Are There Non-Binary Characters In Video Games? Yes! 

Thanks for watching and remember to SUBSCRIBE!! And remember to drink more water, hydration is important 💧 Also, something I learned immediately after I uploaded, is that every character in Minecraft (including Steve, including the animals), are ALL specifically designed to be Non-Binary

"LET MEN BE HOES!!" is a line full of sheer power.

Slight side note about Shiver, so far the only person who has said that Shiver is female is an SVP of Nintendo of America, named Nate Bihldorf. The significance of it being him specifically is that he was also on the team responsible for censoring that Vivian the witch in a PURPLE dress from Paper Mario is trans-femme in the NA English localizations

Love that Juniper's gender in the code is literally non-binary.

One thing about Shiver and the Binder you mentioned. There's a traditional form of binding a chest in japan that both men and women have did called "Sarashi". It was done by Samurai to resist injury and woman when wearing a Kimono to present a slender figure. I heard from some friends it was sometimes used as basically a Bra. I wouldn't really call it a Binder personally but it certainly can be used as one. Just thought this trivia was neat and wanted to share it. Have fun with Splatoon 3!

As someone who spent several years denying their gender because of assuming that people would "just know" they are trans/NB, I feel like it's important to note that not all trans/NB people are immediately aware of their gender (or lack thereof). If you are questioning your relationship with gender, it's is important to do research on gender and identities to best understand yourself

9:02 Actually Shiver is wearing a sarashi, not a binder. Sarashi is a piece of cloth that's traditionally used when you are going to wear some type of traditional japanese clothing. Nowadays using a Sarashi that's exposed it's usually associated with criminal or rebellious characters.

Undertale and Deltarune is an odd example because there's actually some debate in the games' fandom over whether the human characters are meant to be gender-ambiguous blank slates or if they are specifically intended to be nonbinary. Proponents for the latter note how these characters start off seeming like standard silent protagonists to project onto, but are later revealed to have their own distinct personality traits and thoughts, so them being nonbinary would serve as a *subversion* of gender-ambiguous blank slates.

I thought during the Legendary Pokémon part astro was gonna say "Just like Legendary Pokémon, Non-Binary people are rare and legendary"

Another thing to note is that non binary people can still use he/him or she/her pronouns, or they can have multiple sets of pronouns they're ok with. So English Kirby could still be nb, just using he/him pronouns.

The Gender:2 being a great way to store Non-Binary but also not being a Binary digit is a nice touch!

Honestly Shiver's situation is bizarre because you could make the argument that her being confirmed as cis is yet another way Nintendo of America isn't being true to the original Splatoon localizations. The person that deconfirmed Shiver as some brand of non-binary was just one guy, and allegedy some people have gotten replies from other NoA representatives that claim Shiver IS meant to be non-binary. It might just be me coping but it's weird that every single localization (barring Portuguese) went out of its way to never refer to Shiver with pronouns or gendered language in her introduction, even in languages like French or Spanish where you REALLY have to put in work to refer to someone with gender ambiguity. If the intent was to always keep her cis all that effort just seems misplaced (and a tad queerbaity.) All in all though Shiver would look good in purple, I wonder how splatfest colors will look on her.

Kris from Deltarune is def nonbinary, because a major point of that games plot is how Kris is their own person, and we as the player are taking control. So all the other characters referring to Kris with they/them pronouns is definitely because those are the pronouns Kris uses, and not because they are meant to be a blank slate character. Purple

I feel like Apex does diversity in general perfectly. Just like you said near the end of the video, their characters that are part of the LGBTQ community or a minority are never shown off for their gender, sexuality or race. Hell I didn't even know a lot of the characters were gay or non-binary until I looked it up. But the fact I loved the characters without knowing shows that the representation was done right and wasn't something they they used as leverage to improve their character. Just my two cents.

A minor correction, the garment across Shiver's chest is a sarashi wrap, a traditional japanese undergarment, not a binder.

Pokemon's adamancy on making sure the protagonists have gender has been weird to me, especially in Scarlet and Violet. They wear the same outfit and there isn't a rival with the other protagonist whether yours is wearing orange or purple, but they make sure you know that there are two of them and one is a *boy* and the other is a *girl* .

A game that has non binary characters would be one called Gnosia, a social deduction game that has two of them. It's a game that works kind of like the usual werewolf or mafia games but it's set in space, got a cool cast and a wacky story.

