Umm.. Magypsies isn't a _romanian_ slur but a _romani_ slur. As a 1/4 Romani, the term Gypsy is used to refer to Romani who originate from Northern India, exiled to the Balkans, then travelled through Eastern Europe finally into Western Europe, usually due to various slavery laws, Eugenic attempts and kill-on-sight laws. While Romania does have a substantial Romani population in comparison to other locales, Romani is not the same as Romanian...
Oh shit, I’m sorry for the mistake. Pinning this comment to the top to let others know about that. Thank you so much for calling me out on this I’ll make sure I get this right in the future. Terribly sorry for my confusion!
@@MelanyMiku no worries! It's a common mistake that I've come across many times, and we all make mistakes and can always learn more, so no harm done. Thank you, I hope my comment can help inform others just as much as your video can! You've gained a new subscriber through this video anyway btw :3 Keep up the good work!
Mettaton's story is heavily trans-coded. Ghosts in Unterdale have no gender, but when they attach themselves to a physical form making it their body, they adopt a gender identity, in Mew Mew's case it was female, and in Mettaton's case it was male.
Yeah I'm pretty sure mettaton is basically an allegory for being trans. If you enter his home back when he was a ghost you can look at his diaries and well.. imma just quote the section I wanna highlight: "Sketches of a body that she wants to create for me...a form beyond my wildest fantasies. In a form like that, I could finally feel like... "myself."
It's worth noting that in Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door, Beldam is seen as an almost exclusively antagonistic force that we are **not** rooting for; and Vivian's journey's more or less a raging middle finger to Beldam's harassment and bullying. Also worth noting that only the English and German versions actually censored her trans status; as every other localized version features Vivian as trans or otherwise nonconforming (with Italy outright having Vivian state that she's a proud trans woman).
I know this was 9 months ago of course before the news, but: The remake of Thousand Year Door gonna translate Vivian’s story accurately from what I seen on Twitter eith screenshots! So we’ll finally have a English version that does her story right for her 😊
We actually get to see the lion character from Undertale fully transitioned in Deltarune! She works as a waitress wearing an apron with the same colour scheme as her original outfit. edit: spelling
Nah, ladiva is a great character, and even though the beard is prominent, she as a character is fantastic and is never seen as less for being "masculine" and she herself is proud of who she is
There's a moment in the mobile game where she's given the opportunity to receive a more traditionally feminine body, and she rejects it because she sees her current one as a gift from her parents. I love her and she deserves the best.
Aside from her transgender status, I actually hated her resolution in the Epilogue with how she decides to just join back with her sisters who abused her. That right there I feel is probably not a good message to teach to kids. While there are indeed some other consequences with having to be taken out of custody from family abuse for change, it's probably better than having to live in a household where you're antagonized by your own family members, especially if it's because of your own gender identity. I also kind of find it very hard to believe how Beldam just became a good character so quickly just because the Shadow Queen was defeated. As for Marilyn, it feels like she was just there to just listen to Beldam, so there's that. I think a better resolution would've been for Vivian to interact with more people, since it seems she only spoke with her family members who antagonized her relentlessly so that Vivian could see if people can accept her.
CLEARLY the box form is made up of concentrated testosterone. (I mean this in the most light hearted way possible, I think it'd make a lot of sense if Mettaton was Transmasc).
I know you skipped over Poison, who is both quite notorious as a trans character, but also has a muddy history regarding her representation. Also, while I've never played Granblue, from everything I've heard about it Ladiva is handled well. Yes, she's stereotypically masculine in the way her body looks and her facial hair, but that is shown as a personal decision to stay with said aspects, because she doesn't believe it makes her any less of a woman (and it obviously doesn't--women come in all shapes, sizes, and presentations).
Not really. Since Capcom said she was meant to be a woman and her creator said poison she's a woman to him and they ended up saying she's whatever you want her to be
I personnally tend to consider mettaton to be more of a drag artist (an extravagant personality that transform into a magnificent and flamboyant creature that plays with traditionnal gender attributes to create their esthetic). But because it is implied that he was searching a body different from his past appearance (wich is never shown into the game) to truly feel like himself, i guess he could be a representation for more "feminine" and flamboyant trans men or trans masc people and its possible that he does drag on top of that (explaining his more androgynous appearance). It could explain why despite doing a more traditionally "feminine " type of drag, he still is referred with he/him pronouns when he's in drag because he's more comfortable with those. I mean, obviously, that 's just my interpretation of the character, it might not be true.
Mettaton as Napstablook's cousin and thus originally a ghost basically falls into "assigned none at formation", his embracing of a masculine identity and flamboyant presentation means that the only "cis" ghost in Undertale is nonbinary Napstablook.
@KatieAngelWitch Yes, that's kind of what I was trying to say. Sorry if it didn't come off as that, I wanted to include other interpretations. Great video, though.
I, as someone who is transmasc, identify so much with Damien and Mettaton, I've always liked "feminine" things, but I stopped being feminine at some point so other people could see me more as a man, but after some time, I could finally feel like myself even if I like presenting as a feminine person, and this two characters actually helped me a lot with it, especially Damien
Damien from Dream Daddy has really helped me feel comfortable with my own identity as a trans man who tends to be a little more feminine and has a stronger attraction to men. It’s nice to see the complexity of gender being recognized and that trans men are allowed to be feminine as well.
I didn't like dream daddy because IMO I'm really not a fan of the artstyle and I'm disgusted by men on a fundamental level, especially mascular, masculine men when shown in a sexual/suggestive light. I'm far from homophobic, but it's just something about mxm homosexual relationships in media that intrinsicily disgusts me, while I am absolutely enamored with wxw homosexual relationships. I don't know what's wrong with me. Is this what having a sexuality feels like? To this extent?
@@KrimsonKattYT This is a very weird comment to say to a queer trans man. He doesn't need to know that you're disgusted by him as a man and his attraction to men. It would be weird to say to anyone, honestly, but us mlm trans men already hear enough garbage from transphobes and homophobes, and even progressives who's activism is just saying "Men are bad" without any more critical thought. If you are disgusted by mlm relationships, then yes, you are homophobic, even if you don't act on your disgust. Perhaps you should do some self reflection on these things.
It's a shame the English version of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door scrubbed all reference to Vivian being trans. Before I found out, I thought it was just your standard "Cinderella and wicked stepsisters" story. She's one of the best party members in the game! Absolutely the best to fight the final boss with.
I like this video but I think it is important to note that the queen from Mighty Jill Off was not designed around being trans! She was actually retconned to be trans when i jokingly asked if she had a dong when contacting the developer about the possibility of a rerelease (which happened) I believe LGBT representation is great but only when it is deliberate, otherwise we glorify characters that are LGBT but have no traits of a LGBT person. This also kinda applies to Frisk (not Kris i think their identity has a very good chance to become a plot point later on in Deltarune)
Um slightly different but related topic but axton from borderlands two was originally straight but after him doing a certain voice line for both genders the creators made it so he was bi even in a cut sean it was mentioned. I personally say having a accidental LGBTQ+ charector and the devs being like cool and adding more to them about it with a non stereotyped and phobic view point is kinda nice. Heck honestly a happy accident like that is nice since then we get more representation and if there are move games down the line if that charector shows up there could be more diversity and stuff? What are your thoughts I would rather have good representation even if it is by accident than intentional bad representation if that makes sense.
I would like to recommend Secret Little Haven! While not many games had trans characters in 1999, Secret Little Haven is about actually being a trans teen on the internet in 1999. As someone who was also a trans teen on the internet in 1999, I found it very true to life 😊
Wanted to throw in one of my faves: From the survival horror game Fear & Hunger 2: Termina, there's Marina, the occultist, who (with some dark magic flavor) is canonically transgender. Fair warning tho, the game contains quite a bit of body horror, themes of sexual assault and general depressing stuff, but Marina herself doesn't really suffer any transphobia so no big danger of that specific trigger. (She gets misgendered once, by her father, but literal moments later he calls her a girl, so nothing too bad) In the first game there's also an alchemist called Nosramus, who is left very ambiguous, but a lot of the community considers them non-binary. They seem to embody the alchemical concept of the Rebis, a body that is both man and woman (roughly, i'm no alchemist), and give off the vibe of being enlightened past mortal human concepts such as gender. Both of the games are really disturbing, but I like that neither of those characters deal with anything *extra* disturbing for their identities, just the same amount of horror that the other characters also endure
To comment on Mettaton. Although not directly stated, it's heavily implied due to the journals found in Mettaton's house, next to Napstablook's. "Blooky asked me if I was going to try to become corporeal, too. They sounded so... resigned... come on, Blooky. You know I'd never leave you behind. And besides... I'd never find the kind of body I'm looking for, anyway." Another line from the diaries hits this home. "In a form like that, I could finally feel like... "myself."" ---- I'd also like to say that I think Vivian is actually an excellent representation of a transwoman, She learns to stand up for herself against her family, with her found family in Mario & co. Not to mention that the other two are obvious villains. There's transphobia to be certain, but it's shed in a "transphobia is a bad thing" light.
Italy made Vivian even more trans by giving her a scene where she affirms her gender in the face of the transphobia from her sisters, fun fact. As far as Krem goes, he's part of an unfortunate trend in game dev. Said trend consists of developers doing transmisogyny in an earlier game, and then putting a trans man as an "apology" in the sequel to it to "make up" for what they did, except they don't address the transmisogyny they perpetuated. In Dragon Age's case you can fuck trans woman sex workers that have "Female(?)" in their names. For Ladiva, I am not as deeply familiar with Granblue Fantasy but I can tell you she comes from a race of cow people and her goatee exists for the Japanese trans people that cannot transition in the way the west has established for whatever reason, she's beloved by the community and affirmed by the devs, she's there for the tall beefy trans girls that will not pass like the short skinny redditor catgirls will, she looks that way explicitly to go "Yes, I'm still a woman, so what?". Also Bridget should have been mentioned earlier in the timeline, her first Guilty Gear game is from 2002, it's just that it took until 2022 for her to properly come out. And SLARPG shout out! Hell yes! To summarise, good vid, you didn't do quite enough research on some of your examples but from me that's pot calling the kettle black, definitely going to watch more of your videos.
amazing video!! really happy this popped up on my recommended, it was a great watch. a character i noticed that got left out however, is my favorite trans character, arashi narukami from ‘ensemble stars!!’. there was this whole story about her being trans and how people treat her in the way she doesn’t want to be treated, but it was also a really positive story about accepting yourself. quote from the story: tetora: -…i may not completely get it, but you’re a woman on the inside, right? and then i come in and start praising you for being ‘manly’ like an idiot… i’m so sorry, narukami. please forgive me. arashi: you’re still just a kid… still just a boy. i’m honestly envious… no matter how much i want it, and no matter how much i try… i could never become the beautiful woman i dream to be. but even if that’s true… i won’t let it depress me. i won’t whine about it anymore. i love myself most, no matter who i am. anyone who can love themselves like that is charming, no matter their gender… don’t you think so? the entire story is just really touching and it was a major waking up call to me. the game also has respected her gender identity beyond this point which was really thrilling! arashi is a great trans character and i love her so much
I think Damien was the first trans man I ever saw in any media, at least to my knowledge. I remember being ecstatic about him being trans, and not really understanding why until many years later. Definitely put some hairline cracks in the egg, even if I didn’t realize it at the time. Also Mettaton is canonically trans because all ghosts are non-binary and Mettaton is a male! He’s NB-to-M! Pretty unique! Edit: also I have to say that Crermisius Aclassi (Krem) was gonna be a lot worse (with his backstory rehashing a lot of trans stereotypes involving SA) but BioWare hired sensitivity readers and… actually listened to them? As a result Krem is actually a pretty great character! He’s still voiced by a woman and the dialogue system does make it so that pretty much the only way you can interact with his transness is by assuming your own character doesn’t know about trans people and saying some low key transphobic shit, which is pretty disappointing considering it’s an RPG, but I understand that they were trying to drop an anvil and kind of make up for previous transphobic stuff in the series, which I think they did a pretty good job of. Beyond that, Krem is great, he’s super charming, he gives and takes shit from his boss Iron Bull (“why do Qunari men go around binding their breasts like that chief?” it’s a harness, Krem” “yes, for your pillowy man bosoms”) and he’s overall well respected by the game he’s in. He can even find love! And they used his inclusion as an opportunity for world building, which is always cool.
