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Asexual characters in gaming

Shifty

Shifty

Member
Hippopuncher12 said:
While Vivi could be asexual I guess, my take on it is that he is like a 10 year old kid, maybe younger than that so I doubt he would even have sexual feelings anyway.
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purseowner said:
That's not how sexuality works...
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True, but regardless of any later-game stuff your opening example quotes him as not really thinking about that stuff. That response still works in the context of a pre-pubescent child who has yet to figure out their sexuality.
 
A

AlStrong

Member
a Master Ninja said:
It feels like 343i injected a little "romance" between Cortana and Master Chief, but maybe I misinterpreted those awkward cutscenes.
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The augmentations suppress sexual drive.

Fred did seem to focus briefly on Veta's butt in a couple passages of Last Light, but maybe I shipped them subconsciously. Ahem.
 
adamsapple

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
I think Aloy from Horizon ZD could be a candidate for this topic.

She practically shrugs off multiple romantic advances and in one quest straight up says she doesn't/hasn't experienced romantic feelings (side quest Sun and Shadow).

But you can also argue it might be because of her solitary upbringing.
 
P

purseowner

Member
Shifty. said:
Would you mind clarifying this a bit? Since the topic is about implicit asexuality I can see the line getting kind of blurry, particularly since characters being genderless is often also an implicit thing.

(Also, Toadette)
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I don't see how the line's blurry at all. Asexual and agender are two totally different things. The latter would be an interesting, but completely different topic with far more examples available.

SomTervo said:
IIRC it's completely possible to play Max from Life Is Strange as asexual.

She's probably the weirdest protagonist in any game I've ever played.
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I hope that latter statement isn't a judgment based on the former.

I agree with the latter in so much as she doesn't speak like a normal human being -
atrociously written dialogue.

ElBoxyBrown said:
Asexuals can still fall in love. But I didn't see Chief falling in love with Cortana. It's more of him expressing deep sadness for losing his one and only friend that understood him.
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Examples of aromantic representation would be welcome too, on that note!

Death Penalty said:
It's massive spoiler territory, but Vivi's age shouldn't have anything to do with this conversation. I know you're still playing through so I'm treading very carefully here, but there's nothing later in the game to contradict your analysis that Vivi is probably asexual and a lot to support it.
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Interesting to see divided opinion on this one.
 
O

Ouija Luigi

Member
2849529-doom.jpg


I think this guy gets his kicks elsewhere.

Elfstar said:
177437-ryo_hazuki.jpg
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Hahaha, perfect.:D
 
LordKasual

LordKasual

Banned
Oh, i forgot

Almost every JRPG villain is asexual

except for that one time in Final Fantasy where the bad guy's main motivation was to bone the lead female
 
N

NealMcCauley

Member
Solid Snake perhaps. He flirted a lot but seemed about it.

Then again it may have had something to do with being sterile and not being interested in sex.
 
C

Caronte

Member
purseowner said:
That's not how sexuality works...
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Yes it is. I didn't know I was gay until I was a teenager because I didn't feel sexually attracted to anyone being a kid.

Vivi is just a kid, who doesn't really know much about anything (including himself), let alone sex.
 
P

purseowner

Member
LordKasual said:
This is, unfortunately, the correct answer.



Except for ^ this one, it was legitimately jarring to notice Kat actually making advances and musing over male NPCs in the game.

Controlling a female character who actually pursues her sexuality is a huge contrast. It almost never happens.

Female characters usually have tunnel vision for the player / a single character, or are essentially completely asexual.
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Just want to say this is a great post, and I found this refreshing when I played Gravity Rush 2. Asexual representation is rare, but female characters being allowed sexual agency is just as much so.
 
B

BiggNife

Member
I feel like Bison is probably asexual because he literally cares about nothing except more power. I don't think this has ever really been explored, though. The shit about Cammy being Bison's former lover or whatever is 100% non-canon, at least.
 
S

SomTervo

Member
purseowner said:
I hope that latter statement isn't a judgment based on the former.

I agree with the latter in so much as she doesn't speak like a normal human being -
atrociously written dialogue.
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Haha, yes, see my post again. I've edited it. Realised I implied that by accident.

Re her dialogue: the dev team are French, and while the first episode or two are pretty damn clunky it definitely comes together and improves a lot.
 
P

PSqueak

Banned
JSoup said:
NiGHTS is male and identifies as such. This much was confirmed by the Sega/Archie partnership in the 90s.
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But wasn't the lore in the actual game confirmed to not have a defined gender as for it to be flexible to the fact that you could choose a boy or a girl for the human character?

Tho again this would pertain to being agender, not asexuality.
 
L

Loz246789

Member
I think it's been stated in an interview somewhere that Miles Edgeworth from the Ace Attorney series isn't into women. Now, the popular interpretation of that is that he's gay, but considering the lack of a REAL romance
(sorry Phoenix)
over the course of 10 in-universe years, him being asexual/aromantic makes a lot more sense.
 
D

Death Penalty

Member
purseowner said:
Interesting to see divided opinion on this one.
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You should consider bumping this thread when you finish the game, because there's an interesting discussion to be had about Vivi in particular. I think you're totally correct that he's asexual, and most of the arguments I've seen against it don't really apply if you've played the game all the way through. If you're spoiler conscious though, you definitely want to avoid clicking on FFIX spoilers in this thread, as a warning.

Caronte said:
Vivi is just a kid, who doesn't really know much about anything (including himself), let alone sex.
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Vivi is not a kid in a traditional sense. Black mages are created fully formed, and he will not physically mature. Seeing as sex drive is not a learned behavior and that Vivi will not grow because of what he is, Vivi is very likely completely asexual given his comments.
 
