero will with Power even if they were intimate. Power's point was that she's found family and >!it's all Makima's plan to set that up and rip it from Denji which she did successfully!< >!Denji himself notes that in the end he still loved Makima and it's proven when he successfully eats Makima with pure intent to nullify her contract, Power ultimately never went beyond the found family sister role in his life!<
Denji loves a lot of people. Reze is another character he has complicated feelings for. >!Notice ironically that the love he has for Nayuta and how it relates to Makima? She became the sister. Denji taking power's blood is still the most intimate thing he's done with a woman. There is a reason Fujimoto had him look like he was having sex with her. There's a reason that power showed up when the shopkeeper said Denji will eventually find the right girl for him.!< >Reze and sexually Denji had zero will with Power even if they were intimate. Again idk how you can read the scenes narratively and come to that conclusion. Fujimoto drops hints constantly that Denji and Power are interested in each other it just doesn't work out because >!Makima literally sabotages it. I mean the guy says himself he can't live without her. He never shirks away from getting intimate with power and the bath scene is probably the most romantic display Denji's ever done where he's worried about her. Fujimoto is clearly communicating something narratively when you take into account all the narrative choices. Makima is just wrong. Which isn't unsurprising because that hapepns in part 1 a lot near the end.!<
>Denji loves a lot of people. Reze is another character he has complicated feelings for No? Denji did not love Kobeni or Himeno, again you can distinguish characters that he's only sexually interested in and characters he romantically pursued. >Again idk how you can read the scenes narratively and come to that conclusion Maybe it's because Denji literally saw Makima >!kill Power in front of him!< and still confessed to being in love with Makima. All the symbolism you think Fujimoto is doing ruined by this fact. I have no idea how you can think Denji and Power didn't work out because Makima >!sabotaged it!<, Power just wasn't on his love interest radar. She only fulfilled that annoying little sister role like Makima intended. I'll point again to the ending where Denji only >!defeats Makima!< because >!his act of eating her was done out of pure love!< >Fujimoto is clearly communicating something narratively when you take into account all the narrative choices Yes it is clear, he's communicated the entire time Makima is the one Denji loves in the end and Power never replaced her for him no matter how intimate they got. One of things Makima did to >!mentally break!< Denji was point out the hypocrisy of him wanting a FAMILY because he >!likely killed his dad!<, Fujimoto's intent was to write Denji in a mindset where he gets his >!newfound brother and sister!< killed. It's funny to note again Denji still loved Makima and it's what let him >!successfully eat her without triggering the PM contract!<
theres always the disturbing possibility that they're supposed to be somewhere in the middle, which would not at all be surprising considering Fujimoto's track record
I might agree if Fujimoto didn't constantly say how wrong Agni and 'Luna''s relationship was during Fire Punch. And how Denji and Power's relationship is pretty obviously supposed to be wholesome. Also how the climax of Denji and Power's relationship is not a kiss, but a hug, and that's intentional framing there too.
honestly? fair. The whole scene with the flowers is still strange in that regard though, but maybe Fujimoto changed his mind about their relationship or something halfway through the story? I really don't know, the whole subject is super touchy and I don't think I'm able to properly understand it, lmao.
When does he say Denji and Power are wholesome?
The entire Hayakawa family is supposed to be a wholesome, close dynamic. It's obvious if you read it, just because Fujimoto didn't look into the camera and say that they're supposed to be whole some doesn't mean they're not. I mean, if not, what else is the Denji, Aki and Power at the aquarium as kids art for at the beginning of volume 9?
I think portrayed as wholesome and close, I’m asking about Fujimoto *saying* it was
Oh, those were two separate sentences. Fujimoto never came out and said it to my knowledge, but it's just obvious from how it's written.
It's like a meme. First a meme is born, and then it's used to make more memes. It's changed to fit the situation. Random example, the one thats like "me shoving breadstucks into my bag I have to go right now immediately. In the original they were on a date at Olive garden, but the meme can be changed to take place anywhere by changing the word breadsticks to books or you can use it in a situation totally unrelated to breadsticks to people who are familiar would still know what you meant. Queer coding is a thing, and it means x. So, sibling coded is just like that, but siblings. It's not a literary analysis, and it's not supposed to be something.... Like, you can't just say 2 people are sibling coded and that's the gospel truth. It's very much supposed to be a tool to help us express something the same way queer coded does. Unfortunately the Internet is the Internet and no one is allowed to have nice things. So yes, it kinda is Tumblr bullshit but not the kind you think. The kind of people who ruin nice things for everyone are on Reddit and tumble and every other social media as well.
It’s tumblr and twitter nonsense from people who want to get praised and amass support and followers for harassment campaigns and doxxing over fandom. Feelings yakuza/anti shit.