I'm not sure if the characters are what caused Mother 3 to not be released outside of Japan, but from what I recall it's just a whole mass of copyright issues the game would have dealt with in the west, compared to Japan which from what I've read seems to be a bit looser about that. I see no problem how they couldn't just change the name of the characters, and potentially alter some other dialogue to avoid discrepancies in the plot, to make sure the name doesn't sound so similar to a slur. It might be one of the reasons, but not the main reason on why it wasn't localised yet.
it's not that either! reggie confirmed that m3 is not released outside of japan not because the content! when mother 3 was being developed for the n64dd, it's said that it would been released in the us as eb64 and the magypsies were still intended as androgynous characters! it's mostly because nintendo doesn't fully own the rights of the mother series and it depends on the creator shigesato itoi to do things totally related to these games. more speculation in this video by monkeyness titled "is mother 3 really too controversial?": th-cam.com/video/gOaLx6UKriI/w-d-xo.html
Some notes 1: The thing with Vivian in Paper Mario isn't transphobic, because the other shadow sirens are the villains and aren't meant to be sympathetic. In the JP version, them being transphobic is supposed to show how evil they are. Also it's ironic that they think Vivian is ugly since she's by far the most beautiful of them and it's clear they're jealous. 2: Kaine from NieR is pronounced "Kahn-aye," not "Cain" as in Cain from the Bible. 3: Metatron isn't explicitly trans in canon, but is definitely gender non conforming. He uses he/him pronouns, and went from being a genderless ghost to a genderless robot to a flamboyant gay male robot. 4: Canonicly, Frisk's gender is unknown, as is Chara. Though them both being nonbinary is a valid interpretation. However, Kris from Deltarune is 100% confirmed to be non binary. 5: Erica from Catherine is good repersentation. That whole game is about relationships and nearly everyone is a lustful horn dog in that game, so yeah. Literally that games while plot is about a stuffy god of marriage cursing people who engage in premarital sex to have death-causing nightmares out of spite, so everyone in that game is a horny, cheating b**tard. That god of marriage is also an asshole and the final boss/big bad AND is a Babylonian god from 2000 BC, so of course he has outdated views about gender and would curse Erica despite her being a woman, which the game consistently reaffirms. She is also relatively a good person, especially compared to some of the other characters. The idea about her character being transphobic are completely unfounded and based on crazy ResetEra users who took a few screenshots out of context and then started a crusade against that game. 6: Some notes about Brigitt from Guilty Gear. For over two decades Brigitt was consistently characterized as a femboy, and was one of the most popular femboys on the internet. That's also how she was portrayed in-game. But in the latest game seemingly out of nowhere Brigitt was revealed to be a trans girl. Transphobes immediately claimed that Brigitt coming out was a mistranslation based on a TH-cam video of the JP version that used intentionally incorrect subtitles, and still claim this to this day despite the creator of the entire series confirming that Brigitt was trans, that this was always supposed to be the direction her story went in and the game consistently using she/her pronouns for Brigitt in menus, promotional material, and in-game. Meanwhile the more rational people were just disappointed that they lost a femboy icon and we're concerned by the unfortunate implications of making Brigitt trans (that femboys are all secretly trans girls in denial, which is bigoted and enforces unfair gender roles) but still supported Brigitt being trans and used the proper pronouns. 7: Most of the characters you showed in the intro aren't trans. The skeleton pirate voiced by Toby Fox from we bear bears isn't trans, I'm pretty sure he's a guy. Though, to be fair, skeletons don't really have any physical gender since they're just bones. 😂 I haven't watched infinity train or One Piece so I can't comment on the second or third ones, but I know One Piece has a cult/organization of gender bending drag queens in the earlier seasons and that they're suprisingly the good guys. Alluka from Hunter x Hunter is indeed a trans girl and is one of the few in the intro to be 100% confirmed trans. (to my knowledge) Spider Gwen is NOT trans, (or at least has absolutely nothing hinting that they are) and no, showing the "trans colors" next to a character (unless it's the actual trans pride flag) does not make them or hint at them being trans. Pink and Blue is a common pastel aesthetic. Don't look to hard into it. Don't know about Star Wars High Republic, especially since the show isn't out yet. That frog girl from Rocko yes is 100% trans. 8: Chidori from Danganronpa is NOT trans. The whole point of his arc is that he feels like he's forced to pretend to be a girl because he's so small and feminine, and he feels like he would be accepted more as a normal girl rather than a femboy. Based on his so-called "friends" reactions to his death, he was probably right. He wants to be more masculine, which is the opposite of what trans girls want. If Chidori had his way, he would be super masculine like Sakura, and would probably end up that way by training with Sakura if he survived the death games. Might even end up together? IDK. (I ship them) 9: You missed quite a few characters. Juniper from Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is confirmed to be non binary. Along with that, Alvis/Alpha/Ontos/A from Xenoblade 1 and Xenoblade 3 was reconned in XB3 to be non binary all along, and unlike Brigitt from Guilty Gear this actually works and was received pretty well. Shiver from Splatoon 3 is heavily implied to be non binary, though this was censored in the US release (by the same guy who censored Vivian in the 2000s none the less) to make Shiver female, though this is still very vague even in-game. A lot of fanart (and R34) still portrays Shiver as fully female with big boobs solely for waifu factor, tho, but in the actual game it's heavily implied that Shiver is nonbinary.
To be fair about spidergwen, there is a trans pride flag/sign thing in her room that says "protect trans kids" and her dad has a little frans flag pin. Combined with the very queer allegory of having an identity that you hide from your family for fear they will hate you for it, with gwen's own initial "coming out as spider woman" to her dad going poorly so she seeks refuge with the other spiderpeople until later when she goes back to her father and he has had time to accept this new person his child turned out to be. It leads it leads to the conclusion that gwen is trans and her spider woman journey is running parallel to her trans journey, or at the very least her story is a trans allegory.
Pretty sure Shiver is female in JP too it's just that Japanese doesn't use gendered language as much so it took a while to tell. Also not to be "that guy" but it's Chihiro not Chidori.
I'm not exactly a Granblue aficionado but everything I've ever heard about Ladiva suggests she's handled very respectfully despite her burly frame and facial hair. This is her and she's happy with it, and we stan her for that
i found you through the jacksfilms video and this thumbnail and title hooked me. interesting video for sure i never realized how much representation there was
My favourite trans character: Morpheus from Resident Evil Dead Aim. Her transness isn't even commented on, but she goes from being a mere human to a a slaying being of ultimate power. Kind of how I felt when transitioning. Yeah the game has it's problems and she's an evil villain... but I claim her nonetheless. Anyway holy fuck it's better than how we were depicted in Code Veronica :|
Thanks for recommending Dys4ia!! I myself am not trans, but I still think it was pretty darn cool! It's lovely to get even more understanding about how a lot of transfems become such.
12:29 this one actually is canon, if you get a key from catty and bratty you can actually go into the bedroom of napstablook's sibling. And reading through the diaries inside, it's implied that alphys built mettaton as a physical body for them, and that they now feel more comfortable in their own metallic skin being a guy.
Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, _Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door_ got a remake and Vivian is explicitly transgender in all localizations, and none of the protagonists misgender her. (In general, most references to anybody's transphobia is removed but Vivian mentions her sisters bullying her more after coming out.)
also hot-take: i dont think chihiro from danganronpa is a transwoman. it'd make more sense if he was a transman or something but i dont think he was meant to be trans at all, just a cross-dresser who felt like he wasnt "man enough" for society so tried to hide himself
0:12 THATS MY GIRL THERE SHE IS!! also WOW THIS IS A GOOD VIDEO very in depth i didnt expect rainbow six seige of all games to have two trans characters? wild! very good video melany i learnd so much :D
Great video! I'd also like to add another 2 great examples from Xenoblade 3 since you mentioned Roc from XB2. There's Juniper from the main game who, while never explicitly confirmed, is headcanoned by a majority of the fanbase as NB. The game only ever uses they/them prounouns when referring to them, and they have a similiar thing to Roc, being given a "2" in the code to refer to their gender where 0 is Male and 1 is Female (I think, it might be the other way around, doesn't actually matter either way). There's also A (Yes, that's her name) from the DLC who is explicitly a Trans-Woman. You meet her originally as a man called Alvis in Xenoblade 1, but she comes back for the DLC story of 3 as a woman. Some of the fanbase also say she's NB because of a line from another character saying she's "somewhere in between", but for complex lore reasons that's referring to something slightly different and A uses she/her for herself so that's what I'm going with.
just got this video recommended and i am surprised that you dont have thousands of subsribers (yet). This was a great video to start my morning with, i subbed to the channel ^^ (also the last game must be the best thing ever created...sadly my internet is too weak to play the conclusion part if the vid, but i guess it's ok..have a wonderful day)
I think it wouldve been cool to include monster prom since the series has a ton of trans characters (Zoe, Milo, Sawyer, Hazel, Riona, glitch) as well as borderlands (Lor and FL4k)
I'm coming back to rewatching this video, because I have been playing tell Me why, and wow it was good. You really get connected to these characters. Alyson the daughter being this woman has a troubling past, with her mother. And Tyler being on the run trans man, who hides his feelings about carries truman and heartship. If you're a huge fan of life is strange, you will love it. But also melany is right it is very triggers, also it's mostly with mother being a anti trans, but I recommend it deeply. And really help find I'm am nonbinary.
the nintendo switch version of paper mario the thousand year door changed the chapter 2 dialogue, removing Beldam's transphobia, as well as changing Vivian's chapter 4 dialogue, adding a line that implies she's trans. other mentions of Vivian, such as from Goombella's tattle, no longer misgender her. it's better than the original, but I think making Beldam less transphobic was a bad change bc that was where we got the implication that Vivian was trans in the first place, and Beldam is literally evil, so making her a slightly more moral character doesn't make a lot of sense
This is a really good video, I wish people were less hateful when people talk about these topics. I see a lot of trans hate on tiktok and youtube shorts and it just breaks my heart. Its nice to finally see some of this kind of content on my feed.
This video has been in my watch later for a while and i just got around to it and my goodness did I love it! I cried lol it makes me very happy to have the community be represented even if the transmasc part leaves a lot to be desired haha Uhh words hard but pretend this is a really profound and impactful closing statement have a nice algorithm and uhh congrats on the jacksfilms feature
my absolute fav is vivid//stasis, silly offline singleplayer 4 Lane rythm game where you play as a lesbian Trans woman, it's amazing representation with a tense plot with a lot of room for cute little moments and some sad reflection. strong emotions and tense moments are always broken up by challenge levels to not hit you all at once. it breaks up the story with the gameplay pretty well, needing you to get things from playing songs to unlock the story pieces. just very nice and sweet and tense at times
By the way, my girlfriend and I found your video after doing a TH-cam search trying to find trans women who are into retro games because my girlfriend is a trans woman who is into retro games. I am both into retro games and into her so. The retro games sections on TH-cam is tends to be dominated with CIS dudes with beards so it's refreshing to find anyone else. Definitely keep up with your videos.
What's crazy is that I didn't even know Claire was trans in Cyberpunk2077 until the one time she mentioned it to me, and then I noticed her pride flags. Claire is so cool, I adored her storyline No mention of deadnames. Her husband was supportive when she opened up about the transition struggle. Claire had no discrimination in the game, everyone seemed respectful. I thought it was good representation
That's because in the world of cyberpunk, transphobia and homophobia have been fully defeated. While this may seem like a huge win, there is a LOT bigger of an intrinsic issue in that game: class division.
