Nowadays LGBT Rights are pretty big topic, why? Because for the first time in US History and in the history of a lot of other places we can actually talk about them. Previously we could only speak of LGBT matters in code, in ways the moral majority wouldn’t be able to understand. If you’re a millenial like me or a Gen Xer like my dad, you probably remember School Fundraisers and Pep Rallies where people danced to YMCA or parades where Naval Veterans did a choreographed march to “In The Navy!”
See, the Village People were gay, they were very gay. They mostly sang songs about the joys of hot man on man action but they did so in a time period where you weren’t supposed to even acknowledge that homosexuals even existed in the first place. So people either didn’t know that the songs were about or they had a suspicion but didn’t wanna say anything because then they’d be the perverted weirdo thinking about sticking his dick in another man’s ass. However for people who actually were gay, it was a sparkling hope. You’re gay, you hear super famous singers singing about getting hot young man down at the local gay bar and giving him a big long kiss on the lips, no ladies, just you and your man. It was something small, but you’d know that you weren’t alone and in a time before the internet that’s a rarer commodity than it sounds.
Especially since there was no way anyone was going to talk about this stuff unless it was forced on them, even when LGBT Activist groups demanded representation in Hollywood, most gays and transpersons were played as villains. Normally it was implied that their being gay was a sin in itself that either made them the bad guy or if one of the good guys they would be killed off half-way because being one of the “sinners” they were too guilty to be in the survivor’s corner. It was the only way to have LGBT characters but still appeal to the “Moral Majority” Hell some of the earliest adverts for Psycho portrayed it as a cautionary tale of the dangers of transgenderism. So having to send the positive messages in code was BEYOND necessary, because if you’re trans and listen to the mainstream they’ll tell you you’re Buffalo Bill from Hannibal or you’re Norman Bates from Psycho. But hey, let’s go ahead and compare people with crippling depression to serial killers, it’s not like they’re going to end up with the highest rates of suicide in the country just beyond those of dentists.
Nowadays you don’t have to talk in code, you can just come out and say that Sapphire and Ruby are lesbians, they’re not good friends or sparring partners, they’re lesbians. You can come out and say “Yes Korra/Kung Jin/Dumbledore was gay, end of discussion.” you don’t have to hide. This has done a lot of good, some bad admittedly, but a lot of good. The good is that LGBT Folks are gaining rights at a rapid rate and politicians who come out in favor of taking those rights away don’t do very well in the polls. The bad is we can’t really talk in code anymore because the cipher is now out to the straight folks and cispeople. So when we try, we get a vocal minority screaming “YOU’RE CORRUPTING OUR KIDS!” (ever wonder why Teen Titans Go gets far more marketing than Steven Universe even though the latter does far better in ratings? Now you know) and executives have to make a choice. Do they want to be seen as Anti-Gay or Anti-Republican? Not an easy choice to make when the people giving it to you are trying their damndest to phrase the question as “Anti-Pervert” or “Anti-Children”
So to put it simply.
It’s the 90’s Xena Warrior Princess being “Good Friends” with another woman? Oh well they’re just good friends, that’s okay. You need friends in a dangerous profession like that.
It’s 2016, we have a scene of two women watching a baby, there’s no context given to their relationship between each other and the studio is remaining silent? FINDING DORY IS GONNA TURN MY DAUGHTER GAY! THEY BETTER GIVE ELSA A BOYFRIEND IN FROZEN 2 OR I’M BOYCOTTING THE SHIT OUT OF DISNEY!
So yeah, I guess what I’m saying is LGBT Representation Matters and it’s not always obvious. So being a gamer it’s always great to see LGBT themes in my video games, we’re not quite on the level of having a widely recognized Hero save his beloved Prince regularly playing Go-Karting or showing up at the olympics, buuuuut.
