A content creator, in theory. I'm a VTuber, video essayist, and generally mentally unwell homosexual making videos bc I have so many more important things to do that need to be procrastinated.
It's such a shame this game is horrible. Isak's design is such a waste :( Also I really like his voice too. But I might feel like this because I just think he's hot
to summarize the video: it's nearly impossible to create a non-binary (or enby, however you choose to call it) character because there is no set definition of what that IS, and pre-existing rules make it even harder to define it
I was so excited to see how ventures legendary skins would look since it’s overwatch’s first NB character and then they came with zero and I was so disappointed.
The game's title sounds like a legally distinct version of Zero Escape lmao, i was shocked at how little it seems to rip that series off compared to Danganronpa. I was kind of surprised no one in the chat brought this up: the plotline of the Big Strong Toxic Masculinity Man secretly being gay and it being used against him as blackmail is... like everything else in this game, actually directly lifted from the Danganronpa series. it's just that, instead of the games, it's from the Danganronpa 3 anime no one watched - specifically, it's basically the entire character of Juzo Sakakura. Also, side note, but the Mizuki LGBT community audio during the coming out scene made me snort.
Just wanted to shout out Sens from Rainbow Six who I think follows more in line with Venture. You can tell the devs tried to go for a very gender neutral look with their clothes and hair.
So basically the way I’m understanding it is there is no way to create a non binary character effectively, as if you use mixed male and female identifiers then it doesn’t accurately represent non binary people, but if you use more identifiers from one gender then they don’t appear as non binary unless the game outright tells it to you? The video was well made but idk if it actually addressed what the title was asking, as the answer just seemed to be “non binary is not being associated to a gender so there is no right or wrong way to design a non binary character”
Sasha is funny because they were *almost* good rep. Sombra 0.5 would’ve been neat, especially since they were clearly one of the more important people on the island. It just felt like the writers did a terrible job at actually making them NB, because it wasn’t more than “oooh they’re mysterious~~~”, as you said. Anyway, Setsu Gnosia is a great NB character. And it’s never even actually given focus, with their asexuality being brought up more often (it comes up once). They’re allowed to just…be.
Great Video! I noticed a pattern in people who accidentally use non-They pronouns for Venture, and it just happened that the pronoun they would use matched their own. And I found that interesting (of course, they corrected it when reminded, as one does with error). I wondered if that meant Venture was the "absence of gender NB," and I think your video answered that succinctly. I appreciate your efforts here; I have many NB friends who feel seen with recent developments such as FFXIV's Zero and OW2's Venture. Good stuff.
In the end, there are not a lot of games that have multiple nb representation. They become "the nb character" kinda like in the 2000' and before when in a group in a tv show there were "the girl character ". It is a beginning but the fact that there is only one limit what can be shown, what a nb is or can be and what the writers can do with it. If you are interested Gnosia is a great visual novel type game with 2 nb characters that are presenting pretty differently.
A trick I was taught for figuring these things out was to choose a characters gender last. Smooth out the visual design, what they'll do, their story, if its a game then their kit. Then, at the very end, add that final choice onto it. People really can look like anything, there is no one right choice for any character presentation. It simplifies the process, and also helps to break stereotypes. And it doesn't just apply to non-binary characters. Using the same approach for all characters opens up a range of variety and helps to break down the strict binary stereotypes we see.
This video made me realize just how naturally decoupled I am from the concept of gender in my character design. When I am drawing a character, their gender is usually one of the last things I come up with, and more often I don’t even give them a gender, I just decide what pronouns they use and call it a day.
You won’t regret it, Buried Stars is great. I actually put out a video about it a couple weeks back, but I’d recommend playing it first to avoid spoilers
My favorite part about nb rep in video games is watching the transphobes in the community desperately try to figure out whether said nb character is amab or afab
This video has really helped bring to attention how difficult it is to depict non-binary characters and how there isn’t a strong archetype to associate with these characters.