Note: the characters of Mad Mew Mew and Mettaton, while heavily hinting at the trans experience, aren't transgender in the traditional sense. The ghosts of UNDERTALE are alluded to quite literally have no gender. Upon choosing a vessel to possess, however, they seem to adopt the pronouns of whatever "gender" that body may have, and only get to fully "merge" with it once a strong, emotional bond is formed. I'll leave it up to you how that relates to the experience of transgender people, with ghosts who are still trying to find themselves, others who long ago found what they're comfortable with, and some choosing not to look for a vessel at all. In conclusion, yeah, the ghosts of UT ARE trans one way or the other, but are more of a trans allegory lore-wise, I suppose. As for Frisk/Chara/Kris - none of the three are ever stated or implied to be non-binary. For whatever reason, the gender of each of the humans ever mentioned is kept as entirely ambiguous in UT, with the Japanese translation explicitly using gender-avoidant pronouns to refer to them. For all we know, the humans of UT/DR could be nonbinary, cis or otherwise, but that is for now not known. Hope that clears things up a bit, lol. Sorry, I'm just a big UT Lore nerd and had to clear some things up. Awesome video! Have a good one.
Two more examples of note: While not having any actual trans characters, 1991's Space Quest IV is rather... infamous for a scene in which the main character, Roger Wilco, has to disguise himself as a woman in order to use a stolen ATM card he stole from an ex-girlfriend. To do this, he purchases a dress and wig from a store. When he requests that the dress be in his size, the robot clerk calls him "sicko." While in disguise, Roger even has an exaggerated "feminine" walk cycle. On a more positive note is the character Varden Dawngrasp from the Warcraft spin-off card game Hearthstone. Introduced in the Forged in the Barrens expansion in 2021, Varden is the first non-binary character to appear in the Warcraft franchise, and is voiced by Kayleigh McKee, a trans voice actress. From what I've seen, Varden is portrayed quite positively in the Hearthstone series.
I know this is a sensitive topic but I honestly feel like Bridget was one of those "pandering, poorly written, shoehorned in" characters honestly. It's become such a sensitive topic and people are so desperate about it. I honestly hate it. You don't have to respond cause honestly, it's a scary topic to talk about.
That’s honestly really interesting to hear. I’ll admit I’m not too familiar with Bridget which is why I was so brief on her but I’m actually going to look into this for the future because I’m honestly fascinated to hear this.
dragon age inquisition should have gotten way more time in this video. there's a whole cutscene about how one of the species in the game has a whole cultural tradition of accepting trans people
What about Clare from Cyberpunk 2077 the bartender of the Afterlife, she has a quest line about street races and revenge but her story is very touching. If her truck isn't enough of a giveaway she outright tells V (after you have built up some trust with her) she's trans, how she is handled you would never know unless you play her questline.
The one thing I hoped to find in this video was one character. I like him a lot he’s the definition of a cool dude. His name is Oryx the Taken King from Destiny; I’ve yet to see many mention him in any discussion about cool villains or even trans discussions. But now I have left you with that knowledge about him, learn his and his sisters’ story.
I'm a brazilian, in 90s we're represented by Blanka... and EVERY one liked him. But what if the game didn't have cultural representation of us? There was no problem. Boys and teenagers wanted to have more fun playing a good game and not be represented, this was just an easter egg. We played as boys, men, women, robots, dragons, ugly fat ninjas, beautiful knights. The last thing we wanted to do was pay attention to something like skin color being the same as ours. I saw few girls playing, not because they felt poorly represented, if that's the reason, but because women simply like violence and fights less than men. Do you know any girls who play Armored Core? Ace Combat? CoD? probably not. But you definitely know of one that plays LoL, because the graphics are cute and so are the models. The game has always been like this, for children, girls, boys and everyone else. In the same way that there were girls who liked Super Mario at the time, because it was cute. It's always been like this, boys like to see blood and violence, girls like cute things. There were games for all audiences. Anyone who didn't like one could just choose another, no one was offended for not liking a game because they weren't part of that game.
my favorite visual novel, Cool Kid Cody, has a trans character in it, he's the main loser [there's losers, cool kids, and gods in this story], and his name is Pizza Boy/Pizza Boi/Peter. It depends what episode you're in, Pizza Boy is the loser name, Pizza Boi is the Cool Kid Name, Peter is his real name. Anyway this is basically the scene that implies PB bein trans, may or may not be good representation, i dunno [It's an optional scene in season 1 episode 5]: --- Cool Kid Cody: Whoa your family's HUGE!! Who knew there'd be so many pizza people in Hella City?! Cool Kid Cody: These pics look way different from the ones at Lil Greaser's though! Pizza Boy: That's because the God of the restaurant fixes all the photos so that Cool Kids won't barf when they look at them. Cool Kid Cody: HARSH! I mean, there're a lotta pizza faces in your family but they look nice enou- *Cool Kid Cody: OH MY GODS IS THAT YOU AS A KID?!* Cool Kid Cody: Your hair was so long!! And holy crap, Steve was even cooler lookin' back then! Pizza Boy: AGHHHHHHH NO!!! Don't look! Pizza Boy: I can't stand old pictures of myself, or any pictures really... Pizza Boy: Let's just pretend the past never happened! Cool Kid Cody: Aww, well maybe it's nice to look back n' see how far you've come! Cool Kid Cody: You look waaaaaaaay cuter as a Pizza Boy! Cool Kid Cody: I-I MEAN, NOT CUTE, J-JUST MORE LIKE YOURSELF!! Cool Kid Cody: Not that you're not cute, I mean you just look way better, less hideous, y'know what you're right let's just pretend the past never happened! Pizza Boy: Hey I'm not the one who wanted to snoop. --- Also, it's heavily, HEAVILY implied that Cody has feelings for Peter. Even the OFFICIAL wiki says it: "Based on his behavior, Cody may have certain feelings for Peter that he is unaware of." Found on Pizza Boy's page under the relationships tab, under Cody. Peter is also Demisexual! [Cody is Pansexual, if you were curious.] The creator of Cool Kid Cody has also said that they were gonna make some ships in Cool Kid Cody canon at some point I believe... Not sure if I dreamt that, but I have a strong feeling that Peter x Cody is gonna be one of em,,,
There's also a trans character in the webcomic Cucumber Quest by Gigi DG. Her name is Rosemaster :) Here's the scene that shows that [PAGE: 540]: --- Nautilus: It's odd, though. Now is when I'd usually try to remember what I've learned about you from my studies... Nautilus: ...but I'm certain I've never heard anything about a Rosemaster before. Rosemaster: How tragic. I imagine you must be familiar with Thornmaster, then. Nautilus: (Gasp!) That's the one! Nautilus: Thornmaster -- I know I've seen *his* name in legends! Rosemaster: And what do you think, now that you've met her? Nautilus: Well, she's much more elegant than I was expecti -- Nautilus: Ohh. You mean... Rosemaster: I'm not fond of legends, Princess. Never was terribly fond of that name, either. Nautilus: I-I'm so sorry! Nautilus: It's good to meet you, Rosemaster! I hope we can get along -- Nautilus: WAIT A SECOND Nautilus: What have you done with my friends? I DEMAND answers! --- I think I forgot to mention Rosemaster is one of the villains of Cucumber Quest. There's also Bacon! [Still called "Sir Bacon on the character info card, tho. But I don't think the cards have been updated in a while and probably never will be-]
It obviously couldn’t be in this video (i’m pretty sure the game wasn’t even out yet when this game was being made) but another game with really good trans rep in in stars and time! (Minor Spoilers for the game ofc especially with isabeau’s story arc) In stars and time has 3 non binary characters and one trans male character! All of the main characters have their pronouns in their bio aswell The religion of the game (the change belief) is VERY trans friendly. It is ofc about change and this it is shown how this helps the characters with isabeau (the trans man) and how it hurts other queer people mirabelle (she’s aroace and struggles with the idea that romance is “needed” to change). Isabeau has a scene with main character siffrin where he describes his childhood and how he used to be completely different (an extremely smart nerd with little friends and no self confidence) and describes how he changed himself to be more happy. While the enby characters in this game have a story line that gives little focus on their gender and just let them have their own unique stories, these characters are Siffrin (he/they) the main character being tortured in a time loop, what the game is actually about lol Loop (they/them) the strange and mysterious star person. when you first meet they say you can call them by “the royal we” before realizing that makes no sense to siffrin and says you can just use they/them And bonnie (they/them) the only kid in the group and the person in charge of snacks This ramble was way too long apologizes lol! I just really love this game and thought the topic was relevant to this video! As an enby trans guy this game’s transness is really special to me and gives the time of day to some trans masc characters which doesn’t usually happen :3
Hikeback, a gamejam visual novel, has two trans characters. Driver is a transman and Hiker is non-binary. If you like time loops and angst, it's such a great experience. Keep in mind, there are plenty of things that may trigger some people but clown (the creator) has listed all of the potential triggers on the game page. Driver being trans isn't outright stated (i think, its been a bit) but clown has confirmed it. Hiker's implied to be trans in game but clown has also confirmed they are non-binary. Hiker was referred to he/they in earlier posts but was later changed to they/them.
Edit: I Found It!!! 👇 "The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories" such a good game 😭😭 Warning. Dark tones so be advised: 👇 I remember seeing this 2d platformer recently a year or two ago about a character going through the levels where she has to "hurt herself" to change the layout of the levels, and during the game you receive texts from your mother and best friend! At the end it turns out it was a dream and something drastic happened which resulted you waking up to paramedics. Tho at the end you finally come to terms with who you are and go out with your best friend shopping!
Wasn't there something about Samus from the metroid games being called trans in an official strategy guide or something? I think it was meant as a joke similar to Birdet.
Correct. Some random person on the development team for, I *believe* Super Metroid, joking said that Samus is a “transsexual” if memory serves correct. I didn’t bother to include it cus I figured that most likely wasn’t canon by any means given it was just a random guy on the team for the game and nothing more concrete, compared to Birdo/Birdette coming from the game’s actual instruction manual. :)
there are also several gender non-conforming characters in five nights at freddy's! most notably, funtime foxy who is referred to as both he and she and is included in ladies night despite having a masculine voice; and the mangle, which is also referred to as both he and she--and scott cawthon confirmed his gender is "yes". there's also female souls possessing male animatronics, which i guess isn't exactly trans but cool to include.
I'm so happy I found out about Damien being a trans lad. There's so little amount of trans men in media, that I'll take ANY good rep any day, honestly. With all the trans men rep out there, it's sad to say I've only ever really connected to two, just based on such little rep. Damien, ofc, and a character named Utsumi from the manga Our Dreams at Dusk (highly recommend it nyehe) I hope there'll be more rep out there for us trans lads, especially in RPG's (that's one place I see like- nothing on, not even much for trans women ;;w;;) as thats personally my favourite type of game genre, (I'm one to find realistic games kinda boring unfortunately :') ) but right now, I'll take Damien with all my heart KJJHGSD ALSO QUINA MENTION LETS GOO! (Hi, massive ff9 fan here LMAO)
From a transwoman game dev thank you for making this video. Also to add to this the remake of Harvest Moon a wonderful life you have a option to make a nonbinary character where you get properly gendered by all the characters in the game.
Hey, thanks for making this video. I know this sounds weird but this video kinda inspired me to come out to my parents tomorrow. Seeing how trans rep has (mostly) gotten better over time it helped my paranoia about coming out to pretty much go away. So uhhhhhhh thanks! Not exactly what i thought would inspire me to come out, but whatever, thanks!
@@KrimsonKattYT to keep it breif my parents got a divorce the day i was gonna tell them lmao. kinda gotta wait for stuff to calm down a little before telling. still gonna do it tho! ill update if when i can!