Best, most impactful, and most meaningful sentence in this video: "LET MEN BE HOES!"

Random things to note as a person who obsesses over the Xenoblade series: Xenoblade 2 did also have a seemingly nonbinary character in the form of Roc. Much like Juniper, Roc being neither male nor female is backed up by in-game gender values (which for Roc is set to the number 4). Unfortunately Roc gets barely any focus, let alone character development (because the Blade System leads to bland, one-note characters that can't do anything outside of their Drivers) but hey, at least Roc isn't a walking stereotype. Roc is Roc. Always has been; always will be.

I'm also an enby, and seeing a list of enbies in video games is validating. Kirby and Testament are my favorites on this list. My favorite color is Cyan, specifically aquamarine, but Purple, specifically lavender, is my second favorite color

Speaking of purple, really happy that you mentioned Floofy from Bugsnax!! They're one of my fav examples of enby representation ^ ^ None of the other characters take their gender into question or misgender them. It's treated as completely normal and it's great! Plus, I love that they're just kinda problematic. Non-binary characters can be a little mean. As a treat

As a nonbinary person myself this video was a really enjoyable watch! It’s interesting seeing a lot of characters and series which I grew up with and love show up here as well, makes me wonder how it took me this long to figure this stuff out sometimes… Speaking of, Kirby is a pretty important character to me due to nostalgia and also partly because of their gender ambiguity. When most people think of Kirby they don’t focus on his gender - they just think it’s Kirby! Everyone’s favourite lil puffball. Even if most people predominantly use he/him for him due to him being presented as male in the west, that’s not what people focus on. The reason I realised I was nonbinary is because I didn’t want to be seen as male or female; I wanted to be seen as me. So in a way Kirby means a lot to me cause of stuff like that (and also many other reasons)! It’s like with the colour purple - that colour hasn’t been assigned a gender with it, it’s just purple :) I could honestly go on about a lot of the characters mentioned here, Kirby, testament, Juniper - they all mean so much to me because they’re representation done in an authenticate way. Even if Shiver is confirmed female seeing her still makes me happy because we’re starting to see more nonbinary figures in media slowly come out, especially in splatoon 3 and animal crossing where the idea is obviously there. We’ve got a long way to go, but even the small rep makes me happy. I know it would make younger me inexplicably happy too, just like Kirby did.

In the claw machine that is the gaming industry, you don't get too many gender queer characters per pull. It's nice to see that highlighted and commentated on, especially by professional RU-vidr and home invader Captain Astronaut.

Here before the Captain finally gets that Silver Play Button. Almost there!

captain astronaut is the ally we didn’t know we needed

Honestly, my first exposure to this in gaming is everyone's favourite purple jester NiGHTS. I had Christmas NiGHTS as a kid, and I remember the manual specifically stating that NiGHTS had no gender. Or, to be more specific, their gender matches those who they dualise (fuse) with, with them being genderless when not dualised. This game was initially released in 1996. And yet as a kid I just shrugged it off as the most normal thing in the world (which it should be) because flying jester go brrrrrr

1:54 if I put a gender fluid person in a fridge will they become gender solid?

Purple is genuinely my favorite color because society hasn't declared it masculine or feminine: it is the color of royalty. As someone studying game development, character customization can be difficult if gender options (or lack there of) are attempted to be retroactively made fluid. However, developing from the ground up with fluidity in mind can save a lot of hassle in the long run regardless, so long as there are accommodations for customizable traits (sliders are a blessing). Respect game dev's declarations of character's gender & sexuality. I know it's not directly related to non-binary characters, but Bridget. Testament was a straight-forward and well-done evolution of the character from He/Him to They/Them. Conversely, Bridget went from being born He/Him to dressed and conformed to She/Her, to actively defying said conformity by declaring themselves as He/Him, before later re-actualizing their identity as She/Her. It's a journey that many transgender & genderfluid/non-binary have struggled with, which is overall positive representation. Where it gets muddy is when translations have been used as evidence against their identity, the canonicity of endings, and people clinging to wanting Bridget to be a femboy. End of the day: Testament is Testament, whose hobbies include: Fashion magazines, DIY, collecting makeup, plastic modeling (esp. giant robots), sightseeing, fishing, pottery, river trekking, road biking, appreciating opera, weight training, fortune-telling, bonsai, gardening, watching wrestling, baking, mahjong, painting (not well), embroidery, mountain climbing, nail art, golfing, star-gazing, touring hot springs, board games, writing sci-fi novels, barbecue, belly dance, beach volleyball, watching baseball, making dollhouses, liquor (they're a non-drinker), snowboarding, watching shark B-movies, collecting occult trinkets, and scrapbooks, who also so happens to go by They/Them. And Bridget is Bridget (who, after doing hours of research, in modern canon, now refers to herself by She/Her pronouns)~

9:13 finally, we can now conclude that there *is 2 gender.* And 0 and 1 gender. Thanks xenoblade!