First I’ll do my Top 5, Honorable Mentions, and then Dishonorable Mentions (where it’s done wrong)
Number 5 – Fairly Odd Parents:Breakin’ Da Rules for Nintendo Gamecube
(Loading Screen to the Stage where you can play as Timantha, the Girl Timmy)
Butch Hartman used to be an amazing Cartoon Writer having created Fairly Odd Parents and Danny Phantom, (Honorable mention to the failed Crash Nebula pilot) then he found Religion and it had vastly negative effects on his writing talent. Making questionable retcons and no longer tackling any social issues like he did in the beginning. Fairly Odd Parents went to being the Cartoon Of The Ever to the Animation Equivalent of jingling your keys in front of a baby to get it to stop crying. (Which reminds me, I don’t normally advocate the murder of infants, but I want to throw Foop into a blender and make Wanda drink it in front of Cosmo)
During the first season of Fairly Odd Parents there was an episode that basically stole my heart. “The Boy Who Would Be Queen”, an episode where ten year old idiot who constantly forgets he can modify reality on a whim Timmy Turner has to hide his more feminine interests from his friends while trying to figure out what to get for the birthday of a girl he really likes. After making a misogynistic statement, his Faere God Mother, Wanda intentionally misinterprets a wish to turn Timmy into a girl. Taking the new gender out for a test drive in order to shop in girl stores Timmy finds he, now a she, is able to do girly things without being judged for them and finds great enjoyment in doing so. The episode concludes with Girl Timmy befriending the girl he likes, Trixie, and learning Trixie has a lot of male interests. Trixie kind of wishes for a friend to help her be strong enough to admit that “Hey I like Kissy Kissy Goo Goo AND Skull Squisher!”, as a boy again Timmy confesses that this is him… Trixie rejects him for it, but lovingly so. We close on Timmy treating himself to a spa day.
There are various callbacks and homages to this episode in later parts of the series. One of them happens to be in this game, Breakin’ Da Rules, where one of the wishes you can make turns you into a girl, which allows you to progress through the Girl Scouts Camp and find pages of Da Rule Book there. Admittedly I did get a small pleasure from being allowed to be one of the girls at summer camp even if it was for a brief moment in a game. I know that sounds silly, but it’s some of the small things that make life worthwhile… like playing Bully and being allowed to go to class without “Para Educators” shadowing me the fuck around because of my autism (Even though I could attend class without them just fine), or playing FNAF and actually working the damn Night Shift as opposed to being told I was hired for the Night Shift and instead working the Morning Opening Shift every fucking day…. seriously, I’d rather take the killer robots. At least I’m AWAKE for the Killer Robots!
It’s worth nothing that in real life, the Girl Scouts accept Transgender MTF youth as cadets. They didn’t at the time of this game being made. Boy Scouts do not have any such policy for FTM youth and still reject Homosexuals from membership and from Scout Master positions under the long debunked premise of “Protecting children from pedophiles”
4. Birdo (Super Mario Bros. 2, Recurring Character through rest of series)
(Screenshot from Paper Mario:Sticker Star on the Left, Render from Mario Kart:Double Dash on the right)
Ah yes Birdo, she’s been called the Caitlyn Jenner of video games, but really I prefer to think of her as the Lavrene Cox mainly because not only did Lavrene Cox come before Caitlyn Jenner, but Lavrene doesn’t completely disgust me by being an over-priviliged shitbiscuit who openly mocks impoverished Transwomen.
It’s gaming’s worst kept secret that Birdo is a transwoman. This is taken from the manual of Super Mario Bros. 2 which states that Birdo was born a male of her species named Birdette, one day put a ribbon on her head and asked everyone to call her “Birdo”
Birdo is later seen as a love interest for Yoshi. No controversy or anything is raised about this, Yoshi is never told “You know she’s a guy right” by the other characters, instead everyone’s just happy they’re together. So congratulations, Mario Tennis (N64) which established the romance is more mature than most adults in the physical world. What’s interesting as even though the manual slipped passed the radar, future manuals never make reference to this again. However promotional materials for games like Mario Party 7 don’t use ANY pronouns to refer to Birdo, meaning it’s still canon. This is later confirmed with the Japan Only game for Wii, Captain Rainbow where you must act as a defense attorney for Birdo who has been arrested for using a female restroom…. I didn’t know Pat McCory was a Nintendo character.
Later we see Birdo in Paper Mario Sticker Star who has gained the catchphrase “Just don’t get egg on your face.” while singing a song about her transition. “Heart of a woman, heart of a man… Wear a bow on your face and dance around, just don’t get egg on your face!”