Considering this video is about representing trans individuals in media, I guess this is a good place to ask this. Would it be seen as insensitive for there be a character who is trans in a piece of media but not have it overtly stated that they are in fact trans? One common theme I've seen with a lot of these characters is that it's specifically stated that they are trans. I have several trans friends, and I've heard the opinion that some would prefer to just be referred to as the gender they identify as rather than being seen as a trans-(insert gendered noun here), and I feel like stating that a character is trans would defeat the purpose of this view. Adding to that, what if it's not an integral part of the character? Like, they have their life, their goals, their viewpoints things they value and that's the character, but also they're trans. It's not a huge deal. It's just treated similarly to something like their height; not a massively important detail, but it's there. This is another thing that seems recurrent in a lot of these characters. It is front and center that these characters are trans and it's a huge part of the character. Again, this goes back to my previous point that I've heard the opinion that some trans people would not want to be seen as trans, but instead as the gender they identify as. If there's a man in a game who is trans and it's treated as a major part of the character, then that character is being presented as trans-masc rather than simply masc, which directly opposes the view that this character should just be seen as what they identify as: a man. (Please don't tear me to shreds and think I'm a massive bigot. I'm just trying to learn.)
Know this is from a couple month back but in case you haven't got an answer yet or for others who'll see this: It's completely fine for someone's transness to not be overt. Whilst some folk are openly so, others just simply aren't - this, you can extend onto characters too. Though it is visibility that matters most when it comes to representation, it's also simply that: visible. So, it's fine to treat it as another detail to a character and not have it be a driving factor in their arc; it'd be cool to see more of that tbh. Account accordingly for how that would affect a character and go from there. Needn't be so stern too; you can have a laugh with it. Hell, I'm a trans lass and days after I realised, I was calling myself shit like "IRL hentai category" with mates. I may or may not be a gremlin though but so long one's gender respected & heeded, there shouldn't be cause for concern. And yes, I'd suspect most folk would rather be seen by their gender rather than trans-something. Again, some are open & chill with it being known but at the end of the day, your gender is your gender. We transitioned (in whatever capacity) to be perceived and live as such.
I looked at the upload date and immediately thought "oh my god if she doesn't talk about Super Lesbian Animal RPG I'm gonna be so fucking mad." So when you talked about a game to end this with I was bracing myself for it, and I still yelled in celebration. Also yes, you should play it, it's legitimately one of the best games I've ever played in my entire life. I'm not exaggerating in the slightest when I say it's crystalline perfection, an incredible masterpiece, a life changing experience, and a dream come true.
Also, just wanna point out, Bridget and Testament both existed long before Guilty Gear Strive. Bridget originated in Guilty Gear XX and at the time she had identified as a fem-presenting cis boy who wanted to be more masculine and Strive shows her accept her identity as a woman years later. Testament has been around since the very first Guilty Gear and has always been explicitly nonbinary, though the localizations just he/him'd them until they were added to Strive. Also also, Blazblue has the characters Platinum the Trinity and Mai Natsume. Platinum is the name for the vessel containing a young girl named Luna, a boy named Sena, and the reincarnated spirit of a woman named Trinity Glassfille who used their body to reincarnate herself I think (Blazblue lore is fucking weird and makes no sense whatsoever.) They're portrayed as having DID, mostly just with Sena and Luna alternating between who has control and even bickering between each other, each using different pronouns and other characters referring to them as such, so you could argue they're bigender or genderfluid. Mai Natsume's backstory is mostly explained in the manga Remix Heart, but basically she had identified as a cis boy but Blazblue Lore™ happened and she was transformed into a girl instantly, and from what I gather the manga is about her realizing how fucking great this is and also joining a polycule in which she gets four girlfriends.
I might take a look at that dating game since I'm trans masc myself (and I recently figured out my sexuality), plus I love mascs with long hair sm! (Elliott from Stardew Valley is literally my favourite character from that game. :)) I love seeing good trans representation and I'll have trans and non-binary representation with my own characters in my own games.
Fun fact, Limstella isn't the only genderless character in FE7! Bramimond was born male, but gave up their "self" during their studies to master the dark magic, so now they don't really have a gender and instead mimic the personality and voice of people they are talking to. Notably in Heroes they can use voices of all three FE7 lords (I guess you could also interpret it as them being genderfluid?). But yeah, it's interesting that FE7 in particular had not one but two genderqueer characters Edit: FE10 also has Kyza, who uses feminine pronouns in the Japanese version (which of course got removed in the localisation) and the Fire Emblem 20th Anniversary Encyclopedia says "The body is male, the heart is female?", which, come on, pretty much confirms she's a trans girl. Buuuut she's rather masculine-presenting so of course the Heroes localisation decided to make her nonbinary instead, because lord forbid we have gender nonconforming trans characters in a game :/
I know they're a robot, but FL4K from Borderlands 3 is nonbinary. They're a machine, but it's kind of neat that the devs went through the trouble of having their talent tree use they/them pronouns in the descriptions. I know it's not "trans representation" but since prominent nonbinary characters like Testament are here, figured I'd mention them. Too bad I didn't like Borderlands 3 and don't really recommend it. But, hey, it's a AAA game with a nonbinary character, which is cool.
It's because of the fingers and the angry crossed armed pngtuber sprite. When people see the crossed armed png tuber sprite, they panic, especially if it's a furry png tuber. Most png tubers are terrible people, and there's quite a bit of truma from terrible pngtubers like Electric Dragon 104 and Achilles Argyle.
Sorry to be a major 🤓 but Doki Doki Panic started as a Mario prototype where Birdo and Shy Guys and many others will very much present so basically Doki Doki Panic was originally Super Mario Bros 2
I don’t think you’re likely to ever get the trans representation you want in a major title simply because size of the community is small it also makes accuracy hard since not all trans people have the same idea of what a trans person should be. You could certainly make like able character but it still likely won’t sit well with everyone.
English! Do you speak it?! Anyways the LGBT isn't even that small. 8% of the human population is a lot when there's 10 billion people on the planet. That's like 1 in every 12 people you meet. All most people ask for is a well written trans character that isn't blatantly bigoted and is more than just their gender identity. We have plenty of those and growing, but more would be nice.
@@KrimsonKattYT 8% is lgbt includes people who aren’t trans I identify as bisexual. I wouldn’t qualify myself to write a good trans representation same with a lesbian etc. Also I’m biotech major I suck at English. My point was just that the trans identifying portion of lgbt community is really small.
Loved this video! Just a piece of criticism though, the ai voices make it kinda hard to discern what is being said (i.e., 1:43, I don't really know what is being said here) I recommend trying to use regular tts voices instead when doing this at least as the ai voices are low quality, but that's up to you really. Cheers! (edit: corrected grammatical errors)
Birdetta is an icon ✨✨ Side note, I feel like mattaton from undertale gives some vibes of pansexuality, maybe because of the colour scheme of the area and the character or ever so slight bit of bias on my part. But hey, we all have a bit of head canon. Side note part two electric boogaloo: I love how even in **some** games from so many years ago they respect trans characters, nintendo didn't do too much for representation but they did at least improve a lil over time Im glad im putting my English degree to good use 😭
Very nice video! Got yourself a new sub :P Yeah Mettaton is definitely a trans allegory going off the diaries one can find and finding a comfortable body
My favorite fun fact about super lesbian animal rpg is that is started life as a my little pony friendship is magic fangame called super lesbian horse rpg. And each of the major characters easily map to one of the major characters from the show.
You missed 2 games from 2021 and 2022: Everhood and Cult of the Lamb!!! All characters in Everhood are genderless/nonbinary and use they/them pronouns!! (Two characters seemingly use it/its as well, being Red and Blue Thief.) Cult of the Lamb has Shamura, who uses they/them pronouns, and the Lamb itself which is I’ve heard recently is also nonbinary!!!
I think there are probably several more Frisk-style ambiguous gender / non-gendered characters that can be interpreted as non-binary even in older RPGs. One that comes to mind is Popoi, one of 3 playable protagonists in Secret of Mana (though in the original English translation they gave them he/him pronouns instead) Another game that's often mentioned in this context is "The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories". I think it's another one that's ostensibly good but sad and potentially triggering, similar to Tell Me Why. Though it should be noted that the game's creator Swery has also had big missteps with representation in other games (the Deadly Premonition series). It would also be interesting to consider character creation options that allow for trans characters. From what I heard South Park: The Fractured But Whole lets you pick explicitly whether you're cis or trans in a surprisingly positive presentation. The Sims 4 also added a lot of options at some point I think. But then on the other hand some games have been more controversial in this aspect like Cyberpunk 2077 and Hogwarts Legacy. Even this year the character creation options around things like combinations of pronouns/voices/genitals/etc. for games like Baldur's Gate III and Starfield have been much discussed.
I pinned another comment about that but pretty much: oops. My apologies for the error I’ll try to handle the subject and get my information correct in the future. Thank you for calling me out on this I really do appreciate it.
@@DarkOverlord96 That's because that word was based on a movie released in the 90s and Romani wasn't really a term known in the mainstream back then. Dream Drop Distance also was released in 2012 also long before Romani became the PC term to use for that people group.
![[TH] RNT vs SPG - VCT Ascension Pacific - Day 1](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/RUTkf8Detj8/mqdefault.jpg)
Umm.. Magypsies isn't a _romanian_ slur but a _romani_ slur. As a 1/4 Romani, the term Gypsy is used to refer to Romani who originate from Northern India, exiled to the Balkans, then travelled through Eastern Europe finally into Western Europe, usually due to various slavery laws, Eugenic attempts and kill-on-sight laws. While Romania does have a substantial Romani population in comparison to other locales, Romani is not the same as Romanian...
Oh shit, I’m sorry for the mistake. Pinning this comment to the top to let others know about that. Thank you so much for calling me out on this I’ll make sure I get this right in the future. Terribly sorry for my confusion!
@@MelanyMiku no worries! It's a common mistake that I've come across many times, and we all make mistakes and can always learn more, so no harm done. Thank you, I hope my comment can help inform others just as much as your video can! You've gained a new subscriber through this video anyway btw :3 Keep up the good work!
Is that why people refer to them now as Magyi?
Mettaton's story is heavily trans-coded. Ghosts in Unterdale have no gender, but when they attach themselves to a physical form making it their body, they adopt a gender identity, in Mew Mew's case it was female, and in Mettaton's case it was male.
Unterdale is based for doing that
@@user-AADZbasedtale
Who is that trans?
Yeah I'm pretty sure mettaton is basically an allegory for being trans. If you enter his home back when he was a ghost you can look at his diaries and well.. imma just quote the section I wanna highlight: "Sketches of a body that she wants to create for me...a form beyond my wildest fantasies. In a form like that, I could finally feel like... "myself."
It's worth noting that in Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door, Beldam is seen as an almost exclusively antagonistic force that we are **not** rooting for; and Vivian's journey's more or less a raging middle finger to Beldam's harassment and bullying. Also worth noting that only the English and German versions actually censored her trans status; as every other localized version features Vivian as trans or otherwise nonconforming (with Italy outright having Vivian state that she's a proud trans woman).
I know this was 9 months ago of course before the news, but:
The remake of Thousand Year Door gonna translate Vivian’s story accurately from what I seen on Twitter eith screenshots! So we’ll finally have a English version that does her story right for her 😊
I'm so glad that the German version of the thousand year door remake doesn't censor her transness
We actually get to see the lion character from Undertale fully transitioned in Deltarune! She works as a waitress wearing an apron with the same colour scheme as her original outfit.
edit: spelling
Nah, ladiva is a great character, and even though the beard is prominent, she as a character is fantastic and is never seen as less for being "masculine" and she herself is proud of who she is
There's a moment in the mobile game where she's given the opportunity to receive a more traditionally feminine body, and she rejects it because she sees her current one as a gift from her parents. I love her and she deserves the best.
