Even in video games. VIvec in Morrowind was a man, a woman, both, and neither at various points in his very complicated and strange existence. That was over 20 years ago and is one of the most acclaimed RPGs of its era.
Just what I was thinking - same with Starfield. You knock about in space in a rattling rustbucket and look at stuff and talk to aliens. Pinheads must have issues with games that have character creation options - because, obviously, anything that doesn't have a main character that looks like Conan is pandering filth.
That's a gross mischaracterisation! They will also accept a character that looks like one of the babes clinging to Conan's feet on comic and book covers
A and B instead of male and female during character creation, big lore character (who is also the final boss) changed gender, probably some other SJW bogeymen (idk like Ranni being technically pan because you become her consort regardless of gender presentation or something).
DKS1 had a character born male but raised female, DKS2 had a coffin that changed your gender if you entered it (i'm not familiar enough with DKS3) but both of these are not in the first 5 hours of their respective games and require >0 media literacy to recognise as queer so obviously it flies over gamers' heads; Elden Ring replaces the character creator designations of male / female with type A / type B so of course they're outraged
As far as I remember DKS3 didn't have anything as explicitly queer as the previous games, some people speculate that Anri of Astora is trans because maleAnri uses the same model as femaleAnri and you find the reversal ring (which swaps gender animations) next to where you betrothe them.
Tbf thats not really "woke" because the character isnt trans, he was raised as a woman because he was good with lunar magic and that isnt manly in gwyn's sun kingdom so it was embarrassing.
Also anor londo is definitely not in the first 5 hours unless youve played before lol. Honestly most people will never hear of gwyndolin on their first playthrough at all
Well, anime has been doing crossdressing men forever, with various explanations for why they crossdress. "Abusive family forces them into opposite gender role" isn't even unique itself. Bridget was basically that in Guilty Gear XX from 2002 lol (though it wasn't her parents but rather the rest of the village)
Now that I think about it though, there is an interesting read of it that Gwyndolin is actually an AMAB trans man. If he (she?) ever transitioned at all. The reason I always read Gwyndolin as a man is because his follower refers to him as "Lord Gwyndolin" but I have no idea whether that sounds the same in Japanese or whether "Lords" in this setting are exclusively men as we would expect in real life. After all, all the gods are "Lords" in that setting arguably.
Honestly, with how ambiguous dark souls lore always is, there are some really interesting reads of this. Maybe Gwyndolin isn't even considered trans in Anor Londo, but the other way. Like maybe gender and sex aren't considered to be that closely related in Anor Londo and Gwyn wasn't being abusive like "oh, you're into the moon? not MY son!" and it was more like "oh, you're actually a girl? neat."
I always took Gwyndolin as a trans masc metaphor, no clue if it's the dev teams intent but:
He's always referred to by he/him pronouns.
Gwyndolin sealed himself away in darkmoon crypt because he's unable to bear the changes that happened to him as a result of the illusions that make him feminine.
The next you hear of him is in Dark Souls 3, since Gwyn has died he's abandoned the reversal ring (which is what was used to make him feminine) and left the crypt.
So you have this bloke that wants to present as male being forced to live as a woman because of the superstitions of this patriarchal authority, gaining control of his own life again and choosing to lives as a man. And I stress again that this is just my reading of the lore but that screams trans allegory to me.
So you have this bloke that wants to present as male being forced to live as a woman because of the superstitions of this patriarchal authority, gaining control of his own life again and choosing to lives as a man.
That was basically my read of it as well, however there's one problem. By the time you meet Gwyndolin in Dark Souls, Gwyn has been 'dead' for long enough that the world ended a long time ago. The rest of the gods fucked off to a different continent. Gwyndolin is here completely alone, except for a couple of worshipers. Gwyndolin is the god left. The only one.
So why's he still girl mode if that's not the way he wants to live?
In addition to what everyone else said, it's probably the easiest game in the series to get into as a new player and these gatekeeping losers are mad about it
How the fuck is Elden Ring "woke"?
They probably found out about the Marika Radagon thing and decided that's "woke"
Aside, it’s funny that ”traditionalists” have been malding over that when deities have been transing genders in mythology for thousands of years
Even in video games. VIvec in Morrowind was a man, a woman, both, and neither at various points in his very complicated and strange existence. That was over 20 years ago and is one of the most acclaimed RPGs of its era.