Most recently Birdo can be seen in Mario And Sonic At The Rio 2016 Olympic Games where doing Bowser’s victory animation, Birdo can lean in to kiss Bowser who reacts by leaning close to recieve the kiss only for Bowser to freak out upon getting a closer look at Birdo. Normally I’d say this is a transphobic shit tier gag, but keeping in mind that Bowser is the villain and things he does are likely to be frowned upon, I’d say this is a bigger joke on Bowser and Hetero-Normative Society than Birdo.
Birdo sadly doesn’t make many playable appearances in Mario games, no longer appearing in recent incarnations in Mario Kart, Party, or Tennis like she used to, but we’re hoping this will change. We all love Birdo! Even people who hate Birdo only hate do so because they are jealous that they aren’t Birdo. Birdo is more man than you’ll ever be, woman than you’ll ever get and vice versa!
If anyone still doubts Birdo being trans despite this orgy of evidene, Shigeru Miyamoto himself said the difference between Males and Females of Yoshi’s race is that one lays attack eggs, the other lays child-rearing eggs… Birdo spits eggs from her face to fight…. Move on!
One final funfact before I move on though is that Birdo’s got some themes around her similar to Social Taboos about Sex and Gender, her Japanese name is Catherine….. Who else is named Catherine and happens to be….
….a pink dinosaur? You know I hate to dis Gregory Horror Show, but.. I’m pretty sure someone is ripping off someone else.
3. Daniella (Haunting Ground)
Once upon a time there was a game called Clock Tower:First Fear on Super Nintendo (or Clock Tower on Super Famicom for you weaboos), it was fucking awesome! There were sequels, one of them was unintentionally hillarious due to horrible dubbing (Clock Tower on PSX) the rest (Clock Tower 2:The Struggle Within or Clock Tower:Ghost Head as its known in Japan, Clock Tower 3) suck monkey fuck. Well not exactly. Capcom continued to make Clock Tower games, but removed the Clock Tower name from the license, themes, symbols, and characters still remained. They just figured “Maybe it’s the name!?!”
So Clock Tower 4:Demento (in Japan) or Clock Tower 4:Haunting Ground, was shortened to just the subtitle. This game is fucking awesome, scary as hell, and definitely ranks on my Top 5 Horror Games list. (Up there with First Fear, REmake, Uninvited on NES, and FNAF 2)
The game has a recurring theme of alchemy and the idea that life comes from a magical force called Azoth, men carry a smile amount of it in their ballsacks and women are just LOADED with the stuff in their uterus. So gettng a young woman of a proper breeding age and ripping her womb out is a one-way ticket to immortality and unreasonable cosmic power. Sadly, you’re a woman of proper breeding age in a castle full of horrible people who want to do just that. One of them is Daniella.
You know how I started this out by saying a lot of the time LGBT characters were allowed in movies under the agreement that they be insane, die before the end, villains or talked about in code? Well Daniella is all four, but I find her to be highly sympathetic. Daniella isn’t a transwoman in canon, in canon she’s a golem that can’t feel pleasure or pain and wants to be a normal human woman. Daniella understands that the player character, Fiona, has a womb full of enough azoth to not only make Daniella a woman, but an astonishingly beautiful one as well. So after putting Fiona to bed the maid Daniella attempting to get hers puts her head to Fiona’s womb and smiles. Fiona understandably scared fights Daniella off who proceeds to look into the mirror, have a dysphoria attack, and give Fiona enough time to escape. (This is actually a hint on how to deal with her, she’ll panic if you get her in front of a mirror)
Daniella is one of the deadlier enemies in this game, she’s highly intelligent and is prone to overlooking your hiding places to give you a false sense of security only to turn around and kill you. There’s also a cutscene to trigger where she abandons her shard of glass for a deadly fire poker, one you wouldn’t know about the first time you played.
