Bishounen

From TCWiki

Literally, a term meaning "beautiful youth", but used in a broader sense within tC.

Original Meaning and Western Fanperson Meaning

Bishounen is a term used to describe a young man (usually a teenager) whose beauty transcends gender. Such males usually have features that would be described as feminine; classical examples of bishounen are slender, have a sense of refinement, and usually have stylish/long hair.

See Bishounen Wikipedia article on bishounen for more information.

In Western fandom this also applies to older men (who also happen to look young most of time) as well.

Lightsider, quite obviously, is this type of bishounen.

tC Usage

"Bishounen" has simply come to mean an attractive male character. A bishounen might be known for angsting just as he might be known for fighting skills; usually, this term is not given by the character's author, but by authors who play female characters (of which there are few).

There used to be a "tradition" of bishounen sacrifices in the tC AIM chats, involving chocolate syrup and whipped cream in the hands of two or three female characters. The usual suspects for these were Mahou and Shadowdancer, though Bliss, Meagen, and Amchan were occasionally involved.

One of these bishounen sacrifices derailed a OLSAL thread for roughly thirty posts before the thread was placed back on track. Somewhere, it's said, there is a list with all of the "official" bishounen listed on it for the ladies to reference.

Ash has a known fondness for bishounen.

So does Allanon Kisigar, for that matter (who is defined as a bishounen himself).

Generally speaking, the Mihoist factions (Church of Miho and the Legion of the Dark Goddess) have a higher percentage of bishounen than other factions - likely due to Miho's comment of "I need... beautiful people to survive" and a marked sense of style.

<BozoCat> Everyone knows it's the boy that's the snackfood.

<BozoCat> That's why boys' caloric value needs to be improved. With toppings.

<BozoCat> I've come up with a perfectly scientific explanation for bishie sacrifice!

<BozoCat> I've spent too much time playing Ash.