Rambling about more nonbinary characters

[@taraelblackwing1070]

Your previous video on nonbinary representation was a much needed kick that helped me to finally rethink my entire life up to this point and realize I'm genderqueer. Thanks a lot for that, keep doing the good work

[@WritinRealSlow]

That's amazing! I'm so happy I could help! ^_^

[@Bunni89]

I really love you pointed that out about Limstella! I like when "nonhuman non-binary" is subverted by just making the species NOT have different gender rules than us. People often forget it, but Quina from FF9 is like this too. It's my massive pet peeve when people say they're "from a genderless species", because there's absolutely no evidence for this in-game. Every other Qu character has a binary gender. The only thing we can say definitively is different about their culture's concept of gender is that they're devoid of any predjudice against non-binary members. And that's heckin awesome!

[@WritinRealSlow]

Honestly, quina is just a fun character all around. I don't get the hate some people have for them.

[@Lenitas]

I felt that rant on the Doctor Who episode deep in my soul. I liked a lot of that episode so much and then they just end it with *that* bullshit... Like they could have just put the Doctor being unable to let go on the being a timelord instead of human part rather than the masc part. Which fit with the established set up of "that little human spark" Donna mentioned in the original metacrisis episode. Plus if they changed that, they could have more build up towards the ending of part 3 where the Doctor finally starts letting go of stuff. Have the whole three parter just be specifically out building up towards the Doctor finally letting go.

[@WritinRealSlow]

yeah, you're absolutely right

[@Funhaus_Fr34k]

honestly that would've been way better (& make way more sense)

[@ayior]

Even though definitely flawed I love F.F. (Foo Fighters) from Jojos Bizarre Adventure. Now they do fall into the cop-out of being non-human and also being multiple - They are a colony of hyper intelligent plankton that chooses to possess a dead womans body as a vehicle - but I nontheless really related to them because it clearly shows how ones self perception can be divorced from their body. And also the whole "I don't understand human customs / pursuit of knowledge is what is important" personality combo is always very appealing to me lol

[@WritinRealSlow]

honestly, FF was my favorite character in part 6. I was completely heartbroken when they died, but the scene was so powerful and it was done so well!

[@Ahumblelizard]

With the Adjudicator in John Wick, the one that is killed is in the Continental miniseries, who was played by a different actor, Katie McGrath, and is more implied to be a woman. The Adjudicator that shows up in the films lives, which is the character portrayed by Asia Kate Dillon. I'm not sure if that changes anything, but it might be worth noting.

[@WritinRealSlow]

That is worth noting, thank you. I appreciate the clarification ^_^

[@Autobot-Sonic]

Would really love to see your thoughts on Nightshade! They're the very first non-binary transformer introduced in Transformers EarthSpark two years ago.

[@WritinRealSlow]

I've been getting a lot of recommendations to look into nightshade, so I probably will share my thoughts on them at some point.

[@BlackReshiram]

its sooooo nice to find another nonbinary person talk about this sort of stuff more. thank you for your work writin, i love your stuff!

[@BondforgedSky]

Love getting a follow video to your wonderful first enbie vid ( which I actually have watched multiple times. I dunno, it just resonated with me ). The stuff with Rose sounds so shitty. I watched the specials yet, but I'm honestly really glad I got to know about how Rose's gender is treated beforehand because it just so frustrating that actually happened. But like you said, there's more good enbie rep out there than bad. So while we should for sure acknowledge the bad and criticize the writing of said bad rep, I'm glad we have plenty of good rep to point to and celebrate how well done that rep is.

[@WritinRealSlow]

I'm glad you liked it! I hadn't really seen anyone else talking about the special, so I wanted to weigh in with my opinion. I hope I didn't dissuade you from watching it though, it's really good otherwise

[@BondforgedSky]

@@WritinRealSlow I still plan on watching it. Once I get caught up with Doctor Who that is, which will take a while because the furthest I've gotten was early in series 6, and I plan on rewatching series 1-5 on top of that.

[@WritinRealSlow]

@@BondforgedSky okay yeah, gonna be a bit. Have fun!

[@tigerbear5845]