What makes Daniella different from other transwoman villains is that unlike Norman Bates or Buffalo Bill, the desire to be a woman isn’t out of some perverted fetish. It’s a need that must be fulfilled to end the screaming voices in her head. Daneilla has nothing against you personally, but, if killing you is what it takes to finally become a woman and live at peace, then that’s what it takes! During the final confrontation she begins to tell you things like “Azoth, essence of life, essence of woman!” and “The man can enter you again and again, deriving pleasure for both of you, and this is your right because you’re just a precious little princess, a PRECIOUS LITTLE PRINCESS!” (No joke, I watched a Let’s Play for this game doing research on the character and the Let’s Player confused called out “Wait are you trying to tell me you don’t have a vagina?”.. so even he got the subtext) So yeah, she’s crazy, a villain, and a “Don’t Say Trans!” but I like her, not all tropes are bad I guess. You finally vanquish her by breaking a glass ceiling which she dances in to prove her inability to feel pain, a large shard comes down on her and she dies, but not before thanking Fiona for setting her from of the hell that was her life. (Kind of like how Transwomen have an abnormally high suicide rate)
Daniella’s stage is full of armors, toys, merry-go-round horses, things like that. The director of the game actually stated that Daniella was not only based on the torment that Transgender Women go through just by existing, but that her stage was full of artificial replicas of living things as a way of showcasing Daneilla’s negative emotions that she felt like she was an emulation of a woman, not a real one.
Daniella is definitely the most sympathetic villain of the entire series as she’s the only one with a solid reason for her actions that sounds rational to the player (For example, the Boss right after Daniella is a man who wants to rape Fiona… the fucked up thing is there’s an ending where he succeeds in doing so and if you get this one you have to start all the way over.), and the game itself is four stages long with Daniella’s being the second. Debilitus is the first boss and Daniella can actually be used to protect Fiona from Debilitus. (Debilitus won’t attack Fiona is Daniella is around), hell during Daniella’s stage the Bi-Polar nature of Daniella’s character will leave her abandoning stalking you to go clean a banister. “Excuse me miss, it’s cleaning time.” (But she won’t do that forever, so gtfo)
Well Daniella, if magick is real in your universe, I’m sure the afterlife is to. So you be the hottest ghost girl you can! Oh and… you missed a spot!
2. Edwin/Edwina – Baldur’s Gate 2
Pictured Above, the same exact character drawn in…. slightly different ways….
Before the third Baldur’s Gate game was controversial for featuring a minor extra who happens to be Transgender, there was the second Baldur’s Gate game which featured a major character who is transgender as the central theme of their storyline without any controversy or fuss raised at all. (Does Gamergate actually PLAY the games it complains about? Does it? I’m thinking it doesn’t)
Admittedly I haven’t played Baldur’s Gate myself, it’s just been one of those on my “Games I want to play, but other games take priority” list. Darkseed 2 was on that list, but then I watched a Let’s Play and realized how horrible that game was.
But yeah, in it you play a character in a D&D inspired world, where you pick a gender for your character to be where regardless of your pick there is a canon gender usually male, but you can play it as a female to help those who are female get better invested in the story. (a concept alien to Nintendo…. Looking at you Breath Of The Wild!) When female, your love interest (whom you can totally dump for someone else) is male, and regardless of what gender you are, your starting love interest is far more submissive than you are. You can even roll a transgender character by picking your birth sex and then using a spell or the Girdle Of Masculinity/Femininity. Boom!
The second game ups the ante by having one of your party members Edwin is cursed into a woman named Edwina, and the game actually plays it straight by having Edwina unsure about herself, whether to hold on to her previous identity as a man or try to find a way to cope with being a woman. Sure you do get the usual gags with this premise, but they mostly come from another party member whose a snarky bastard.
Ordinarily I’d be saying more about the game, but I’ve never actually Baldur’s Gate, I heard about these details second hand from friends and some browsings of the wiki. I merely found them interesting. So I won’t go on and on about shit I know nothing about.
And the winner is…. *Drumroll*
1. Alphys & Undyne – Undertale
Undertale is an obscure game that doesn’t have ANY MEMES about it at all
It also has ZERO spoilers involving a certain flower spread fucking everywhere that I had to go out of my way to make sure my best friend never saw. Spoilers I won’t detail for those who haven’t played the game. So you probably don’t know the tall one is Undyne and the chubby one is Dr. Alphys.