I love Vivian. Her family doesn't accept her but mario and friends come along and help her. I always loved her.
Aside from her transgender status, I actually hated her resolution in the Epilogue with how she decides to just join back with her sisters who abused her. That right there I feel is probably not a good message to teach to kids. While there are indeed some other consequences with having to be taken out of custody from family abuse for change, it's probably better than having to live in a household where you're antagonized by your own family members, especially if it's because of your own gender identity.
I also kind of find it very hard to believe how Beldam just became a good character so quickly just because the Shadow Queen was defeated. As for Marilyn, it feels like she was just there to just listen to Beldam, so there's that.
I think a better resolution would've been for Vivian to interact with more people, since it seems she only spoke with her family members who antagonized her relentlessly so that Vivian could see if people can accept her.
as a trans man i do feel a bit sad that im under-represented in almost everything. also if mettaton was a trans man thatd be sick af
@@alexthedemon2203 nobody needs to but its still nice to be able to see someone like you represented. why you seem so mad?
CLEARLY the box form is made up of concentrated testosterone. (I mean this in the most light hearted way possible, I think it'd make a lot of sense if Mettaton was Transmasc).
Pretty sure he is as far as general headcanons go!
seemingly he's more representative as gender-queer or drag since he dresses typically fem but is referred to as masc
if it helps, a couple friends and i firmly believe Lakilester from Paper Mario 64 is trans masc
I know you skipped over Poison, who is both quite notorious as a trans character, but also has a muddy history regarding her representation.
Also, while I've never played Granblue, from everything I've heard about it Ladiva is handled well. Yes, she's stereotypically masculine in the way her body looks and her facial hair, but that is shown as a personal decision to stay with said aspects, because she doesn't believe it makes her any less of a woman (and it obviously doesn't--women come in all shapes, sizes, and presentations).
We stan Ladiva 💪🥰
Not really. Since Capcom said she was meant to be a woman and her creator said poison she's a woman to him and they ended up saying she's whatever you want her to be
I personnally tend to consider mettaton to be more of a drag artist (an extravagant personality that transform into a magnificent and flamboyant creature that plays with traditionnal gender attributes to create their esthetic). But because it is implied that he was searching a body different from his past appearance (wich is never shown into the game) to truly feel like himself, i guess he could be a representation for more "feminine" and flamboyant trans men or trans masc people and its possible that he does drag on top of that (explaining his more androgynous appearance). It could explain why despite doing a more traditionally "feminine " type of drag, he still is referred with he/him pronouns when he's in drag because he's more comfortable with those. I mean, obviously, that 's just my interpretation of the character, it might not be true.
Mettaton as Napstablook's cousin and thus originally a ghost basically falls into "assigned none at formation", his embracing of a masculine identity and flamboyant presentation means that the only "cis" ghost in Undertale is nonbinary Napstablook.
@KatieAngelWitch Yes, that's kind of what I was trying to say. Sorry if it didn't come off as that, I wanted to include other interpretations. Great video, though.
I, as someone who is transmasc, identify so much with Damien and Mettaton, I've always liked "feminine" things, but I stopped being feminine at some point so other people could see me more as a man, but after some time, I could finally feel like myself even if I like presenting as a feminine person, and this two characters actually helped me a lot with it, especially Damien
Damien from Dream Daddy has really helped me feel comfortable with my own identity as a trans man who tends to be a little more feminine and has a stronger attraction to men. It’s nice to see the complexity of gender being recognized and that trans men are allowed to be feminine as well.
I didn't like dream daddy because IMO I'm really not a fan of the artstyle and I'm disgusted by men on a fundamental level, especially mascular, masculine men when shown in a sexual/suggestive light. I'm far from homophobic, but it's just something about mxm homosexual relationships in media that intrinsicily disgusts me, while I am absolutely enamored with wxw homosexual relationships. I don't know what's wrong with me. Is this what having a sexuality feels like? To this extent?
@@KrimsonKattYT This is a very weird comment to say to a queer trans man. He doesn't need to know that you're disgusted by him as a man and his attraction to men. It would be weird to say to anyone, honestly, but us mlm trans men already hear enough garbage from transphobes and homophobes, and even progressives who's activism is just saying "Men are bad" without any more critical thought.
If you are disgusted by mlm relationships, then yes, you are homophobic, even if you don't act on your disgust. Perhaps you should do some self reflection on these things.
It's a shame the English version of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door scrubbed all reference to Vivian being trans. Before I found out, I thought it was just your standard "Cinderella and wicked stepsisters" story. She's one of the best party members in the game! Absolutely the best to fight the final boss with.
I like this video but I think it is important to note that the queen from Mighty Jill Off was not designed around being trans!
She was actually retconned to be trans when i jokingly asked if she had a dong when contacting the developer about the possibility of a rerelease (which happened)
I believe LGBT representation is great but only when it is deliberate, otherwise we glorify characters that are LGBT but have no traits of a LGBT person. This also kinda applies to Frisk (not Kris i think their identity has a very good chance to become a plot point later on in Deltarune)
Um slightly different but related topic but axton from borderlands two was originally straight but after him doing a certain voice line for both genders the creators made it so he was bi even in a cut sean it was mentioned. I personally say having a accidental LGBTQ+ charector and the devs being like cool and adding more to them about it with a non stereotyped and phobic view point is kinda nice. Heck honestly a happy accident like that is nice since then we get more representation and if there are move games down the line if that charector shows up there could be more diversity and stuff? What are your thoughts I would rather have good representation even if it is by accident than intentional bad representation if that makes sense.
I would like to recommend Secret Little Haven! While not many games had trans characters in 1999, Secret Little Haven is about actually being a trans teen on the internet in 1999. As someone who was also a trans teen on the internet in 1999, I found it very true to life 😊
Oh damn! I’ve never heard of that game. Wish u had known about it while I was working on my video. Thanks for informing me!
Wanted to throw in one of my faves: From the survival horror game Fear & Hunger 2: Termina, there's Marina, the occultist, who (with some dark magic flavor) is canonically transgender. Fair warning tho, the game contains quite a bit of body horror, themes of sexual assault and general depressing stuff, but Marina herself doesn't really suffer any transphobia so no big danger of that specific trigger. (She gets misgendered once, by her father, but literal moments later he calls her a girl, so nothing too bad)
In the first game there's also an alchemist called Nosramus, who is left very ambiguous, but a lot of the community considers them non-binary. They seem to embody the alchemical concept of the Rebis, a body that is both man and woman (roughly, i'm no alchemist), and give off the vibe of being enlightened past mortal human concepts such as gender. Both of the games are really disturbing, but I like that neither of those characters deal with anything *extra* disturbing for their identities, just the same amount of horror that the other characters also endure
To comment on Mettaton.
Although not directly stated, it's heavily implied due to the journals found in Mettaton's house, next to Napstablook's.
"Blooky asked me if I was going to try to become corporeal, too. They sounded so... resigned... come on, Blooky. You know I'd never leave you behind. And besides...
I'd never find the kind of body I'm looking for, anyway."
Another line from the diaries hits this home.
"In a form like that, I could finally feel like... "myself.""
----
I'd also like to say that I think Vivian is actually an excellent representation of a transwoman, She learns to stand up for herself against her family, with her found family in Mario & co. Not to mention that the other two are obvious villains. There's transphobia to be certain, but it's shed in a "transphobia is a bad thing" light.
OH YAH, NAPSTABLOOK IS ENBY
Italy made Vivian even more trans by giving her a scene where she affirms her gender in the face of the transphobia from her sisters, fun fact.
As far as Krem goes, he's part of an unfortunate trend in game dev. Said trend consists of developers doing transmisogyny in an earlier game, and then putting a trans man as an "apology" in the sequel to it to "make up" for what they did, except they don't address the transmisogyny they perpetuated. In Dragon Age's case you can fuck trans woman sex workers that have "Female(?)" in their names.
For Ladiva, I am not as deeply familiar with Granblue Fantasy but I can tell you she comes from a race of cow people and her goatee exists for the Japanese trans people that cannot transition in the way the west has established for whatever reason, she's beloved by the community and affirmed by the devs, she's there for the tall beefy trans girls that will not pass like the short skinny redditor catgirls will, she looks that way explicitly to go "Yes, I'm still a woman, so what?".
Also Bridget should have been mentioned earlier in the timeline, her first Guilty Gear game is from 2002, it's just that it took until 2022 for her to properly come out.
And SLARPG shout out! Hell yes!
To summarise, good vid, you didn't do quite enough research on some of your examples but from me that's pot calling the kettle black, definitely going to watch more of your videos.
amazing video!! really happy this popped up on my recommended, it was a great watch. a character i noticed that got left out however, is my favorite trans character, arashi narukami from ‘ensemble stars!!’. there was this whole story about her being trans and how people treat her in the way she doesn’t want to be treated, but it was also a really positive story about accepting yourself. quote from the story:
tetora: -…i may not completely get it, but you’re a woman on the inside, right? and then i come in and start praising you for being ‘manly’ like an idiot… i’m so sorry, narukami. please forgive me.
arashi: you’re still just a kid… still just a boy. i’m honestly envious… no matter how much i want it, and no matter how much i try… i could never become the beautiful woman i dream to be. but even if that’s true… i won’t let it depress me. i won’t whine about it anymore. i love myself most, no matter who i am. anyone who can love themselves like that is charming, no matter their gender… don’t you think so?
the entire story is just really touching and it was a major waking up call to me. the game also has respected her gender identity beyond this point which was really thrilling! arashi is a great trans character and i love her so much
Cagliostro isn't trans. He is an weird old dude fixated on cuteness, constantly crafting dolls to house his soul.
I think Damien was the first trans man I ever saw in any media, at least to my knowledge. I remember being ecstatic about him being trans, and not really understanding why until many years later. Definitely put some hairline cracks in the egg, even if I didn’t realize it at the time.
Also Mettaton is canonically trans because all ghosts are non-binary and Mettaton is a male! He’s NB-to-M! Pretty unique!
Edit: also I have to say that Crermisius Aclassi (Krem) was gonna be a lot worse (with his backstory rehashing a lot of trans stereotypes involving SA) but BioWare hired sensitivity readers and… actually listened to them? As a result Krem is actually a pretty great character! He’s still voiced by a woman and the dialogue system does make it so that pretty much the only way you can interact with his transness is by assuming your own character doesn’t know about trans people and saying some low key transphobic shit, which is pretty disappointing considering it’s an RPG, but I understand that they were trying to drop an anvil and kind of make up for previous transphobic stuff in the series, which I think they did a pretty good job of. Beyond that, Krem is great, he’s super charming, he gives and takes shit from his boss Iron Bull (“why do Qunari men go around binding their breasts like that chief?” it’s a harness, Krem” “yes, for your pillowy man bosoms”) and he’s overall well respected by the game he’s in. He can even find love! And they used his inclusion as an opportunity for world building, which is always cool.
I'm not sure if the characters are what caused Mother 3 to not be released outside of Japan, but from what I recall it's just a whole mass of copyright issues the game would have dealt with in the west, compared to Japan which from what I've read seems to be a bit looser about that.
I see no problem how they couldn't just change the name of the characters, and potentially alter some other dialogue to avoid discrepancies in the plot, to make sure the name doesn't sound so similar to a slur. It might be one of the reasons, but not the main reason on why it wasn't localised yet.
Also none of the Mother games sold very well in the west when they were released.
it's not that either! reggie confirmed that m3 is not released outside of japan not because the content! when mother 3 was being developed for the n64dd, it's said that it would been released in the us as eb64 and the magypsies were still intended as androgynous characters!
it's mostly because nintendo doesn't fully own the rights of the mother series and it depends on the creator shigesato itoi to do things totally related to these games.
more speculation in this video by monkeyness titled "is mother 3 really too controversial?": th-cam.com/video/gOaLx6UKriI/w-d-xo.html
Some notes
1: The thing with Vivian in Paper Mario isn't transphobic, because the other shadow sirens are the villains and aren't meant to be sympathetic. In the JP version, them being transphobic is supposed to show how evil they are. Also it's ironic that they think Vivian is ugly since she's by far the most beautiful of them and it's clear they're jealous.
