Fans Upset After Learning Gawain from The Seven Deadly Sins Was Lesbian Due to a Curse
The manga of The Seven Deadly Sins: Four Knights of the Apocalypse caused strong dissatisfaction among many fans after revealing that the romantic orientation of a character — understood by the audience as a lesbian — was actually the result of a curse placed on her by her own mother.
Before continuing, I should warn that this post contains manga spoilers. I don’t follow the series directly, so I checked summaries and discussions to understand what happened.
Fans Upset After Learning Gawain from The Seven Deadly Sins Was Lesbian Due to a Curse
One of the main characters of the story, Gawain, a member of the Four Knights of the Apocalypse and daughter of Merlin and Escanor, had always shown interest in other women throughout the narrative. According to online comments and information on wikis, she frequently flirted with female characters, such as Isolde, since the moment they first met.
Even so, Gawain could never truly fall in love with anyone. Still, many fans celebrated the presence of a lesbian character in The Seven Deadly Sins.
That changed in chapter 216.
In the most recent chapter, Gawain finally discovers her origins when Merlin and Escanor — in their altered bodies — reveal the truth about her lineage. At that moment, Merlin explains that the reason Gawain couldn’t fall in love with men was due to a curse she herself had placed on her daughter. Merlin didn’t want Gawain to suffer the same way she had suffered, so she cursed her to feel no attraction toward men.
Right after the curse is removed, Gawain begins to show embarrassment and discomfort around a male character, reinforcing the change.
The online reaction was immediate: many fans felt frustrated and criticized the narrative decision. One example of a viral comment was: “Gawain being gay was LITERALLY a curse, and removing it made her straight… you can’t be serious, Nakaba.”
Another comment from the same user reminded everyone that the author doesn’t use the internet and doesn’t even own a cellphone: “I want to remind everyone that Nakaba doesn’t use the internet, so he probably doesn’t know many things, but you’d expect his editor to warn him that this wasn’t the best idea.”
This is something people have criticized in The Seven Deadly Sins for years, since Meliodas constantly touched Elizabeth throughout the series.
Let’s look at more reactions:
This was the silliest thing in a long time. It’s actually hilarious he decided to write this xD
What the hell man, screw this series, and what about Jericho? Does she stop being a groomer with this magic plot?
This was definitely an idea. I think something decent could’ve been done with it if executed perfectly, but other than that… it wasn’t handled well and might irritate some people. Well, at least it might serve as a learning experience.
This is hilarious. This mangaka’s writing is trash whenever it’s not about magical battles.
Oh yes, because being in love with someone of the same gender is so much easier. There’s no way he’s THIS out of touch, right?
I feel like Nakaba has a fixation on putting romance in the story, to the point where every character has some kind of love interest, but he’s terrible at writing it. At best, it’s funny and irrelevant; at worst, it ruins characters and the story.
There were several moments in the past chapters that made me go: “huh?????? Are we really doing this?” Like Merlin, I think you’re projecting a liiiiittle too hard here.
Seven Deadly Sins treating loving other women as a curse, but not grown men loving little girls, sounds about right. I miss Guila, but I’m glad I dropped the series early.
Every time I see this series mentioned, it’s always the most insane character-writing decision I’ve ever seen taken seriously. How is it always like this?
This can’t be real…
This somehow feels both crazy and stupid enough to be an actual plot Gawain went through in original mythology.
I’m surprised Nakaba can write a surprisingly good queer romance with Nasiens and Percival and then do something like this.
I stopped reading right when the Four Knights came together and now I have so many questions. (And yes, I’m aware of the Jericho situation.)
Every day I’m thankful I dropped this series.
Seems more like Gawain is simply bisexual.
This guy has blatant PEDOPHILIA in his works! Along with some of the creepiest stuff in this series! Is it REALLY surprising he’d also do anti-LGBTQ+ stuff?
Man, I feel offended.
What do you think of this development? Obviously, we still need to see how Gawain will react now that she is no longer under her mother’s curse. Will she completely lose interest in women and show more desire to be with men?