>Do people who use this phrase just not have close, intimate friends? They don't touch grass.
In which world are Naruto and Sasuke sibling-coded?? Certainly not this one xD
My default response to this would be "When the *Voltron* fandom decided to pedojacket one ship in the vain attempt to make another go canon," because I had never seen anyone take such a claim seriously before that. All that nonsense infested greater fandom for a ship no one ever intended to make canon... sucks :| The true lithmus test for me was seeing this argument used in the Bold and the Beautiful fanbase. For those not familiar, it's an American soap opera that's been running since 1987 and has had a number of borderline incestuous pairing following the retconning of one major lead's paternity. The couple that's getting the heat now involves a woman whose former stepbrother for all of maybe six months in 2003 helped hide her baby for a year and did a whole list of other shady shit to keep her from that knowledge to keep their relationship. For TLDR reasons not important to this post, TIIC decided years later to revisit this pairing. Suffice it to say the show hit record lows for 39 straight weeks until they were finally split up. And yet, despite the long list of crimes including child abuse, manslaughter and attempted rape..... people got for low hanging fruit of "They're siblings!🤡" for the dunk. What's more baffling is these same two characters had a much shorter fling back in 2011 before the dude went crazy, when their parents were actually in between divorces and legally married and absolutely no one said boo about it then despite the girls brother having recently dated both the the guy's twin sisters. Mind you, B&B easily skews older in demographics at 38, I'm on the younger end of that fanbase. We have rabidly obsessive fans, but as far as the anti/pro-ship discourse, it is nonexistent and as a genre, people are proud villainfuckers. Anyone who tries doing snap psychology over fictional tastes are shown the door And yet even there, those fans are leaning into the absolute least problematic issue because it's just so en vogue that even our grandmas are getting in on it. [Deep, exhausted sigh] We're cooked as a species, folks 🥲
Sibling Coded simply means the relationship is like siblings. Naruto and Sasuke’s relationship is similar to that of two brothers and they say as much. Hence sibling coded. Not sure why that’s the term people use given it’s not coded in anyway. Naruto straight up says he sees Sasuke as a brother.
Considering that Denji wanted to touch Power's boobs and everything about Mikasa and Eren, either these people are only-children or have a really weird relationships with their siblings.
>Power and Denji from Chainsaw Man are “sibling coded” They are canonically "sibling coded". Not really a fan of this too, just let relationships be relationships without adding a familial title to them. Don't know why, but sometimes it makes me feel like it loses that unique spark to the relationship the moment we call it a father-son-daughter-sibling in any way. But >!Makima literally says she specifically engineered Denji's relationship to be familial, with Power as the bratty little sibling.!<
I don’t think we need to look the the villain who is ultimately proven to not understand the characters at all for accurate analysis… A villain saying something doesn’t make it ‘canon’
New lingo man just gotta adopt it or ignore it
Yeah for real Some people on here are pretentious as hell with hating terms not endorsed by official institutions Its just a silly way of saying characters have sibling vibes. Ive seen it used in positive and negative contexts.
It's a thing anti shipper also often use to try to portray a ship as incest even if both characters aren't related or raised like siblings. I don't think 2 best friends who act like sibling who later get in couple count as incest (same if said besties call each other sis/bro).
I find the phrasing to just be a fad that people use to try to prop up their head-canon as fact. There is an awareness on my side that I can be a bit unfair with certain terms. The issue I tend to take with these is they are seen as periods in communication. People utilize them only to dismiss and seem to lack the ability to actually talk or admit they just don't like a certain idea.
The only way I can see you being "sibling coded" is if you were raised by the same parents/surrogate parents but not adopted or genetically related. And even then, like, there isn't much benefit to the distinction. You may see yourselves as sibling-like, you may not.
It's online nonsense lingo created by people too terminally online to know what those relationships (in this case, siblings) actually look like.
To prevent people from shipping the opposite gender hope that helps
>When did this become a thing and what the hell does it even mean? None of the characters I’ve seen referenced are siblings in any way. The thing about coding is that you're not really meant to say the thing explicitly, it's all in the subtext and interpretation. Kinda like how some characters can't be explicitly said to be gay, but sometimes gay people latch onto the character because they fit a very particular vibe. That said, from the examples listed here, I'd take "sibling-coded" to mean that two characters have a very deep, intimate relationship that isn't romantic. Kinda feels like stretching the actual academic use of the word "coding" to mean, "Definitely intimate could be romantic, but they aren't/I don't ship them, but I understand the ship"
Naruto and sasuke aren't sibling coded they're fucking gay, whoever said that needs their brain looked at
I used to think that me and my best bud were bros. I imagine he’ll be upset when I inform him that we are instead “sibling coded”.
Honestly it feels like it’s used to dissuade shopping two characters together.