2: Kaine from NieR is pronounced "Kahn-aye," not "Cain" as in Cain from the Bible.
3: Metatron isn't explicitly trans in canon, but is definitely gender non conforming. He uses he/him pronouns, and went from being a genderless ghost to a genderless robot to a flamboyant gay male robot.
4: Canonicly, Frisk's gender is unknown, as is Chara. Though them both being nonbinary is a valid interpretation. However, Kris from Deltarune is 100% confirmed to be non binary.
5: Erica from Catherine is good repersentation. That whole game is about relationships and nearly everyone is a lustful horn dog in that game, so yeah. Literally that games while plot is about a stuffy god of marriage cursing people who engage in premarital sex to have death-causing nightmares out of spite, so everyone in that game is a horny, cheating b**tard. That god of marriage is also an asshole and the final boss/big bad AND is a Babylonian god from 2000 BC, so of course he has outdated views about gender and would curse Erica despite her being a woman, which the game consistently reaffirms. She is also relatively a good person, especially compared to some of the other characters. The idea about her character being transphobic are completely unfounded and based on crazy ResetEra users who took a few screenshots out of context and then started a crusade against that game.
6: Some notes about Brigitt from Guilty Gear. For over two decades Brigitt was consistently characterized as a femboy, and was one of the most popular femboys on the internet. That's also how she was portrayed in-game. But in the latest game seemingly out of nowhere Brigitt was revealed to be a trans girl. Transphobes immediately claimed that Brigitt coming out was a mistranslation based on a TH-cam video of the JP version that used intentionally incorrect subtitles, and still claim this to this day despite the creator of the entire series confirming that Brigitt was trans, that this was always supposed to be the direction her story went in and the game consistently using she/her pronouns for Brigitt in menus, promotional material, and in-game. Meanwhile the more rational people were just disappointed that they lost a femboy icon and we're concerned by the unfortunate implications of making Brigitt trans (that femboys are all secretly trans girls in denial, which is bigoted and enforces unfair gender roles) but still supported Brigitt being trans and used the proper pronouns.
7: Most of the characters you showed in the intro aren't trans. The skeleton pirate voiced by Toby Fox from we bear bears isn't trans, I'm pretty sure he's a guy. Though, to be fair, skeletons don't really have any physical gender since they're just bones. 😂 I haven't watched infinity train or One Piece so I can't comment on the second or third ones, but I know One Piece has a cult/organization of gender bending drag queens in the earlier seasons and that they're suprisingly the good guys. Alluka from Hunter x Hunter is indeed a trans girl and is one of the few in the intro to be 100% confirmed trans. (to my knowledge) Spider Gwen is NOT trans, (or at least has absolutely nothing hinting that they are) and no, showing the "trans colors" next to a character (unless it's the actual trans pride flag) does not make them or hint at them being trans. Pink and Blue is a common pastel aesthetic. Don't look to hard into it. Don't know about Star Wars High Republic, especially since the show isn't out yet. That frog girl from Rocko yes is 100% trans.
8: Chidori from Danganronpa is NOT trans. The whole point of his arc is that he feels like he's forced to pretend to be a girl because he's so small and feminine, and he feels like he would be accepted more as a normal girl rather than a femboy. Based on his so-called "friends" reactions to his death, he was probably right. He wants to be more masculine, which is the opposite of what trans girls want. If Chidori had his way, he would be super masculine like Sakura, and would probably end up that way by training with Sakura if he survived the death games. Might even end up together? IDK. (I ship them)
9: You missed quite a few characters. Juniper from Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is confirmed to be non binary. Along with that, Alvis/Alpha/Ontos/A from Xenoblade 1 and Xenoblade 3 was reconned in XB3 to be non binary all along, and unlike Brigitt from Guilty Gear this actually works and was received pretty well. Shiver from Splatoon 3 is heavily implied to be non binary, though this was censored in the US release (by the same guy who censored Vivian in the 2000s none the less) to make Shiver female, though this is still very vague even in-game. A lot of fanart (and R34) still portrays Shiver as fully female with big boobs solely for waifu factor, tho, but in the actual game it's heavily implied that Shiver is nonbinary.
Umm.... the only thing you messed up on was shiver being non binary. Nintendo confirmed she's a woman
To be fair about spidergwen, there is a trans pride flag/sign thing in her room that says "protect trans kids" and her dad has a little frans flag pin. Combined with the very queer allegory of having an identity that you hide from your family for fear they will hate you for it, with gwen's own initial "coming out as spider woman" to her dad going poorly so she seeks refuge with the other spiderpeople until later when she goes back to her father and he has had time to accept this new person his child turned out to be.
It leads it leads to the conclusion that gwen is trans and her spider woman journey is running parallel to her trans journey, or at the very least her story is a trans allegory.
Pretty sure Shiver is female in JP too it's just that Japanese doesn't use gendered language as much so it took a while to tell.
Also not to be "that guy" but it's Chihiro not Chidori.
I'm not exactly a Granblue aficionado but everything I've ever heard about Ladiva suggests she's handled very respectfully despite her burly frame and facial hair. This is her and she's happy with it, and we stan her for that
i found you through the jacksfilms video and this thumbnail and title hooked me. interesting video for sure i never realized how much representation there was
My favourite trans character: Morpheus from Resident Evil Dead Aim. Her transness isn't even commented on, but she goes from being a mere human to a a slaying being of ultimate power. Kind of how I felt when transitioning. Yeah the game has it's problems and she's an evil villain... but I claim her nonetheless. Anyway holy fuck it's better than how we were depicted in Code Veronica :|
Thanks for recommending Dys4ia!! I myself am not trans, but I still think it was pretty darn cool! It's lovely to get even more understanding about how a lot of transfems become such.
12:29 this one actually is canon, if you get a key from catty and bratty you can actually go into the bedroom of napstablook's sibling. And reading through the diaries inside, it's implied that alphys built mettaton as a physical body for them, and that they now feel more comfortable in their own metallic skin being a guy.
Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, _Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door_ got a remake and Vivian is explicitly transgender in all localizations, and none of the protagonists misgender her. (In general, most references to anybody's transphobia is removed but Vivian mentions her sisters bullying her more after coming out.)
Fun fact Napstablook and Chara are also nonbinary
also hot-take: i dont think chihiro from danganronpa is a transwoman. it'd make more sense if he was a transman or something but i dont think he was meant to be trans at all, just a cross-dresser who felt like he wasnt "man enough" for society so tried to hide himself
Agreed. This is 100% canon and the people who say Chihiro is trans either didn't play the game or weren't paying attention.
0:12 THATS MY GIRL THERE SHE IS!! also WOW THIS IS A GOOD VIDEO very in depth i didnt expect rainbow six seige of all games to have two trans characters? wild! very good video melany i learnd so much :D
Great video!
I'd also like to add another 2 great examples from Xenoblade 3 since you mentioned Roc from XB2.
There's Juniper from the main game who, while never explicitly confirmed, is headcanoned by a majority of the fanbase as NB. The game only ever uses they/them prounouns when referring to them, and they have a similiar thing to Roc, being given a "2" in the code to refer to their gender where 0 is Male and 1 is Female (I think, it might be the other way around, doesn't actually matter either way).
There's also A (Yes, that's her name) from the DLC who is explicitly a Trans-Woman. You meet her originally as a man called Alvis in Xenoblade 1, but she comes back for the DLC story of 3 as a woman. Some of the fanbase also say she's NB because of a line from another character saying she's "somewhere in between", but for complex lore reasons that's referring to something slightly different and A uses she/her for herself so that's what I'm going with.
The fact that some people say that video games are only “woke” now, even though rep like this has existed for a while is crazy.
I smiled at your mispronunciation of Liara's names. I get that though and am glad you included the strangeness of asari.
just got this video recommended and i am surprised that you dont have thousands of subsribers (yet). This was a great video to start my morning with, i subbed to the channel ^^
(also the last game must be the best thing ever created...sadly my internet is too weak to play the conclusion part if the vid, but i guess it's ok..have a wonderful day)
That game is made in RPG Maker fyi and was made by my arch nemesis Lv117 Indignant Unikalas. Don't play it.
I think it wouldve been cool to include monster prom since the series has a ton of trans characters (Zoe, Milo, Sawyer, Hazel, Riona, glitch) as well as borderlands (Lor and FL4k)
I'm coming back to rewatching this video, because I have been playing tell Me why, and wow it was good. You really get connected to these characters.
Alyson the daughter being this woman has a troubling past, with her mother.
And Tyler being on the run trans man, who hides his feelings about carries truman and heartship. If you're a huge fan of life is strange, you will love it. But also melany is right it is very triggers, also it's mostly with mother being a anti trans, but I recommend it deeply. And really help find I'm am nonbinary.
the nintendo switch version of paper mario the thousand year door changed the chapter 2 dialogue, removing Beldam's transphobia, as well as changing Vivian's chapter 4 dialogue, adding a line that implies she's trans. other mentions of Vivian, such as from Goombella's tattle, no longer misgender her.
it's better than the original, but I think making Beldam less transphobic was a bad change bc that was where we got the implication that Vivian was trans in the first place, and Beldam is literally evil, so making her a slightly more moral character doesn't make a lot of sense
love this video! i had no idea some of these characters were trans/non-binary, super cool (also side note I loved the editing of this vid)
Thank you!!! :D
Absolutely play Super Lesbian Animal RPG when you get a chance. Also, Goodbye Volcano High has a ton of queer rep in it, def give that a look.
This is a really good video, I wish people were less hateful when people talk about these topics. I see a lot of trans hate on tiktok and youtube shorts and it just breaks my heart. Its nice to finally see some of this kind of content on my feed.
This video has been in my watch later for a while and i just got around to it and my goodness did I love it! I cried lol it makes me very happy to have the community be represented even if the transmasc part leaves a lot to be desired haha
Uhh words hard but pretend this is a really profound and impactful closing statement have a nice algorithm and uhh congrats on the jacksfilms feature
Testament is genuinely one og the most attractive characters I've seen in a video game
my absolute fav is vivid//stasis, silly offline singleplayer 4 Lane rythm game where you play as a lesbian Trans woman, it's amazing representation with a tense plot with a lot of room for cute little moments and some sad reflection. strong emotions and tense moments are always broken up by challenge levels to not hit you all at once. it breaks up the story with the gameplay pretty well, needing you to get things from playing songs to unlock the story pieces. just very nice and sweet and tense at times
By the way, my girlfriend and I found your video after doing a TH-cam search trying to find trans women who are into retro games because my girlfriend is a trans woman who is into retro games. I am both into retro games and into her so. The retro games sections on TH-cam is tends to be dominated with CIS dudes with beards so it's refreshing to find anyone else. Definitely keep up with your videos.
What's crazy is that I didn't even know Claire was trans in Cyberpunk2077 until the one time she mentioned it to me, and then I noticed her pride flags. Claire is so cool, I adored her storyline
No mention of deadnames. Her husband was supportive when she opened up about the transition struggle. Claire had no discrimination in the game, everyone seemed respectful. I thought it was good representation
That's because in the world of cyberpunk, transphobia and homophobia have been fully defeated. While this may seem like a huge win, there is a LOT bigger of an intrinsic issue in that game: class division.
@@KrimsonKattYT its almost worth living in night city if not for all the crime and shit lol
Oh I was aware of Claire at the start of cyberpunk but didn't realize her huge flag on her truck till i got it after completing her quests 😅😅
cyberpunk 2077 has a quest line involving a trans woman. you even unlock her truck which has a trans flag on the back.
