I've noticed a lot of the OFMD fandom is super responding to the multimodal communication in the show--not just the symbollism, which is pretty hardcore, but also that specific thing where the tone of the narrative shifts back and forth between serious and joking so rapidly that you might not be able to emotionally keep up. (E.g. the story arc where Lucius loses a finger. This could have been tragic but instead they hit comedy, AND light body horror, AND sincere romance when Pete reacts to what happened.)

That kind of super-fast context-shifting is something I associate almost exclusively with our current social scripts for flirting. It's that "jk jk.... haha, unless????" sort of thing, you know?

So yeah, I propose that it's not JUST that the show is gay as heck: the show is actually flirting with you. /meta