The best part about this game is the Ginosaji reference around 58:00 (I know it's based on a short film but the title is needlessly long and also included in Ginosaji's title)
I think a simple and actionable thing that character designers can do to help make better nonbinary characters is that if there isn't a lot of NB characters in media to look back to, why not go straight to the source? Go find and follow NB artists and see how they draw themselves or their OCs! Observe how NB people dress and present themselves in real life! Who cares if they aren't from some big company or the product of a design team, there's so many amazing characters and people to draw inspiration from sitting there on some nb's tumblr or twitter or instagram page!! Of course that isn't quite as simple as it might be for other things because being nobinary is so broad, but even casting a wide net and exposing yourself to all kinds of nonbinary people will go a long way in broadening your horizons over time!! And in the shorter term, you can find these people and character designs and pull from the ones that feel like they suit your character best and play in the space from there! I was kinda thinking "Just make a character who's nonbinary." the whole time and am validated that it was said in the video. Perhaps being in the queer community for the last 4-5 years and much of my character designs being OC's and TTRPG characters, I've developed a pretty good intuition for this being exposed to a lot of nonbinary people and I've had a lot of practice immersing myself in and empathizing with a character even if they're unlike me and doing/designing things from their perspective, and it's just occuring to me that maybe this isn't a normal thing to expect of most people,,,, lmao 😅 Also wanna give a quick shoutout to Raine from The Owl House, love them so much!! They're a great character to draw inspiration from :3
call me cringe for this but, the moment you name dropped the GOAT Terry P. i literally chanted aloud, "he's based!! he's based!!" and by "he" i mean YOU, Viveros! i'm a new watcher/subscriber currently picking through your videos old and new, and having just come over from the "omnics are shallow" video where i was already thinking to myself, "huh, he's pretty smart", i can now add "and has good tastes" to that assessment haha. i'm a voracious binge watcher so i know i'm going to tear through the rest of your videos all too soon, thus i say, i look forward to your next videos!
Being non-binary is like being an anti-stereotype for me. I like to be someone that can choose to look however I want, wether I’m fem or masc I do know many enbys that are incredibly fem and assigned birth a girl or incredibly masc and assigned birth a boy. What is great about Venture is blizzard can make them look both fem and masc through skins so I got a lot to look forward to in the future!
This is honestly a really insightful discussion of what gender means to a character and specific challenges that arise with nonbinary characters--seeing a cisgender person doing this level of analysis into the topic of gender and actually addressing the nuance and wide range of nonbinary experience is pretty rare and is honestly heartwarming to see. I myself am trans and nonbinary, and it has been difficult to find the way in which I am happiest presenting myself, as I wish to be seen as more feminine but my personal taste often swings towards more gender neutral or at times masculine presentation. This experience is of course far from universal and is deeply personal to me, and no nonbinary people I know share the same experience--it really is important to understand this idea, that nonbinary is not just a 3rd bulletpoint on the spectrum of male to female but is instead an umbrella term that encompasses everything within and outside of the spectrum. Two people can have totally different experiences, use different pronouns, and present differently, while still both identifying as nonbinary, because it's a blanket term rather than a specific point like 'male' or 'female'. Sorry for the long ramble, honestly just really like the video and have a lot of thoughts I wanted to get out
So like, Personally I Love that Clove and Venture are non-binary representation. But a majority of the representation we get is Mid/distastful. This is because we lack Masc representation. Like you said there is no one way to be Non-binary which is 100% true from Feeling in the middle to being Apagender. The issue with character representation is that they are set on the default of Femme and or Androgynous Non-binary characters. Non-binary people are Trans people so how they experience their presentation can be presented in as many ways as there are stars in the sky. But current Enby representation is seen as a negative type of Girl+ where society sees either you as androgynous or as Femme because they perceive Nonbinary as being a Girl DLC. You can make a Hyper Femme character who is non-binary but like I said prior being Non-binary is a Trans character. So a Major factor of how they present should be tied to their story. Like if you make a Non-binary character who was "assigned Male at birth" a hyper-femme character with a semi-feminine body or feminine model. The story can include the character's love for femininity but not having the desire to be a girl, and or seeing the world through a lens of I want to present in a way where I will be taken as a girl from face value to decenter and remove the association of man being since that was the box they were forced to in their upbringing so they hyper glam themselves and take estrogen. We can have Femme body type characters who look Masculine, And Masculine characters who have masculine body types and features. But it really is down to how gender plays an effect (mainly negative) in their life to create the space where the Non-binary character is validated in their gender, and isn't hitting some diversity status. When It comes to Non-binary characters. They really force the "Write the Story First, design later" because once you can grant a reasoning to why the character presents the way they do and it can be positive with gender, negative with gender but like you stated, it really has no limits because to exist out of the binary. Especially when back to the Androgynous aspect of how people may want to create enby characters, yes there are Androgynous enbies, but if people try and make Enbies Andro as the "Gender indicators" it perpetuaties the concept that to get Enbies' Gender correct, we owe society androgyny.