Love the video astro! As a purple-loving nonbinary person, seeing other enbies in video games/media is always *chefs kiss* Even better when they just simply exist and their identity isnt especially important because i also just exist and there's more to me than my gender.

started bing watching this channel over the week and then i saw this pop up. this channel is such a gem, you’re not only funny but casually yet respectfully discuss important topics that many cannot do. great video!

Fun fact: most characters in anime that wear bandages on their chest are most likely samurai/ronin or Japanese tough-guy/tough-girl archetypes. The style or article of covering is called a sarashi, basically just cloth or bandages. Which is what Shiver most likely references..

To be fair, Xenoblade 3 is full of dubs in areas where Xenoblade was... fucking questionable. The bath scene early in the game being the most obvious and spoiler free one. That scene ruled.

I hope we'll keep seeing more NB rep as games continue. Titles that encourage player-inserts should honestly go down this route by default, it just makes sense for player choice. Some people will go purple in the face at the thought, but that's okay.

very glad i found this channel, on my way to binge the rest of the content 😌

Would love to see vids like this for trans fem and masc characters respectfully as well, always a delight to see an upload from this channel

as a nonbinary person myself this video is huge. representation matters and it makes me so happy to see one of my favorite youtubers covering a topic that means so much to me, thank you astro. also absolutely let men be hoes.

shiver isn't "literally wearing a binder", shes wearing a sarashi.

love the video. Always awesome when a creater you like turns out to be cool in this regard too

About shiver a Splatoon 3: i do not know anything about Splatoon beyond funny gay squid game, but as a nonbinary person who fluxuated with pronouns for a long time, I think you can identify as a woman or as female and still be nonbinary. there aren't really any hard rules for nonbinary identity. if it makes you happy to think of shiver as non binary, then she is nonbinary. Non binary people do not need to use they/them of couse, and can have any style or name they want. Shiver's pronouns might be she/her, and she might wear a binder due to body dismorphia, but she can still be nonbinary.

Your videos are such an effortless blend of being informative, stylish, well edited, entertaining and full of personality. Really inspiring and enjoyable to watch. I hope you have a great day! ...also purple

i do really like the color purple... what else that i like though, is seeing a gaming youtuber cover topics that younger me would have NEVER imagined any of the gaming youtubers i watched to cover. this video almost makes me emotional by just seeing it exist. i really appreciate you captain, for making funny entertaining stuff, and simultaneously also raising some awareness for lgbt groups, which i find important ESPECIALLY in the gaming community. i love your content so much!!! keep it up!!!

As a Nonbinary person I can confirm that we all know how to rail grind, and it is actually the main indicator for being nonbinary.

tbh I'm not really too bothered by Shiver not being nb, I'm just happy we got to get a good androgynous woman design that isn't just "kinda buff girl in a grey tanktop with a goofy ahh haircut" again

the shiver situation was disgusting... nintendo threw a bone to transphobes and let them run wild for like a WEEK. nobody had any reason to consider shiver female until it was explicitly stated, yet the Gamers(tm) just HAD to take the opportunity to be transphobic towards fans who were just having fun and hopeful that theyd be represented in one of their fav games. like youd have to be a real sad sack of shit to seek out and harass fans of a *kids game* to enforce the gender binary on a cartoon octopus person just bc they have long hair and a hint of purple in their colour scheme regardless, trans girl shiver is great too and im glad shes living her truth😌

now i gotta learn to art to make Shiver purple

My love for this channel has grown exponentially. I am so glad you were in my recommended feed.

something i do think is a slight problem (that has perhaps gotten better) _is_ constantly making the non-human characters (namely, robots) the only nonbinary representation. i just want nonbinary representation to not be relegated to *robot* or *weird alien that has different sexes and genders than humans.*

Actually, in Splatoon 3's hero mode, we do have a nonbinary character! The Captain,(formerly Agent 3 in 2's Octo expansion) uses they/them exclusively! And they have since Octo expansion. Regardless of the 'style' you choose for them, they use they/them!