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Just what I was thinking - same with Starfield. You knock about in space in a rattling rustbucket and look at stuff and talk to aliens. Pinheads must have issues with games that have character creation options - because, obviously, anything that doesn't have a main character that looks like Conan is pandering filth.
That's a gross mischaracterisation! They will also accept a character that looks like one of the babes clinging to Conan's feet on comic and book covers
Because you can play as a blue piece of jerky covered by a loincloth and using only a club as a weapon.
spoiler
A and B instead of male and female during character creation, big lore character (who is also the final boss) changed gender, probably some other SJW bogeymen (idk like Ranni being technically pan because you become her consort regardless of gender presentation or something).
DKS1 had a character born male but raised female, DKS2 had a coffin that changed your gender if you entered it (i'm not familiar enough with DKS3) but both of these are not in the first 5 hours of their respective games and require >0 media literacy to recognise as queer so obviously it flies over gamers' heads; Elden Ring replaces the character creator designations of male / female with type A / type B so of course they're outraged
As far as I remember DKS3 didn't have anything as explicitly queer as the previous games, some people speculate that Anri of Astora is trans because maleAnri uses the same model as femaleAnri and you find the reversal ring (which swaps gender animations) next to where you betrothe them.
Tbf thats not really "woke" because the character isnt trans, he was raised as a woman because he was good with lunar magic and that isnt manly in gwyn's sun kingdom so it was embarrassing.
Also anor londo is definitely not in the first 5 hours unless youve played before lol. Honestly most people will never hear of gwyndolin on their first playthrough at all
Maybe not "woke" per say but by :japan-cool: standards over a decade ago it's still pretty good
Well, anime has been doing crossdressing men forever, with various explanations for why they crossdress. "Abusive family forces them into opposite gender role" isn't even unique itself. Bridget was basically that in Guilty Gear XX from 2002 lol (though it wasn't her parents but rather the rest of the village)
Now that I think about it though, there is an interesting read of it that Gwyndolin is actually an AMAB trans man. If he (she?) ever transitioned at all. The reason I always read Gwyndolin as a man is because his follower refers to him as "Lord Gwyndolin" but I have no idea whether that sounds the same in Japanese or whether "Lords" in this setting are exclusively men as we would expect in real life. After all, all the gods are "Lords" in that setting arguably.
Honestly, with how ambiguous dark souls lore always is, there are some really interesting reads of this. Maybe Gwyndolin isn't even considered trans in Anor Londo, but the other way. Like maybe gender and sex aren't considered to be that closely related in Anor Londo and Gwyn wasn't being abusive like "oh, you're into the moon? not MY son!" and it was more like "oh, you're actually a girl? neat."
I always took Gwyndolin as a trans masc metaphor, no clue if it's the dev teams intent but:
He's always referred to by he/him pronouns.
Gwyndolin sealed himself away in darkmoon crypt because he's unable to bear the changes that happened to him as a result of the illusions that make him feminine.
The next you hear of him is in Dark Souls 3, since Gwyn has died he's abandoned the reversal ring (which is what was used to make him feminine) and left the crypt.
So you have this bloke that wants to present as male being forced to live as a woman because of the superstitions of this patriarchal authority, gaining control of his own life again and choosing to lives as a man. And I stress again that this is just my reading of the lore but that screams trans allegory to me.
That was basically my read of it as well, however there's one problem. By the time you meet Gwyndolin in Dark Souls, Gwyn has been 'dead' for long enough that the world ended a long time ago. The rest of the gods fucked off to a different continent. Gwyndolin is here completely alone, except for a couple of worshipers. Gwyndolin is the god left. The only one.
So why's he still girl mode if that's not the way he wants to live?
For the same reason it took me until I was 30 to come out as trans.
He internalized what he was told about his nature
Then why isn't he Lady Gwyndolin?
Dunno,
Could always be "time is convoluted" shenanigans.
Or, like, he's still processing his grief over what happened to Gwyn.
Or, any of a sundry of other reasons that I'm not sufficiently versed in Dark Souls lore to know about.
in the character creation screen when selecting the characters gender instead of saying Male or Female it says A or B
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No that’s communism
Ah, genders...
therefore likely woke
gender, O gender
disconcerting out of place laughter
that thing.....gender
more laughter
give it to me
Well, thou art of passing skill
Gender Ahead in short try fleeing
:Dejection:
In addition to what everyone else said, it's probably the easiest game in the series to get into as a new player and these gatekeeping losers are mad about it