JSoup

JSoup

Banned
Platy said:
Isn't the gender based on the kid it manifests or something crazy like that ?
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Supposedly, that's the idea from a gameplay perspective, but from a story perspective there is NiGHTS and then dream fusion thing NiGHTS. Basic, not fused with anyone NiGHTS is his own person with his own identity.
 
P

purseowner

Member
Gonna reiterate this just so that the discussion becomes more focused going forward: I'm talking about asexual characters not agender characters.
 
H

Hippopuncher12

Member
purseowner said:
That's not how sexuality works...

Anyway, Zidane isn't that much older.
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I’m well aware of how sexuality works, thanks. My point is he is a prepubescent child, and very well could just not have any feeling toward sexuality yet. I know when I was 9 I didn’t. I also said he very well could be asexual. Anyway Zidane is 16 and is not comparable to a 9 year old.
 
B

BiggNife

Member
JSoup said:
NiGHTS is male and identifies as such. This much was confirmed by the Sega/Archie partnership in the 90s.
Click to expand...

I really would not treat anything Ken Penders writes as Sega canon

Otherwise we'd all accept that Station Square in Sonic Adventure is a secret society underground and that Amy Rose aged 6 years in a day by wishing to a magic acorn or something
 
D

DragonGirl

Member
An asexual person is somebody who is not sexually interested in others. This is not associated with gender identity as an asexual may identify as straight, gay, or anything else. It gets more complex than that as there are many shades of asexuality, but for the simplest definition and most easy to identify: An asexual is somebody who has a definite sex and gender, but does not have a sex drive and is not sexually interested in other characters.
 
adamsapple

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Drillow said:
The entire Resident Evil cast
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Leon is pretty into Ada and Carlos is often flirty with Jill in RE3. Steve in CV too but you can argue Steve was a teenager so that's .. expected I guess.

Oh boy. I really want to link that one old mashup video with sound bites from the original RE1 but I don't want to search at work. I'm sure some of you know exactly which video I'm talking about.
 
W

WonderzL

Banned
This isn't the place to show your prejudice against asexual people ;)

stop with the jokes with people that are not sexual in their games.

Being asexual is a completely different thing.
 
D

dragonlife

Member
Caronte said:
Yes it is. I didn't know I was gay until I was a teenager because I didn't feel sexually attracted to anyone being a kid.

Vivi is just a kid, who doesn't really know much about anything (including himself), let alone sex.
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I knew I was gay before I even knew what gay meant, and I was a kid.

What now.

I definitely felt things when near certain boys. Not to mention all the shirtless men you'd see in Mexican novelas.
 
W

WonderzL

Banned
Loz246789 said:
I think it's been stated in an interview somewhere that Miles Edgeworth from the Ace Attorney series isn't into women. Now, the popular interpretation of that is that he's gay, but considering the lack of a REAL romance
(sorry Phoenix)
over the course of 10 in-universe years, him being asexual/aromantic makes a lot more sense.
Click to expand...

Oh I love this! My interpretation was that he is gay, I always felt that he saw something in Phoenix. But yeah, being asexual is probably also a possibility
 
P

purseowner

Member
Loz246789 said:
I think it's been stated in an interview somewhere that Miles Edgeworth from the Ace Attorney series isn't into women. Now, the popular interpretation of that is that he's gay, but considering the lack of a REAL romance
(sorry Phoenix)
over the course of 10 in-universe years, him being asexual/aromantic makes a lot more sense.
Click to expand...

This is a really good one. I think I understand slightly more why I love the character so now, haha.
 
D

DemWalls

Member
Here, I'll say this guy is asexual because why not:

13876531_1801905463425738_8365909590566379612_n.png


It's a pity they didn't do much with him, especially given how the game begins.
 
W

WonderzL

Banned
Caronte said:
Yes it is. I didn't know I was gay until I was a teenager because I didn't feel sexually attracted to anyone being a kid.

Vivi is just a kid, who doesn't really know much about anything (including himself), let alone sex.
Click to expand...

Your experience isn't how science works. Most people know their sexuality in their childhood
 
S

Syril

Member
Bladenic said:
Vivi is a 9 year old (spoiler)
Actually like a few months

He doesn't think about that stuff because he's too young. Sorry to take away a potential representation but I think Vivi is grasping for major straws. And yes, there's a spoiler later in the game that nullifies that assumption regardless of Vivi's age.
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I'm inclined to agree with the OP in this case. First of all, (spoiler tags for OP's sake)
this game has a LOT of focus on romantic relationships. 5 out of 8 party members and other major NPCs have them as major parts of their character arcs. Second, this is the same game that has a 6-year old girl persistently attempt to woo the main character romantically.
 
S

SomTervo

Member
JSoup said:
Because this newage hippy tumblrite lingo is genuinely annoying to navigate.
Or something.
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I understand that. Fucking can't wait for this shit to be taught in schools. (Which I guess is getting less likely every year considering the stratospheric rise of the Right.)

Anyway:

  • sexuality = what you are sexually or romantically attracted to
  • sex = biological sex, what 'bits' you have (not as clear a line as you might think)
  • gender = your internalised perspective of self, your identity - traditionally falling into the 'sex' categories
What you were referring to was 'agender' which I don't think is a term that's really used. We're talking about 'asexual', which falls on the spectrum with 'homosexual', 'heterosexual', etc. But it has the Latin prefix 'a-' which means 'not' or 'lack of'.
 
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