I guess the point here is… there’s been perfectly good female characters and trans female characters in video games already. Why do we need to change core aspects of them to be accommodating? Just get creative and create more bad asses.
Topic : This nature to claim over create. - [Post a Reply]
I understand the desire to claim a character for your community as a means of making you feel seen and represented within a particular form of media, but sometimes there are characters you just don’t try to fuck with. You don’t have to always have a cis female or a trans female to feel represented.
Samus Aran from the Metroid series was one of those characters. Long believed to have been a male merely on the basis that most video game characters were males. The decision to reveal that she had been a girl this entire time was definitely a fresh take on video games. She also allowed young girls at the time to feel as if they could have a character they say themselves in. She would later go on to prove to me one of the most badass female characters that Nintendo ever made and now people just seem to forget or neglect her. Even Nintendo.
In more recent times, the transgender community, who likely favored the character from their youth, attempted to claim her by starting to put forth the idea that she is transgender. I understand wholeheartedly the desire to have a character relate to your situation, but sometimes you have to leave something alone if it’s not broken. This is a character that should be left alone for the cisgender girls to have.
It’s not as if video games never had representation for the transgender community. Most people would mention Poison from the Final Fight games for whom the creators only fairly recently validated her trans identity. However, one such example of a badass chad trans character is from the game Grandblue Fantasy. Her name is Ladiva and she is a trans woman who while stuck within an overly masculine body radiates a feminine energy so strong that even I do would desire for her to choke me out between her thighs. She is also someone who doesn’t desire gender transitioning because she feels it’ll be disrespectful to her parents to change the body they created for her. She is someone who is what she is. And I think this is a character that a majority of trans women should get behind. Especially those who may not pass all too well in society.
I just don’t understand this need to claim characters who are bad ass on their own instead of creating new bad asses all their own. I’d rather see the creation of more characters like Samus Aran or Ladiva than wonder if Peter Parker is a trans man.
Why are people so fucking stupid?
In b4 some clown tries to call me transphobic or misogynistic.
Somewhat related, I recall a nonwhite associate lamenting how watching He-Man made him feel insecure when he was a kid because he could never grow up to be blonde and white like him. I immediately said that I had no problem identifying with characters that are clearly East Asian in anime. He told me I thought they were all white like me! I thanked him for deciding what I actually thought when I was kid (i.e. long before I met him). I don't understand the inability to identify with a fictional character unless it perfectly represents your identity and I think it's quite a prejudiced thing to believe. Not sure
Not saying there can't be more characters to represent more demographics, although I think it's very lazy to just race/genderswap Batman, Spider-Man, etc. That's why I don't like Western action comics. Sure, manga has plenty of overused tropes itself, but at least they aren't literally rehashing the same character designs all the damn time. There's at least an appearance that characters are different, whereas superhero stuff doesn't even try to do that. Make new, good characters.
I stopped buying comics eventually. I'm not saying all of the comicsgate folk were nice people, but they had a point. I hope all of the netflix and disney money was worth it, because it alienated a lot of their core customers (middle aged dudes with $200 pull lists every month). I don't go around kicking in doors on other hobbies saying there's not enough fat old guy representation in the purse collector groups. 100% progressive hit squad overreach.
And Mr T was in my top 5 heroes growing up and I was a white kid. Your co-worker had hangups.
I put up with the Final Fantasy franchise making every hero non-binary only as long as I could.
Joking aside...
Sure, I will concede that characters have a story to tell, and if it's 100% their story (and not an agenda or 'woke'), I can take it or leave it as interesting to me or not. I think you are pitching a fair angle on that topic.
Ms. Marvel is probably an example of one of those characters whose focus on diversity was done well. Her initial comic book run made her feel like a well established character from the classical era of Marvel. Sadly they’re making poor choices as if they’re trying to kill off the character and that includes sticking her into the X-Men. Compared to other characters like the Snowflake and Safe Space shit. I wish we’d have more heroes like Kamala Khan. I want a transgender superhero, but I want them to actually put love into it and not just shoehorn her/him in the main line just for the sake of representation.
The problem with this is that it’s naturally going to be political or woke since a lot of the real world struggles such people face get branded political or woke. If Bruce Wayne was trans and his parents were killed because of that. It’ll be branded woke.
These things are to be expected if you wanted said characters to have tragic backstories. I think the problem comes from the agenda or whatever being on the nose. Just write it somewhat realistic to real world experiences and it shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Either way, it just requires a good writer.
And most people out there aren’t skilled in anything anymore and those people flock to artificial intelligence in order to feel like they contributed to society with a decent work. See Matt Miller.
Kamala Khan was an example of writing a good character for the Muslim and teen demographics instead of just writing yet another version of Spider-Man for the Spiderverse.
Though I think the reason why so many like to make their own version of established characters, besides money, is because they’re easily recognizable and most grew up with them. Spider-Man, Batman, and Superman are essentially the same as Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, and Betty Boop.
But if you keep rehashing established characters there will never be anything new or refreshing that gets created. Another reason why I love Kamala Khan so much because she’s kind of the proof that you could create a character for a certain demographic and still be successful.
I would argue that plenty of trans girls could also relate to her as well because she struggles with her own identity. I just hope that Disney doesn’t start fucking up her character. Especially with a mediocre TV series.