As a non binary person my self I approve this video as a good explanation of non binairy in games and real life and I for sure dit love the part 4 and agree non binary not a pin point place it's a open Place like the sea it's not one small rivar its a whole ocean different for everyone as me being non binary im more on the feminine side and that its own while reason
Thank you for making this. Every so often, I see it and think that *surely* the hate is due to people not realizing what VNs are and expecting something else. I see that all the time, after all. Thank you for dragging it through the coals so thoroughly that it caught fire and burned until it was naught but ash.
make a character where gender is ambiguous but is ultimately not important to the character themselves. the only one ive personally seen done well is venture and they can be seen as both male and female and female depending on the situation but it ultimately doesnt matter because venture is goofball.
Very specific question, do you know of any Aro/Ace or AroAce characters in modern media that I can study? I’m pretty sure I’m at least one of the two, but there’s not a lot of ways to get help/advice where I live. I’m hoping that I can study other aro/ace characters, both as a writer and as a person. It was harder than I thought to say this. I’ve often been told that I’m either “AroAce or Not,” and it overall makes it hard for me to even accept what I am. I’m still afraid to talk about my gender identity to others, especially online, because I’m still young and unwise, and a lot of people, Queer or otherwise, have called me stupid for just trying to educate myself on Queer culture, and especially Aromanticism and Asexuality.
By “AroAce or Not,” the people who say that to me typically mean “you’re either not attracted to anybody or you’re straight but don’t want to accept that nobody wants you,” which also doesn’t really help me at all. Telling me what I (think) I know myself to be is redundant, while trying to assume what I “really am” is harmful because- idk, am I just yapping? Please help if you can.
Wonderful video, I got a lil anxious seeing the thumbnail of the video because I remembered you weren't non binary but you absolutely blew it out of the park with this:) I think my favorite non binary rep in a game rn is avery from scarlet hollow, who's clothing style you could interpret as pretty masculine along with their body yet their identity is never questioned in the narrative and its just accepted "yeah thats what an non binary person can look like" even if they aren't completely androgynous. Idk I'm a non binary person who dresses pretty fem alot of the time and it's just nice to see a character who dresses like a certain gender not have their actual gender identity questioned or diminished
I really appreciated Venture's release. As a non-binary transmasculine dude, it was the first canonically trans character in a game I consistently played. I also really live how upbeat they are, it helps me stay positive. I also have adhd so i appreciate their hyperfixation on archeology. :] It does feel absolutely upsetting that they got pretty cast aside in terms of cosmetics, with the least amount of release cosmetics of any overwatch 2 hero. Mauga also got pretty cast aside. It sucks because i really enjoy these characters.
has anyone ever told you that you sound like Katya?? like when you paraphrased the busstop joke i thought for a second that it was acctually katya saying it lol
for me as an nb i think you're completely right in that the character design should fit the characterization instead of trying to convince people of the character's nonbinaryness. because tbh if someone isn't going to acknowledge a character as nonbinary, no matter how much you try to make it neutral, people will still pick a binary gender for them. i hear people refer to venture as "she" and bloodhound as "he" all the time. the latter is probably related to how men are treated as the default when gender and sex are totally unknown but that's a conversation for another time
My issue with representation of enbys, gay people, trans, yada yada in media is the reason its put into those media. Does being enby or gay or anything impact in meaningful way of who the character is? Or is it just "Hey, look at this character, he's this, this and this, oh and also he's enby." Does Venture being enby serve any purpose whatsoever other than making enby character, so the enby community can feel represented? I have ADHD and I had to deliberately look for characters that would somehow "represent" my group, and while there could be fair trade of people with supposed ADHD, the thing itself i found only with Percy Jackson's series, along with dyslexia and few others. And all of that has its reason: Riordan's demigods have these issues because they are only half humans, being only partially able to interact with human world, and similar with greek. When I was reading series, I just shrugged it off, thought to myself "that makes sense" and moved on with plot. I haven't thought of them as representation of my group and i needn't any kind of representation of any group i belong to, and while it's funny when I see someone in a movie or book from my group that normally isn't that popular in fiction, when it's just thrown there without second thought i would consider this poor writing. My question with characters like Venture or Lifeweaver is: If they have never been [insert relevant adjective], would that change anything? Would that character be any diffrent? Better? Worse? Less or more consistent? If it serves character, awesome, keep it, hell even double down, showcase their point of view, thoughts. If its not, what gives? Edit: grammar
as a very fem presenting nonbinary person this video made me tear up a little im not even gonna lie, thank u so much for making this video :3 i rlly hope more people educate themselves on this and begin to talk about it more ^^