Now this list has mostly dealt with Transgender Characters moreso than Lesbian or Gay characters. This is because
1. I’m bisexual and transgender, most fictional characters in the mainstream pretend bisexuals don’t even exist.
2. This is a list of MY Top 5, not society’s, meaning I am going with things that left an impression or impact on me.
3. Transgenders are usually overshadowed by Gays, so, it’s fun to mess with your expectations as a reader.
Alphys and Undyne made the top of my list mainly because, here we have it, the two LGBT Characters who made the BIGGEST impact on me. Why? Because remember what I said about having to have the themes in code? It was because of Alphys and Undyne that I realized that we didn’t have to speak in code anymore. Undertale just come right out and says Alphys is bisexual, Undyne is a lesbian, and they both love each other. They’re not “really good friends”, they aren’t “cousins”, they’re here, they’re queer, and given how uncontroversial these characters were to gamers (I have seen zero complaints about either character’s sexuality) it looks like we’re used to it. Yeah there IS a transgender character in this game I could have used, but Mettaton’s not shown in as positive a light as these two and honestly he’s not as compelling as Alphys and Undyne. From the moment I figured out that Alphys and Undyne loved each other I was rooting for them I wanted them to get together, so when they did I was so happy for them.
No arguing with homophobes or idiots about what the subtext means, no “Don’t Say Gay” nonsense, just a Fish and a Dinosaur who love each other. Nothing more, nothing less.
I was really happy that Alphys was bisexual because too often people say “You can’t have it both ways, gay or straight.”
How do we know Alphys is bi? During a quiz show with super fabulous Ghost Chick To Robot Dude Trans Celebrity Mettaton, Mettaton asks who Dr. Alphys has a crush on. No matter which option you pick, it’s counted as the correct answer with Mettaton going into detail about the crush
Those answers are listed here, along with an orgy of evidence that whoever took this screenshot initially is hacked. (Level 20 before killing Sans, High Level without being in Genocide Route, 99 HP, name is set to Gaster…)
Well, there you have it, the top 5, from my perspective. LGBT Characters in gaming… But I do have some honorable mentions.
Honorable Mentions
1. Five Nights At Freddy’s -Scott Cawthon’s Apathy
In the beginning I kept a keen eye on the state of affairs with the new gu….. Sorry…
I mean, in the beginning a lot of people were confused about what gender Bonnie and Foxy were supposed to be because of the typically female names assigned to very masculine characters. Scott was quick to confirm that Foxy and Bonnie were male and Chica was female.
There was the question of Freddy Fazbear himself as he hides in the female restroom and his laugh is listed in the game files as “Girl Laughing”, the reason is because Scott used to use Public Domain sounds and a girl laughing slowed down to sound like crying was one of them. So… was Freddy haunted by a female spirit?
Later we had the gender ambigious Mangle, who looks very feminine but is based on a male character. A character referred to as “he” by the in-universe Phone Guy, but apart of the challenge “Ladies Night” in Night 7. So which is it then?
Finally we had the FNAF World design for Spring Bonnie (Pictured above) and Spring Bonnie is apparently female according to the design… which would make Springtrap LITERALLY a man in a woman’s body.
So.. wait, what gender is everybody!?!?! Well Scott shrugged and basically said he didn’t care. Canonizing Mangle’s gender as “Yes” and well when FNAF World came out Spring Bonnie is listed as “Male? Female? It’s a rabbi, who cares”
For those of you who’ve read the novel Five Nights At Freddy’s:The Silver Eyes, we do get an answer on whether or not Freddy Fazbear is haunted by a female spirit. The answer is yes, yes he is. During a eulogy for Michael (the child who becomes Fredbear/Golden Freddy) Charlie describes the kids who died as being three boys and two girls. But wait, Freddy, Fredbear, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy…. that only leaves one female body. Someone’s got a female spirit in them, most likely the one who has the “Girl Laughing” sound bite.
So yeah gotta give props to Scott. While it’s unknown what his stance on is with LGBT rights whether he’s for or against them, when people start making assumptions about his work, he doesn’t get all butt hurt about small details. He just shrugs and goes “As long as you understand the important things about the series, I don’t care.”
Which to recap are that THIS ASSHOLE
Killed some kids, who in the afterlife became THESE ASSHOLES
And they’re gonna stick their metaphorical robotic dicks in YOUR asshole!
2. Makoto – Enchanted Arms
Makoto was the first openly gay character in gaming that I remember where they came out and said “He’s gay, and he loves men!”, he even has a subplot where he wants to save a damsel in distress who is of course, a dude he is in love with.