Purple Man from FNaF made it! Real Talk, happy to watch your video at the end.

Great video astro. Someone like you making a video about a topic this important thats funny and light to take is very strong and important. Thank you :)

Astro simply doesn't miss, hella great video!

Very enlightening video. Purple!

An explanation for the Splatoon 3 logo being purple and yellow, they’re complementary colors on the color wheel. Blue and orange were complementary, pink (technically should be red) and green are complementary, and purple and yellow are complementary. While the enby explanation can be used, this is also a possibility.

lavender happens to be one of my favourite colours - what a coincidence

Great video! I really love the topics you discuss and im super glad that your friends recommended something like this! Love your purple shirt!

Just one thing: I don’t think shiver is wearing a binder, she seems to have Japanese cultural influence with the fan so I’m guessing it’s a “sarashi” not a binder

I believe that Shiver’s actually wearing something called a sarashi from Japan. I’m not very educated on it myself, though, so I won’t go too in-detail about it. However, I have seen a few other characters (who definitely identify as female) from other games also wearing it. Either way, I’m actually really happy to find out that there’s a character who’s outright stated to be agender. I’m an agender person myself, and I don’t see that often. I really resonated with what you said about representation in characters, because I see a lot of characters whose only character trait is being gay or trans or whatever. That doesn’t normalize it at all.

This entire video is a treat, and it’s going into the ‘sharing wherever I see fit’ playlist… in my mind

cool video! as an enby person myself, it's nice to see a video about this topic, i particularly appreciate the rundown at the beginning for people that may be out of the loop

I desperately want 13:14 to be a gif, it's absolutely amazing. Same with the women wearing armor clip. I adore this video so much and it taught me a lot about characters i never would've known while teaching me about characters i know but didn't know enough of (I freaking vibe with the enby in Chrono Trigger, that makes me wanna replay the game again and actually attempt to beat the thing.) I hope someday i can become a game designer where i can add all of these factors into my games. It makes me happy seeing games growing into more inclusive options for all and i wanna give that same happiness to others in my own creations when needed!

I came to this channel to watch you dunk on XC2, but stayed for your laid back and inclusive content! edit: purple

Great video on this topic! Getting closer to 100k! So excited for you!

Purple is my favourite colour! Another great video Captain once again laying down the saucy bass lines

kris just IS non-binary, and not because they're a blank slate. in fact, they specifically aren't

"Let men be hoes!" oh I am so stealing that quote

This video was great! Loved that weird purple creature at 7:13 (in addition to... all those words)

I always get so excited to see ace attorney references in your videos!! I'm a huge fan of the series and I love to randomly see it in my youtube content ^_^

Non-binary here! This was super cool and I love this sm Also shiver is one of my enby icons

I didn't even notice that juniper was only being referred as they until after beating the game. Also one thing on the gendered clothing stuff I'd like to point out is about fire emblems class system, specifically the 3ds ones, some of the classes with more revealing cuts like ninjas and dark mages were horny on both sides, and very few classes were gender locked, especially in fates

Dude, I legitimately respect your content. Not only are you entertaining, but you explain things in an easy to comprehend and non offensive way!

great vid! Also I like the voice :D pleasant to listen to.

9:02 shiver is NOT wearing a binder. She’s wearing a sarashi. It is worn by samurai to resist injury and by women to present a slim figure.

As a non binary person, this is a fun video to see. The stuff about Kirby I didn't know, that's cool, and makes sense, since they're just, a hungry space baby (which I can relate to). Also big fan of the NB colors, good contrast with purple making a nice middle ground.

Purple!! I fall under the Enby umbrella and so does my partner, and this was an EXTREMELY lovely video. You did great with the explanations and had lovely ideas regarding implementing gendered and non-gendered characters in media and gaming that I quite agree with. This was awesome!! Thank you so much!! 🎉 You’ve got a new sub I’m gonna send this to my partner now, they don’t play a ton of games that don’t have character creators and thus haven’t seen much representation for people like them. My darling will love this 💕

just found your channel today, and i'm pretty impressed! your videos about diversity are actually very useful to me, who, as a cis white guy, is trying to write a story with lots of diverse characters, but isn't entirely confident in my ability to do so yet. definitely will keep them in mind, much appreciated!