Note: the characters of Mad Mew Mew and Mettaton, while heavily hinting at the trans experience, aren't transgender in the traditional sense. The ghosts of UNDERTALE are alluded to quite literally have no gender. Upon choosing a vessel to possess, however, they seem to adopt the pronouns of whatever "gender" that body may have, and only get to fully "merge" with it once a strong, emotional bond is formed. I'll leave it up to you how that relates to the experience of transgender people, with ghosts who are still trying to find themselves, others who long ago found what they're comfortable with, and some choosing not to look for a vessel at all. In conclusion, yeah, the ghosts of UT ARE trans one way or the other, but are more of a trans allegory lore-wise, I suppose.
As for Frisk/Chara/Kris - none of the three are ever stated or implied to be non-binary. For whatever reason, the gender of each of the humans ever mentioned is kept as entirely ambiguous in UT, with the Japanese translation explicitly using gender-avoidant pronouns to refer to them. For all we know, the humans of UT/DR could be nonbinary, cis or otherwise, but that is for now not known.
Hope that clears things up a bit, lol. Sorry, I'm just a big UT Lore nerd and had to clear some things up. Awesome video! Have a good one.
Two more examples of note:
While not having any actual trans characters, 1991's Space Quest IV is rather... infamous for a scene in which the main character, Roger Wilco, has to disguise himself as a woman in order to use a stolen ATM card he stole from an ex-girlfriend. To do this, he purchases a dress and wig from a store. When he requests that the dress be in his size, the robot clerk calls him "sicko." While in disguise, Roger even has an exaggerated "feminine" walk cycle.
On a more positive note is the character Varden Dawngrasp from the Warcraft spin-off card game Hearthstone. Introduced in the Forged in the Barrens expansion in 2021, Varden is the first non-binary character to appear in the Warcraft franchise, and is voiced by Kayleigh McKee, a trans voice actress. From what I've seen, Varden is portrayed quite positively in the Hearthstone series.
I know this is a sensitive topic but I honestly feel like Bridget was one of those "pandering, poorly written, shoehorned in" characters honestly. It's become such a sensitive topic and people are so desperate about it. I honestly hate it. You don't have to respond cause honestly, it's a scary topic to talk about.
That’s honestly really interesting to hear. I’ll admit I’m not too familiar with Bridget which is why I was so brief on her but I’m actually going to look into this for the future because I’m honestly fascinated to hear this.
dragon age inquisition should have gotten way more time in this video. there's a whole cutscene about how one of the species in the game has a whole cultural tradition of accepting trans people
To be fair Chihiro isn’t trans
What about Clare from Cyberpunk 2077 the bartender of the Afterlife, she has a quest line about street races and revenge but her story is very touching. If her truck isn't enough of a giveaway she outright tells V (after you have built up some trust with her) she's trans, how she is handled you would never know unless you play her questline.
What's awesome is that she was a voice actor in the tv show tuff puppy 🏳️⚧️
@@chloeholmes4641 didn't know that, but yeah it's very cool.
The one thing I hoped to find in this video was one character. I like him a lot he’s the definition of a cool dude. His name is Oryx the Taken King from Destiny; I’ve yet to see many mention him in any discussion about cool villains or even trans discussions. But now I have left you with that knowledge about him, learn his and his sisters’ story.
I'm a brazilian, in 90s we're represented by Blanka... and EVERY one liked him.
But what if the game didn't have cultural representation of us? There was no problem. Boys and teenagers wanted to have more fun playing a good game and not be represented, this was just an easter egg. We played as boys, men, women, robots, dragons, ugly fat ninjas, beautiful knights. The last thing we wanted to do was pay attention to something like skin color being the same as ours. I saw few girls playing, not because they felt poorly represented, if that's the reason, but because women simply like violence and fights less than men.
Do you know any girls who play Armored Core? Ace Combat? CoD? probably not. But you definitely know of one that plays LoL, because the graphics are cute and so are the models. The game has always been like this, for children, girls, boys and everyone else. In the same way that there were girls who liked Super Mario at the time, because it was cute. It's always been like this, boys like to see blood and violence, girls like cute things. There were games for all audiences. Anyone who didn't like one could just choose another, no one was offended for not liking a game because they weren't part of that game.
I didn't realize Birdo was still handled so poorly in Japan. damn
(great video btw)
I always loved being birdo
I GOT SO EXCITED WHEN YOU BROUGHT UP BUGSNAX OMG THAT GAME IS SO IMPORTANT TO ME FOR SO MANY REASONS AND IT'S SO UNDERRATED
my favorite visual novel, Cool Kid Cody, has a trans character in it, he's the main loser [there's losers, cool kids, and gods in this story], and his name is Pizza Boy/Pizza Boi/Peter. It depends what episode you're in, Pizza Boy is the loser name, Pizza Boi is the Cool Kid Name, Peter is his real name. Anyway this is basically the scene that implies PB bein trans, may or may not be good representation, i dunno [It's an optional scene in season 1 episode 5]:
---
Cool Kid Cody: Whoa your family's HUGE!! Who knew there'd be so many pizza people in Hella City?!
Cool Kid Cody: These pics look way different from the ones at Lil Greaser's though!
Pizza Boy: That's because the God of the restaurant fixes all the photos so that Cool Kids won't barf when they look at them.
Cool Kid Cody: HARSH! I mean, there're a lotta pizza faces in your family but they look nice enou-
*Cool Kid Cody: OH MY GODS IS THAT YOU AS A KID?!*
Cool Kid Cody: Your hair was so long!! And holy crap, Steve was even cooler lookin' back then!
Pizza Boy: AGHHHHHHH NO!!! Don't look!
Pizza Boy: I can't stand old pictures of myself, or any pictures really...
Pizza Boy: Let's just pretend the past never happened!
Cool Kid Cody: Aww, well maybe it's nice to look back n' see how far you've come!
Cool Kid Cody: You look waaaaaaaay cuter as a Pizza Boy!
Cool Kid Cody: I-I MEAN, NOT CUTE, J-JUST MORE LIKE YOURSELF!!
Cool Kid Cody: Not that you're not cute, I mean you just look way better, less hideous, y'know what you're right let's just pretend the past never happened!
Pizza Boy: Hey I'm not the one who wanted to snoop.
---
Also, it's heavily, HEAVILY implied that Cody has feelings for Peter. Even the OFFICIAL wiki says it:
"Based on his behavior, Cody may have certain feelings for Peter that he is unaware of."
Found on Pizza Boy's page under the relationships tab, under Cody.
Peter is also Demisexual! [Cody is Pansexual, if you were curious.]
The creator of Cool Kid Cody has also said that they were gonna make some ships in Cool Kid Cody canon at some point I believe... Not sure if I dreamt that, but I have a strong feeling that Peter x Cody is gonna be one of em,,,
There's also a trans character in the webcomic Cucumber Quest by Gigi DG.
Her name is Rosemaster :)
Here's the scene that shows that [PAGE: 540]:
---
Nautilus: It's odd, though. Now is when I'd usually try to remember what I've learned about you from my studies...
Nautilus: ...but I'm certain I've never heard anything about a Rosemaster before.
Rosemaster: How tragic. I imagine you must be familiar with Thornmaster, then.
Nautilus: (Gasp!) That's the one!
Nautilus: Thornmaster -- I know I've seen *his* name in legends!
Rosemaster: And what do you think, now that you've met her?
Nautilus: Well, she's much more elegant than I was expecti --
Nautilus: Ohh. You mean...
Rosemaster: I'm not fond of legends, Princess. Never was terribly fond of that name, either.
Nautilus: I-I'm so sorry!
Nautilus: It's good to meet you, Rosemaster! I hope we can get along --
Nautilus: WAIT A SECOND
Nautilus: What have you done with my friends? I DEMAND answers!
---
I think I forgot to mention Rosemaster is one of the villains of Cucumber Quest.
There's also Bacon! [Still called "Sir Bacon on the character info card, tho. But I don't think the cards have been updated in a while and probably never will be-]
It obviously couldn’t be in this video (i’m pretty sure the game wasn’t even out yet when this game was being made) but another game with really good trans rep in in stars and time!
(Minor Spoilers for the game ofc especially with isabeau’s story arc)
In stars and time has 3 non binary characters and one trans male character! All of the main characters have their pronouns in their bio aswell
The religion of the game (the change belief) is VERY trans friendly. It is ofc about change and this it is shown how this helps the characters with isabeau (the trans man) and how it hurts other queer people mirabelle (she’s aroace and struggles with the idea that romance is “needed” to change).
Isabeau has a scene with main character siffrin where he describes his childhood and how he used to be completely different (an extremely smart nerd with little friends and no self confidence) and describes how he changed himself to be more happy.
While the enby characters in this game have a story line that gives little focus on their gender and just let them have their own unique stories, these characters are
Siffrin (he/they) the main character being tortured in a time loop, what the game is actually about lol
Loop (they/them) the strange and mysterious star person. when you first meet they say you can call them by “the royal we” before realizing that makes no sense to siffrin and says you can just use they/them
And bonnie (they/them) the only kid in the group and the person in charge of snacks
This ramble was way too long apologizes lol! I just really love this game and thought the topic was relevant to this video! As an enby trans guy this game’s transness is really special to me and gives the time of day to some trans masc characters which doesn’t usually happen :3
Hikeback, a gamejam visual novel, has two trans characters. Driver is a transman and Hiker is non-binary. If you like time loops and angst, it's such a great experience. Keep in mind, there are plenty of things that may trigger some people but clown (the creator) has listed all of the potential triggers on the game page. Driver being trans isn't outright stated (i think, its been a bit) but clown has confirmed it. Hiker's implied to be trans in game but clown has also confirmed they are non-binary. Hiker was referred to he/they in earlier posts but was later changed to they/them.
Edit: I Found It!!! 👇
"The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories" such a good game 😭😭
Warning. Dark tones so be advised: 👇
I remember seeing this 2d platformer recently a year or two ago about a character going through the levels where she has to "hurt herself" to change the layout of the levels, and during the game you receive texts from your mother and best friend!
At the end it turns out it was a dream and something drastic happened which resulted you waking up to paramedics. Tho at the end you finally come to terms with who you are and go out with your best friend shopping!
0:21 Chihiro isn’t trans in the first place, so it’s strange to say that he’s “bad representation”.
Agreed Chihiro isn't trans.
Wasn't there something about Samus from the metroid games being called trans in an official strategy guide or something? I think it was meant as a joke similar to Birdet.
Correct. Some random person on the development team for, I *believe* Super Metroid, joking said that Samus is a “transsexual” if memory serves correct. I didn’t bother to include it cus I figured that most likely wasn’t canon by any means given it was just a random guy on the team for the game and nothing more concrete, compared to Birdo/Birdette coming from the game’s actual instruction manual. :)
@@MelanyMiku i understand. I just happen to be a really big fan of that theory is all ^^
there are also several gender non-conforming characters in five nights at freddy's! most notably, funtime foxy who is referred to as both he and she and is included in ladies night despite having a masculine voice; and the mangle, which is also referred to as both he and she--and scott cawthon confirmed his gender is "yes". there's also female souls possessing male animatronics, which i guess isn't exactly trans but cool to include.
6:57 hey my favorite trans character
Honestly a underrated gta character
I'm so happy I found out about Damien being a trans lad. There's so little amount of trans men in media, that I'll take ANY good rep any day, honestly.
With all the trans men rep out there, it's sad to say I've only ever really connected to two, just based on such little rep.