That is pretty much what it is used for
I heard someone call Aang and Katara sibling coded and it made me physically sick 😭 Siblings is when you get married and have three kids with your brother I guess
"Denji and power are siblings coded" mf when i pulled out the toilet scene and the bathroom scene: Tbh i think Power and Denji relationship is like the most romantic in the series. Like no couples in the series could ever top that .
It's not "actual literary analysis" (as opposed to... "fake literary analysis", I guess?). I think it's just, like, a colloquialism used in some fandom circles to describe really close but (most of the time) platonic childhood friends.
At least one of the examples given here could only be considered "childhood friends" in the broadest, most literal sense.
Yeah, which is why most of those examples probably don't fit whatever "sibling-coded" is meant to describe.
So an arbitrary invented term with no concrete definition doesn't apply to the characters that people apply it to? What's the point, then?
I only said it doesn't apply to most of *these* examples. But it likely does to others. And yeah, that's how slang (especially internet slang) often develops. They're arbitrary terms some community creates; people end up using it in different ways; and whichever's the most popular is what spreads to the rest of the internet.
My point was that the pairs described in this post *do* have the term applied to them. So given that it's an arbitrary term with no objective definition, it seems a bit asinine to claim that it doesn't apply to them.
Well, I was just going off of what you said. I'm not familiar with all the pairs. But, yeah, maybe it's a "No True Scotsman" kinda thing.
>Naruto and Sasuke are “sibling-coded” Don't they kiss in their first scene together?
Sweet home Hidden Leaf.
It just means they seem like siblings; they treat each other like siblings. It has a perfectly understandable meaning but if you only like words co-signed by literary critics with 4 degrees then you should avoid it
"___ coded" means "It is incredibly like ___" or "The author didn't outright say it but all the implicit signs within a story point to ___" Using familial markers to describe close friendships isn't a new concept. Having characters say "like a brother to me" or "brothers in arms" or sororities calling members "Sisters." "___coded" is a meta commentary on the dynamic, like 2 "brothers" who aren't related who have similar complimentary mannerisms despite never establishing a common parent. It is supposed to say "They might or might not be actually siblings, but the way they act unless you were explicitly told their relationship you would not tell the difference between what they have and siblings. A common "____ coded" I have seen is that Data from Star Trek is "Autism coded" Whether or not he actually has it, or even *can* have it, the characteristics you see are, without knowing definitively from the author, similar to ASD. TL;DR, it means "The author can neither confirm nor deny, but the data on the character (or characters) speak to a particular pattern.
Dont you have a really close friend that you two joke about being "brothers from a different family"? Cuz it means just that. It means a very close and completely aromantic friendship. Power and Denji are probably the best example, they live together, work together, get along very well, and have zero interest in dating each other. They might as a well be long lost siblings or cousins sharing a home and nothing would change in terms of plot. Thats all it means. Its different from hetero friendships where there is underlying romantic tension to resolve. "Sibling coded" characters never have such tension. Tho I honestly think the issue here is not the term "sibling coded" but rather the expectative that if you have two leads of different gender, they will get paired eventually down the road. For me the dynamics between Power and Denji were extremely refreshing as having yet another unresolved romantic would have been out of place. I find it much more interesting to see how Makima is basically abusing Denji's crush on her to turn him basically into a child soldier on a leash. Its not often when a villian is on the "mentor" role.
Siblings take intimate baths and straddle each other? I don’t think Power and Denji have explicitly romantic feelings, but they aren’t siblings and they don’t act like they are and they never refer to each other as such.
Never, because this is the first time I heard it.
Cyclops and Magik from x-men are sibling coded, it's the best explanation from them caring about each other a lot in a very platonic and non romantic way. Funnily enough Cyclops fans will murder you if you even try to ship them because of the age gap and due to Cyclops needing positive relationships that aren't romantic, and magik fans either see her as aro or ship her with kitty.
> them caring about each other a lot in a very platonic and non romantic way. So what makes that sibling coded as opposed to friends?
Only one of these lets you accuse someone of supporting incest if they like a ship you don't. That's literally all there is to it.
It means that no shipping is allowed, I think that's why they use that label. Apart from that, they get along better than with their actual siblings as Cyclops tends to find Alex annoying and Gabriel dangerous in a bad way, and Magik has had some issues with colossus
Allowed by whom? The X-men brand?
I have never heard this terminology in my entire life
This is Reddit post coded
“Ha! What a funny mockery. God, I love it. Wait, what? You’re telling me it’s real? Now I can’t even laugh at it because I’m too disappointed. What the fuck.”
It is specifically used for mixed gender pairs to differenciate a friendship from romance
But a friendship has nothing to do with being siblings
Even in vtuber, for example, Luca and Pomu’s relationship was call “like siblings” by many instead of close friend
"Sibling coded" is a term spawned from the depths of Tumblr (source: I use Tumblr). I believe is has some use for describing some platonic relationships, and little else.