I didn’t include him in my top 5 mainly because personality wise he’s the biggest damn flaming queen I’ve ever seen in anything ever. Benny Bunny (not to be confused with Bonnie Bunny) from Bait And Switch is more subtle than this asshole. However he was the first openly gay character I saw in anything ever, so he at least deserved honorable mention. Admittedly Enchanted Arms is a game I played but though I loved the gameplay and art style, Atsuma was a protagonist so stupid he made Tidus from Final Fantasy X look amazing. So I never finished it. Meaning I can’t say more. Fingers crossed for a PC Release someday.
3. NiGHTS – NiGHTS:Into Dreams and the sequel NiGHTS:Journey Of Dreams
Ahh NiGHTS. In the night, dream delight!
What can’t I say about NiGHTS? Well he’s a very surreal character and he is incapable of walking thus has to fly everywhere I guess would be the two things you could say from the picture. Beyond that, NiGHTS Into Dreams (Avaliable on Steam) doesn’t really have too much of a story. You’re a kid who falls asleep and comes to the lucid dream of Nightopia where Nightmares have taken over. In order to defeat them you must become one with NiGHTS so that he’s strong enough to find the pieces of Ideya (imagination itself) and restore wonder to the world of dreams.
The second game (which I haven’t played) goes into more detail about the story, the universe, who NiGHTS is, and why they kids came to NiGHTS.
The character has always sort of been the second banana to Sonic in terms of being Sega’s Mascot. If Mario and Link are the faces of Nintendo, then Sonic and NiGHTS at the faces of Sega. The creator of both characters, Yuji Naka, has mentioned that he always wanted NiGHTS to be associated with flight in the same way Sonic is associated with speed.
More interesting is that according to Mr. Naka, NiGHTS is somewhere floating in the ether as a real person and that was what the inspiration for the character was. Similar to how Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls is an allegedly real entity channeled by the series creator, thus is the same with NiGHTS. Those of you capable of magick I’d love it if you could try to reach out to NiGHTS champion of the dream world and see what results you get.
So… you may be asking “Okay, so what does NiGHTS have to do with LGBT Characters?”
It’s minor, but NiGHTS is an entity that does not have gender but will take on the sexual characteristics of the person he merges with. NiGHTS is a woman if he’s fused to a woman, NiGHTS is a man if fused to a man, and NiGHTS normally doesn’t have anything down there.
Additionally a romantic tension is teased between NiGHTS and the male player character from Journey Of Dreams. So I figured this flying jester was worth a mention.
So my final pick for Honorable Mentions must go to…… well… I think we need to be frank about about Frank.
4. Frank West – Dead Rising, Dead Rising 2:Case West, Dead Rising 2:Off The Record, and Dead Rising 4.
Now… Frank West is kind of a special case in that nothing has been confirmed or denied, only implied. I expect if any entry on this list gets me some complaints it’s probably this guy. Frank West is a crossdresser and a bisexual. Though we only get small hints to this so forgive me if it looks like I’m reading too much into it.
The first time I noticed something off about Frank was in the very first Dead Rising title in which Frank can dress in any clothing he happens to find in the mall. Including the women’s clothing stores. This in itself isn’t evidence of anything, except when you put on a feminine article of clothing Frank likes it a little…. too much. He starts doing sexually provactive poses that really make it look like he’s touching himself. Not only that, but his voice over sounds very pleased and he proceeds say “Alright, yeah, alright, yeah!” before concluding his sexual posing by saying “Perfect” in an almost sexual way.
At the very least Frank is an autogynephile. (A Cisperson who sexualizes the idea of them being feminized or wearing feminine clothing)
It’s worth noting that in the sequel Dead Rising 2 (the ORIGINAL Dead Rising 2 mind you), you don’t play as Frank West, but motocross dare devil who would do anything for his little girl Chuck Greene. Why is this relevant? Because Chuck when he dresses up female doesn’t react the same way, in fact he seems rather disgusted.
There is a little bit more to go on. In the remake of Dead Rising 2, Dead Rising 2:Off The Record you DO play as Frank who makes comments as he enters a few of the stores. One of the first is a story called “In The Closet”, once you enter Frank says “In The Closet! One of my favorite places to be!”
Is that thinly veiled bisexuality reference? Or am I reading too much into a joke? (Frank does show interest in the female sex, whether he’s faking it and is gay or he isn’t and he’s bisexual but hides that part of himself I’m not sure. But I believe it’s the latter.)