It's been a while since I've seen The Star Beast, but I don't think it was suggesting that "The meta crisis/timelord thing made Rose trans/enby," because, like, she released the meta-crisis and lost the mental enhancements it did to her brain, but it didn’t change her gender identity. The episode already established that her assigned gender was male, and she doesn’t detransition in this episode or near the end of the Giggle. She hasn’t swapped back to he/him, or her deadname. Rose is presumably still going to be trans-fem non-binary if she appears in future episodes, and there they likely didn't intend for the "releasing of the meta-crisis" to be interpreted as Rose "curing herself of being enby" (but seeing as you/presumably other folks read it as such, that is indeed a fuck up, and they should have made it clear, “hey, Rose isn’t trans/enby because of the mettacrisis.” ) I think the reason they decided to make Rose non-binary was because they wanted to make a call back to when Donna’s mind was melting from the meta-crisis in S4, because during that scene, she repeatedly said “binary.” However, seeing as Rose’s enby identity is only in that “binary/nonbinary” line, and in all other parts of the episode, she could be presumed to be a trans woman, yeah that’s a very crappy enby rep. They really should have made her identity more clear in the episode. And yeah, the male presenting timelord thing wasn’t the best (though I guess I’m less bothered by it because it’s just one crappy offhanded line that can be ignored. Plus, it was already established in past seasons that the human part of the metacrisis made Donna more creative/mentally flexible than a timelord when she was the DoctorDonna, I can just pretend/headcanon the “if you were still a women” part was more just Donna and Rose being snarky and it was just the meta-crisis’s human half making them able to see a meta-crisis cure that the doctor could not. Still, though, the line sucks.) I guess I’m more forgiving on it because I know the shitshow that is the UK’s trans rights rn (cough cough “TERF island”), so Doctor Who of all shows trying to have a positive trans rep to normalize trans people to the UK is sort of what the country needs, but the enby rep sucks for the episode, and I hope the later episodes have better representation.

[@FelbyIkendy]

i loved the first enbie video, which was how i found your channel, and this one is great too! :D also Limstella is amazing and i love their design so much oh my god, when i got the notification for this video while at work i thought to myself "did they have Testament in the first one?" and YESS TESTAMENT MENTION they literally are the reason i got into GGST and i love them so much they're literally perfect for me in every way, gameplay, style, design, and enbie i love them to death oh my god and if i remember correctly Testament in the Japanese versions has always canonically been not exactly male or female (outside of the gender binary but when they were made there wasnt a term or pronouns for them to use so it's a little odd) even before they became a gear they were nonbinary, but the english versions of the games the localization teams up until GGST always made them have he/him pronouns due to presenting more masculinely, i could be wrong but i believe that's how it was, wow i havent heard anything about that dr who special but that's absolutely awful...

[@WritinRealSlow]

okay awesome, I'm glad testament was always nonbinary! I couldn't really tell because their wiki page was a little unclear, but even then, I'd have still thought they were pretty cool. Knowing this, I honestly think they're pretty great representation!

[@Mik3l24]

... What's up with Najimi Osana from Komi can't communicate? "Uncertain gender" is the first description given about her (that really stuck with me), but she seems to treat gender and other's perceptions of it more like a toy? Said to have been wearing boys' uniform in a previous school, but a girl's one during the show? Suddenly saying "Yeah, I'm a girl" when meeting a childhood friend, but later "No, I'm a boy" to someone else? Even the main character is confused about the pronouns... though Japanese has fairly complicated and contextual pronouns so maybe the translation is missing something? This was kinda my first introduction to NB (or gender fluid, I dunno?) representation? (not counting Undertale, as gender of the human characters was often understood as "up to interpretation" and I didn't really notice they/them pronouns?) Though, Najimi's gender isn't really brought up much in the show after the introductory episode.

[@WritinRealSlow]

I honestly don't know, I haven't watched or komi can't communicate yet. It's on my list of things to get to.

[@tyto9188]

So more about Testament, most other gears are masc identifying ones (ie Sol Badguy and Sin Kiske) or femme identifying ones (ie Dizzy and Justice), so then being nonbinary is not due to them being a gear just years of figuring themself out and likely unpacking a lot of trauma.

[@WritinRealSlow]

awesome, thank you! I appreciate the explanation ^_^

[@tyto9188]

@@WritinRealSlow You're welcome! Glad I could help explain some.

[@BAVy11037]

If we're talking about anime, I'd mention Nanachi from Made in Abyss. I don't remember if any pronouns were used for them in the first season (in english sub; in japanese pronouns don't really correspond to genders), but in the second season I clearly remember 'they' being used In japanese the creator deliberately avoids using gendered words for Nanachi, and has said that 'Nanachi's sex is unknown' in a tweet

[@WritinRealSlow]

interesting. I'll have to go back through and examine that again

[@Kagomai15]

Okay so your last video made me even more motivated to keep working on my Dragon Age Inquisition fanfic because my two Inquisitors are queerplatonic, polyamorous and one of them is nonbinary! And I've been working on it for almost 10 years hahaha

[@WritinRealSlow]

Can you link to it?

[@Fade_NB]

Loved the first one and have been hooked on your channel ever since love to see it!

[@WritinRealSlow]

I'm glad I can provide! I'll do my best to keep bringing you the good stuff!

[@angelickiwi493]

I loved your last video so much it made me subscribe, it makes me so happy youre making another one!