I loved Juniper in XC3, they have a quest later in the game that always made me think “Zeon, that they/themussy got me acting up” BLESS KITE! Also I would love to see a non binary or a male idol in Splatoon, I think it’d be a fun switch up! Big Man was clearly a trolly compromise from the creators, and I loved it so I’m fine with that lol. And it’s cool that Splatoon is a very female MC driven franchise, but I think we could absolutely see more varied idols in the games 💜

Totally agree and loved the video, I just wanted to add that whether you make your NB character make a deal out of their gender or lack thereof or not, both of them are ok, people that play all these video games don't even know there are so many NB folks in it and that's fine, but it's ok for them to be more explicit about that too, to add more awareness, depth and much-needed representation to it, or not, again it's ok, it just depends on the character itself, and you can even use the opportunity to make a good story out of it, add some depth and problems that NB folks face or whatever the f u want the story to be, again is ok for them to talk about that OR NOT that's not forced inclusivity, they're literally just talking bout themselves and their problems of their day to day life as if literally any cisgender character would do without even get flagged for it. But people are quick to assume that that's "forced" because NB folks don't even have the chance to exist and be themselves normally outside in the real world and talk about them and their problems like everybody else does, that's why I think is more important if they could be more explicit about it even though again, I do agree that is totally fine if they choose not to.

I absolutely love your content. You're hilarious, and you talk very well about serious topics! You are one of my favourite youtubers, and I hope you can get more recognition and support (it's never enough). Also, purple is my favourite colour, soo...

Captain Sir! You’re videos are amazing and awesome! Please keep up the great content! Man, I just gotta say, I love the color PURPLE!!!

Testament was the person that made me ask myself if I really am what I think I am, now I'm way happier than before

Appreciate how spot-on this was! Can never know what to expect when someone who's not NB lends their voice to the discussion, but this was refreshingly on point. Thanks especially for the "just ask" segment, people love to make such a fuss about how it's impossible to know what pronouns people use when in reality an overwhelming majority of NBs are happy to clarify. Big props to you using your platform to promote inclusivity as of late! It's always felt like a cozy accepting space and it's awesome to have you leaning into that.

What a fun little video, thank you for making this!

Yo the apron at 11:06 is amazing and I want one. The rest of the video was equally amazing. I give it a purple/10

im quoting "this is a sillyman argument being made by sillyman" daily PURPLE

i really love these videos about inclusivity and representation dude, always top notch. anyway my favorite nonbinanry character is kris deltarune. if i drank kris tea, i'd probably regenerate quite a bit of HP from that purple flavor.

I loved this video so much, thank you!

Love the vid, Astro! I don’t think bandages should be considered a binder, though. Binding one’s chest with bandages is one of the least safe ways to do it

In my opinion, all armor in video games should be purple bikini armor, regardless of the character's gender.

I legit thought that non binary was a programming language which didn't use binary but I feel educated now

Did not expect to see a 5 year old Necrodancer TAS video of mine be used as background footage at 7:24, cool video though!

I love all of ur videos youve been making abt representation they're genuinely so great and important

Juniper is probably my favorite non binary character in media ever. they're just so amazing!

Another thing I like about Rise is that you can put facial hair on your character no matter the body type! Which made me very happy as I gave my character (who I like to imagine is NB) the more feminine body and some stubble :D

Purple! Just commenting for the algorythm 'cause I loved your video and your sense of humor.

Great video, you have gained a new subscriber!

9:05 So something with Juniper I noticed is that in every single clip or meme that they’re featured in, their gender is always obnoxiously corrected in the comments. I never get stuff like this, especially when the main characters occasionally address them with “her” (correct me if I’m wrong) and above all, they’re fictional. I’d argue that the best way to go about this is how Len’en does it: in this series, every character does not have a defined gender. People can call them anything and nobody is bothered, which is great!

There’s also Seth from Street Fighter, although Capcom’s handling of the character has been a bit on the messy side for SFV. Within the game, Seth uses he/they pronouns. But on the CFN website, Capcom avoids using pronouns entirely for Seth. Also, purple.

Wow... thanks youtube to suggest this little gem. Really well done and most importantly focusses on the thing that is important. On the character/person. Even if it is a tad too purple for my personal liking. ^^

great video! a lot of cool enby characters i had no idea about! thanks purple!