The last thing I want to mention is this. In Dead Rising 2:Off The Record you must find Zombrex to keep the Zombie Infection that could make you a literal dead man walking from taking hold. At the start of the game, Frank (who has written a book on his experiences fighting zombies) is asked by helpful companion Stacey why he never mentions this in his book, Frank responds it’s “Not the kind of thing you advertise.”
This could be a reference to the AIDS virus which even to this day, men attracted to men are targeted and slandered as carriers of this disease as opposed to merely being a community at risk to it. The medical equivilant of blaming the victim. The fact that there does exist a very expensive medication that prevents HIV from becoming full blown AIDS in real life doesn’t help matters.
Dishonorable Mention
Redshirt – Player Character
Redshirt was an interesting premise, though I’ve never played the game. I likely never will.
Basically you’re on Facebook, but you’re a crewmember of a whack Star Trek style space ship having various adventures full of unusually uninteresting sites. So the basic idea is to go around reading posts and befriending people who write things like this on their blog.
“The Captain landed on that Slaneesh Planet… He… She…. Shi? Hasn’t been the same ever since the spores formed him and the other higher-ups into a constantly horny hivemind of nymphomaniac hermaphodites. You’d think that’d have livened things up around here, but one week in I’m no longer interested in a promotion because it just means more fucking and I’m completely bored with sex… I mean, when you’ve had three orgies in one day it kill it for you…”
“My roommate Todd died, I was sad about it and kind of missed him…. Until we found the data crystals that had absorbed his conciousness and memories in a Quantum Signature. Now he’s a Hologram capable of tapping into the Q-Continuum. Damn I thought Todd was a prick when he was alive. The dick keeps making all the food sing like they’re muppets or something. It’s killed everyone’s appetite.”
“Became a cyborg, received lashing out from crew about why augmentation of the human form is bad because some hack writer from the 20th Century said so… Now I’m human again.. I hate that I have to use a keyboard to post again.”
“Girlfriend’s home planet blew up, still don’t support bans on Death Stars. Send thoughts and prayers.”
So sign me and the rest of America up, this is the comedy event we’ve been waiting for right? Well… I honestly have no idea if it is. Like I said. I DIDN’T PLAY THE FUCKING THING! In fact, I didn’t get past the mother humping character select. I can pick my gender, my species, my sexuality, my ethnicity. All that’s cool, but the second I switch gender over to female. I get a box popping up that goes “Trigger Warning” (no it literally says that) and then proceeds to give me a rant about how men are just the most terrible creatures ever and how picking a female character will for sure get me raped. So being a woman gets me raped? That’s the kind of thinking that enables rapists isn’t it? It’s not their fault, the presence of a woman made them do it.
Plus the bigger issue how just how misandrist it is to assume that everything with a penis has nothing but the desire to rape on their mind. This game is an enabler for Female on Male Sexism and I won’t have any of it!
Well that’s the Top 5, some honorable mentions, and the one case that disgusted me.
Some of you may be wondering why I didn’t include Street Fighter’s Poison. It’s not that I don’t LOVE Poison, but…. it’s because
1. The character was removed from a lot of American Versions of games and only now is being included. So by the time she actually showed up my reaction was “Oh, finally!” more than “Poison is so cool!”
2. The character’s origins have more to do with transphobia than transgenderism. (Nintendo tried to censor the original SNES release of Final Fight to exclude female opponents, but Capcom retconned Poison to being trans because somehow her being trans means it’s “Okay” to beat her up…. Personally, I don’t care what gender you are in a video game. If you’re in my way, then your death will make my day.)
and 3. I like some of the characters from Street Fighter ESPECIALLY the ladies, Cammy, C. Viper, Poison (obviously), and R. Mika. But I find the games themselves to be rather boring to play and hard to get into. I just always preferred Mortal Kombat is all. That said I LOVE Street Fighters’ two sister serieses. Darkstalkers (Morrigan, Jedah, and Jon Talban are my mains), and Marvel Vs. Capcom (Venom and Mega Man ftw! Them not being in MVC3 for the lose!)
So I felt it best to exclude her. Though props to including an openly transgender non-op woman with a big thick package as one of the faces of female fighters. It’s a shame we never did get that Fallon Fox Vs. Rhonda Rousey fight before Rhonda destroyed her career by being a giant crybaby about losing her first fight.
gemini weaver musings 