Damien, ofc, and a character named Utsumi from the manga Our Dreams at Dusk (highly recommend it nyehe)
I hope there'll be more rep out there for us trans lads, especially in RPG's (that's one place I see like- nothing on, not even much for trans women ;;w;;) as thats personally my favourite type of game genre, (I'm one to find realistic games kinda boring unfortunately :') ) but right now, I'll take Damien with all my heart KJJHGSD
ALSO QUINA MENTION LETS GOO! (Hi, massive ff9 fan here LMAO)
LMAO came back here to say:
This video made me try Undertale for the first time and now I am incredibly obsessed with Mettaton, he rules sm
yo its mettaton, one of my favorites!
he's mor heavily implied then confirmed, but im all in for trans mettaton
From a transwoman game dev thank you for making this video. Also to add to this the remake of Harvest Moon a wonderful life you have a option to make a nonbinary character where you get properly gendered by all the characters in the game.
Hey, thanks for making this video. I know this sounds weird but this video kinda inspired me to come out to my parents tomorrow. Seeing how trans rep has (mostly) gotten better over time it helped my paranoia about coming out to pretty much go away. So uhhhhhhh thanks! Not exactly what i thought would inspire me to come out, but whatever, thanks!
Aw I’m flattered :). You’re welcome and thank you! I wish you good luck on coming out!!!!! 🥳🥳
So, how did it go?
@@KrimsonKattYT to keep it breif my parents got a divorce the day i was gonna tell them lmao. kinda gotta wait for stuff to calm down a little before telling. still gonna do it tho! ill update if when i can!
@@caffeinefueledanxiety5116 Any update? Do tell.
Considering this video is about representing trans individuals in media, I guess this is a good place to ask this.
Would it be seen as insensitive for there be a character who is trans in a piece of media but not have it overtly stated that they are in fact trans? One common theme I've seen with a lot of these characters is that it's specifically stated that they are trans. I have several trans friends, and I've heard the opinion that some would prefer to just be referred to as the gender they identify as rather than being seen as a trans-(insert gendered noun here), and I feel like stating that a character is trans would defeat the purpose of this view.
Adding to that, what if it's not an integral part of the character? Like, they have their life, their goals, their viewpoints things they value and that's the character, but also they're trans. It's not a huge deal. It's just treated similarly to something like their height; not a massively important detail, but it's there. This is another thing that seems recurrent in a lot of these characters. It is front and center that these characters are trans and it's a huge part of the character. Again, this goes back to my previous point that I've heard the opinion that some trans people would not want to be seen as trans, but instead as the gender they identify as. If there's a man in a game who is trans and it's treated as a major part of the character, then that character is being presented as trans-masc rather than simply masc, which directly opposes the view that this character should just be seen as what they identify as: a man.
(Please don't tear me to shreds and think I'm a massive bigot. I'm just trying to learn.)
Know this is from a couple month back but in case you haven't got an answer yet or for others who'll see this:
It's completely fine for someone's transness to not be overt.
Whilst some folk are openly so, others just simply aren't - this, you can extend onto characters too.
Though it is visibility that matters most when it comes to representation, it's also simply that: visible.
So, it's fine to treat it as another detail to a character and not have it be a driving factor in their arc; it'd be cool to see more of that tbh. Account accordingly for how that would affect a character and go from there. Needn't be so stern too; you can have a laugh with it.
Hell, I'm a trans lass and days after I realised, I was calling myself shit like "IRL hentai category" with mates.
I may or may not be a gremlin though but so long one's gender respected & heeded, there shouldn't be cause for concern.
And yes, I'd suspect most folk would rather be seen by their gender rather than trans-something.
Again, some are open & chill with it being known but at the end of the day, your gender is your gender.
We transitioned (in whatever capacity) to be perceived and live as such.
This video changed my life
I looked at the upload date and immediately thought "oh my god if she doesn't talk about Super Lesbian Animal RPG I'm gonna be so fucking mad." So when you talked about a game to end this with I was bracing myself for it, and I still yelled in celebration.
Also yes, you should play it, it's legitimately one of the best games I've ever played in my entire life. I'm not exaggerating in the slightest when I say it's crystalline perfection, an incredible masterpiece, a life changing experience, and a dream come true.
Also, just wanna point out, Bridget and Testament both existed long before Guilty Gear Strive. Bridget originated in Guilty Gear XX and at the time she had identified as a fem-presenting cis boy who wanted to be more masculine and Strive shows her accept her identity as a woman years later. Testament has been around since the very first Guilty Gear and has always been explicitly nonbinary, though the localizations just he/him'd them until they were added to Strive.
Also also, Blazblue has the characters Platinum the Trinity and Mai Natsume. Platinum is the name for the vessel containing a young girl named Luna, a boy named Sena, and the reincarnated spirit of a woman named Trinity Glassfille who used their body to reincarnate herself I think (Blazblue lore is fucking weird and makes no sense whatsoever.) They're portrayed as having DID, mostly just with Sena and Luna alternating between who has control and even bickering between each other, each using different pronouns and other characters referring to them as such, so you could argue they're bigender or genderfluid. Mai Natsume's backstory is mostly explained in the manga Remix Heart, but basically she had identified as a cis boy but Blazblue Lore™ happened and she was transformed into a girl instantly, and from what I gather the manga is about her realizing how fucking great this is and also joining a polycule in which she gets four girlfriends.
I might take a look at that dating game since I'm trans masc myself (and I recently figured out my sexuality), plus I love mascs with long hair sm! (Elliott from Stardew Valley is literally my favourite character from that game. :)) I love seeing good trans representation and I'll have trans and non-binary representation with my own characters in my own games.
Fun fact, Limstella isn't the only genderless character in FE7! Bramimond was born male, but gave up their "self" during their studies to master the dark magic, so now they don't really have a gender and instead mimic the personality and voice of people they are talking to. Notably in Heroes they can use voices of all three FE7 lords (I guess you could also interpret it as them being genderfluid?). But yeah, it's interesting that FE7 in particular had not one but two genderqueer characters
Edit: FE10 also has Kyza, who uses feminine pronouns in the Japanese version (which of course got removed in the localisation) and the Fire Emblem 20th Anniversary Encyclopedia says "The body is male, the heart is female?", which, come on, pretty much confirms she's a trans girl. Buuuut she's rather masculine-presenting so of course the Heroes localisation decided to make her nonbinary instead, because lord forbid we have gender nonconforming trans characters in a game :/
I know they're a robot, but FL4K from Borderlands 3 is nonbinary. They're a machine, but it's kind of neat that the devs went through the trouble of having their talent tree use they/them pronouns in the descriptions. I know it's not "trans representation" but since prominent nonbinary characters like Testament are here, figured I'd mention them. Too bad I didn't like Borderlands 3 and don't really recommend it. But, hey, it's a AAA game with a nonbinary character, which is cool.
Hi!! I just found this channel, im transmasc and i found this video super interesting!!
Wow, this is really solid commentary on trans characters! Can't believe you aren't wildly more popular, girl!
It's because of the fingers and the angry crossed armed pngtuber sprite. When people see the crossed armed png tuber sprite, they panic, especially if it's a furry png tuber. Most png tubers are terrible people, and there's quite a bit of truma from terrible pngtubers like Electric Dragon 104 and Achilles Argyle.
Another example to throw into the 2010s, one of the supporting characters in Assassin's Creed Syndicate (2015), Ned Wynert, is a transgender man.
Sorry to be a major 🤓 but Doki Doki Panic started as a Mario prototype where Birdo and Shy Guys and many others will very much present so basically Doki Doki Panic was originally Super Mario Bros 2
How tf did I not know after all these years that DDP started as a Mario prototype that’s so fucking cool.
I don’t think you’re likely to ever get the trans representation you want in a major title simply because size of the community is small it also makes accuracy hard since not all trans people have the same idea of what a trans person should be. You could certainly make like able character but it still likely won’t sit well with everyone.
English! Do you speak it?! Anyways the LGBT isn't even that small. 8% of the human population is a lot when there's 10 billion people on the planet. That's like 1 in every 12 people you meet. All most people ask for is a well written trans character that isn't blatantly bigoted and is more than just their gender identity. We have plenty of those and growing, but more would be nice.
@@KrimsonKattYT 8% is lgbt includes people who aren’t trans I identify as bisexual. I wouldn’t qualify myself to write a good trans representation same with a lesbian etc.
Also I’m biotech major I suck at English. My point was just that the trans identifying portion of lgbt community is really small.
@@michaelbayley9432Even if a group is small that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be represented
Wish you had gone over Gwyndolin from DS1
Loved this video! Just a piece of criticism though, the ai voices make it kinda hard to discern what is being said (i.e., 1:43, I don't really know what is being said here)
I recommend trying to use regular tts voices instead when doing this at least as the ai voices are low quality, but that's up to you really. Cheers!
(edit: corrected grammatical errors)
16:00 Ladiva's design is a problem but the cute passing girl isnt??? wtf????????
5.8k likes out of 6.3k views ? Damn girl that might be one of the highest ratios I've ever seen !
Vivian was my first video game crush as a kid.
Based.
Birdetta is an icon ✨✨
Side note, I feel like mattaton from undertale gives some vibes of pansexuality, maybe because of the colour scheme of the area and the character or ever so slight bit of bias on my part. But hey, we all have a bit of head canon.
Side note part two electric boogaloo: I love how even in **some** games from so many years ago they respect trans characters, nintendo didn't do too much for representation but they did at least improve a lil over time
Im glad im putting my English degree to good use 😭
could i ask where the birdetta name came from?
Very nice video! Got yourself a new sub :P
Yeah Mettaton is definitely a trans allegory going off the diaries one can find and finding a comfortable body
My favorite fun fact about super lesbian animal rpg is that is started life as a my little pony friendship is magic fangame called super lesbian horse rpg. And each of the major characters easily map to one of the major characters from the show.
You missed 2 games from 2021 and 2022: Everhood and Cult of the Lamb!!!
All characters in Everhood are genderless/nonbinary and use they/them pronouns!! (Two characters seemingly use it/its as well, being Red and Blue Thief.)
Cult of the Lamb has Shamura, who uses they/them pronouns, and the Lamb itself which is I’ve heard recently is also nonbinary!!!
I think there are probably several more Frisk-style ambiguous gender / non-gendered characters that can be interpreted as non-binary even in older RPGs. One that comes to mind is Popoi, one of 3 playable protagonists in Secret of Mana (though in the original English translation they gave them he/him pronouns instead)
Another game that's often mentioned in this context is "The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories". I think it's another one that's ostensibly good but sad and potentially triggering, similar to Tell Me Why. Though it should be noted that the game's creator Swery has also had big missteps with representation in other games (the Deadly Premonition series).
It would also be interesting to consider character creation options that allow for trans characters. From what I heard South Park: The Fractured But Whole lets you pick explicitly whether you're cis or trans in a surprisingly positive presentation. The Sims 4 also added a lot of options at some point I think. But then on the other hand some games have been more controversial in this aspect like Cyberpunk 2077 and Hogwarts Legacy. Even this year the character creation options around things like combinations of pronouns/voices/genitals/etc. for games like Baldur's Gate III and Starfield have been much discussed.
If you go back to the lion you find out they start wearing a dress and say that they feel more "comfortable"
The one that comes to mind for me is Rosetta Valeriano from VC4 but looking it, it is more we don't know than anything else
where is the best girl Claire from cyberpunk? the best girl ever for me
MY BOY LEV MENTIONED LETTTTSSSSS GOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
Played dys4ia because of the video and it was honestly kinda inspiring in parts (I'm tranfem
8:10 Minor correction: gyps*e is a Roma slur, not a Romanian one.
Just commented this myself
Gypsy?
Huh, odd, cuz it appear in Kingdom Hearts 3D just fine.
I pinned another comment about that but pretty much: oops. My apologies for the error I’ll try to handle the subject and get my information correct in the future. Thank you for calling me out on this I really do appreciate it.
@@DarkOverlord96 That's because that word was based on a movie released in the 90s and Romani wasn't really a term known in the mainstream back then. Dream Drop Distance also was released in 2012 also long before Romani became the PC term to use for that people group.
Kirby is non binary in Japan
the best for me is DEF south park fractured butt whole.