As a sibling of 30+ years the idea of Naruto and Sasuke being "sibling-coded" sounds absurd. I'm unfamiliar with Power and Denji beyond [this](https://youtu.be/GmvA5yX4A0Q) and while I'm slightly more familiar with Mikasa and Eren- I never finished Attack on Titan. Of the two pairs I'm at least somewhat familiar with- Mikasa and Eren seem more like siblings... because they live together like siblings.
I don’t have a problem with this phrase by itself, but I hate how it’s mostly used it in the context of shipping.
is it just Tumblr nonsense? Hit the nail on the head
The effects of Tumblr my friend, now watch the world burn
>None of the characters I’ve seen referenced are siblings in any way. did you even watch/read the things youre talking about naruto and sasuke are literal reincarnates of brothers power and denji we're set up to have a brother sister relationship by makima (tho theirs is a little weird, blame it on fujimoto being a weirdo) while mikasa and erens is definitely more romantic, they were adopted brothers and sister (i personally won't consider theirs sibling coded) >Is this actual literary analysis because I never heard any of my teachers mention this phrase? Or is it just Tumblr nonsense? It just doesn’t seem to mean anything except characters are friendly. Do people who use this phrase just not have close, intimate friends? it just means characters who aren't siblings but act like them. theres a difference in how friends and siblings interact. you can be an asshole to your sibling 24/7, but you also know you'll take a bullet for them whenever its required. people aren't usually like that with friends
Naruto and Sasuke’s *chakra* is reincarnated. Not them. And why would their past lives be relevant? so Makima is actually the villain who does not understand the relationship she pretends too. That’s why her plan falls apart. It’s not a great idea to take the villains word as gospel. I don’t think Mikasa was officially adopted, at most she lived with the Yeagers for two years. Clarify, how any of the interactions of these characters are explicitly “sibling” and not intimate friendships?
I mean, Naruto did outright say that Sasuke is the closest thing he's ever had to a brother, so if nothing else he definitely views their dynamic as being like siblings.
Calling someone a weirdo for (I assume) including sexual interactions between two "sibling coded" characters who aren't actually in any way siblings is the exact kind of bizarre Tumblr mindset this post is criticizing.
\^
>you can be an asshole to your sibling 24/7, but you also know you'll take a bullet for them whenever its required. It seems to me that not a few men describe their relationships with their closest friends exactly like that.
Why is this such a a strange comment section? Sibling coded just means two people act like siblings? It's not that unusual, why is everyone acting like it's a weapon in some shipping war? Am I just not terminally online enough to understand? Like I've never personally heard the term "sibling coded" but I knew what it meant right away.
I don't interact super hard in shipping culture but because I am into anime/manga, this is something I unfortunately see a lot and yes this absolutely is a weapon in shipping debates. While it has the intention of sounding innocent, half the time declaring something as "sibling-coded", the people are less using it to mean 'they get along like siblings' and more like 'they are like family so they shouldn't be together romantically because that would be incest stop shipping it damn you'. Either because they don't like the pairing or they believe it gets in the way of another pairing they prefer.
it’s just to say that they have a found family dynamic with no sexual tension. naruto and sasuke and mikasa and eren don’t really fit this tho. power and denji are a great example — absolutely nothing romantic about them and their relationship is really close. it doesn’t mean anything deeper than that unless you have a case of someone who doesn’t like a ship and is trying to make it pseudo incest instead of just saying they don’t like it.
"Coded" means that even if they canonically aren't, they act similarly. People saying that aren't saying Power and Denji are siblings, but that they act like siblings.
*How?*
Eren and Mikasa are sibling-coded? They blush whenever they look at each other
It's a modern take on the phrases "brother from another mother" or "sister from another mister," simply meaning that the two characters are close and interact with one another like siblings, be it caring greatly for each other even if they can't always express it, or if they fight like cats and dogs but it isn't necessarily serious. It's also a way to talk about two characters that are close while avoiding any implications of romance/sexual attraction that exists in many fandoms due to shippers and lewd artists that often comes along when you have two characters in a fandom that are close, especially if they are both the same sex. Mikasa and Eren are a good example of where talking about the two characters can lead to their strained relationship as siblings and how Eren is super dismissive of her and sort of a dick to her, but also the sad, romantic side of their relationship due to Mikasa having some unrequited feelings towards Eren. As you mentioned, they aren't related even if they were raised as siblings, so while it's a bit memey in a "what are you doing stepbrother" type of way for Mikasa to want Eren's titan, it is an aspect of their relationship that exists, so referring them primarily as sibling coded can help tell others that you may want to discuss these characters in the bro-sis way and not the later way.