[@Bunni89]

Some reccommendations of enby characters in older videogames! None of these have been confirmed with the word nonbinary cos of the time they cane out, but all called genderless or gender unknown and referred to with neutral terms in japanese. Popoi from Secret of Mana was genderless waaay back in 1994 in japanese. A cute lil pixie creature and absolutely hilarious troll who's majorly endearing! The original english translation censored them to just a boy, but the remake thankfully restored their androgyny in all versions. Spar/Aspara from Breath of Fire 2. A badass awesome elegant plant person who can transform into all sorts of shapes- masc, femme and even a dragon! They were also censored in the INCREDIBLY bad English translation. (Like seriously, top ten worst of all time!) Unfortunately this game never got a remake so its never been fixed even nowadays. Quina from FF9 is as far as I know, chronologically the first non-binary character to not be censored in an english translation. However, neutral pronouns werent well known at the time so the writer took an odd solution of writing every text box with both pronouns at once. Like schroedinger's pronoun, we never know which is actually being said. Wild idea, but I'm still glad they went with this instead of removing the character's identity. Quina is a main party member and hilarious comic relief chef monster with wacky plots and some genuinely sweet emotional moments. One of my fave characters in the series! I really like how their gender is just never mentioned at all as a negative. You'd expect for a game at the time there would be jokes mocking them for not being the cliché skinny type of androgenous, but nope! They've got ten thousand jokes and not one of them is "nonbinary bad". I heckin love them!!! Oh and their later cameo in a gacha game canonized that they/them is now their official modern pronoun. Yay! Arno from Summon Night Swordcraft Story 2 is another very early uncensored translation. They're a cute werewolf sidekick, and one of four options for the deuteroganist of the story. This game also handled the lack of pronoun options, in a very different way. Every character assumes Arno's gender differently, so they get called every pronoun under the sun. So it can be a bit frustrating to see their gender used as a constant running joke. However, the pronoun is always "youre both wrong! This character is just nonbinary!" Arno's literal catchphrase is "I'm not a boy or a girl, I'm a child of the wind". So it feels like the joke is at the expense of the cis folks making such a big deal over it. I always respected Arno's confidence to cut through their bullshit! Unfortunately this series had the opposite future of all the others. Despite having a great, boundary-pushing translator at the time, who committed to leave all the LGBT stuff uncensored, that team no longer works on the series. The new translators for Summon Night 5 not only turned the enby character into a boy but retroactively went back and changed every enby in every previous game to a boy too. Lost that entire history of representation in an instant :( And then of course you already know Testament, they were always genderless in japanese way back in the older games too. But it just took until now for it to be uncensored in English. So thats all the history of old videogame enbies I know, and its interesting to see how differently it was handled from series to series.

[@WritinRealSlow]

Of the older ones you mentioned, quina was the only one I already knew.

[@ConvincingPeople]

One I only just remembered because I've been meaning to watch more of this show for a very long time: Rui from Gatchaman Crowds is pretty explicitly genderfluid and says as much in not so many words offhand at one point. Fun character. Also, for as shockingly unpleasant as that last example was, I'm glad that you reminded me of "Midnight". It's up there with "Dalek" as one of my favourite post-revival Doctor Who episodes. Genuinely eerie bottle episode.

[@WritinRealSlow]

Midnight was honestly one of my favorite episodes of all time

[@lunaflower226]

It's funny you mentioned giving you a cookie or something. I'm actually baking cookies while watching this, haha. Though it still sucks that there are so many awful representations of non-binary people. As being non-binary myself, I want to see more better representation.

[@crunchybanana6489]

I love the trope of “being non-binary gives you superpowers”

[@artfulray]

There’s also a nonbinary character in the dragon prince, they are referred to with they/them pronouns and are a scholar and was general amaya’s sign language interpreter when she was kidnapped although they are the only nonbinary character and are non human they are still very humanoid and they aren’t nonbinary because of being an elf

[@WritinRealSlow]

I am aware of both Kazi and The Merciful One.

[@wellingtonmcskellington4833]

yippee limstella mentioned

[@WritinRealSlow]

They're really cool, definitely my favorite morph.

[@smujb5544]

a significant portion of the main cast of guilty gear are non-humans (i.e. "Gears") including the long-time protagonist Sol Badguy and the new protagonist Sin Kiske. none of the others identify as non-binary, so I don't think Testament's gender identity is tied to their non-human status. when exactly they started to identify that way is unknown, but the original guilty gear's English translation uses he/him pronouns (which might be a localization error, to be fair) at which point Testament is already a Gear. their character has also changed a lot between XX and Strive, and perhaps in exploring their hobbies and interests they came to realize they are non-binary.

[@WritinRealSlow]

alright, I appreciate the clarification

[@NikkiError]

zombies 3 was a disney kids movie that had a nonbinary character played by a nonbinary actor

[@wyster14]

I’m ngl Dr Who has really declined of late. They used to be really good at having strong messages in the show and actually making it emotional and good. I feel bad for Jodie because she is a phenomenal actress, but she got handed some bad scripts.

[@WritinRealSlow]

yeah, they kind of just refused to let her be interesting. It was the only season I just didn't finish because I couldn't get into it at all. I really hope they do better with the new doctor, he seems really fun!

[@pandez1759]

CRONNNAAA

[@WritinRealSlow]

oh right, I forgot them too.

[@pandez1759]

@@WritinRealSlow no problem they are just my favorite and O just recent watch it eheh