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beccastareyesHi, not dead. But thinking about something based on the news about the upcoming Super Smash Bros. game. My brother, a big SSB fan, told me that Fire Emblem characters were announced and I IDd them. When we watched the video, I saw that Robin/the Tactician was one of the characters and immediately said 'I hope they let you play female Robin' (they showed the male Robin first). Thankfully, once they got over the fanfare (Lucina! Captain Falcon, who is not a Fire Emblem character but still exciting!), they did say Robin would be playable as both male and female versions (presumably with the same moves, just like in the game).
So, when I play games where you can choose gender, I usually choose female first*. And I really appreciate games where that doesn't make that much difference: Calem's version of Pokemon X is the same as Serena's, with the exception of who the Rival is, because being a Pokemon Trainer isn't dependent on being a boy or a girl. While female!Robin has different romantic options than male!Robin**, that is a small part of the story. (Robin needs to marry someone to recruit Morgan; but the main plot of the game isn't about Robin's romance. Many of the support conversations are the same, even though eligible bachelors/bachelorettes get an additional conversation for the proposal.)
But having Serena as the protagonist means you have a game about a girl who is a hero, and best friends with another girl who is okay with taking a different path, and has a boy rival who is all right with being beaten by a girl regularly and wants to get stronger, not to 'put her in her place', but because he knows he keeps her on her toes. And a female Robin (who is not married to Chrom) lets you have a man and a woman who are equally main characters and close friends, even while they are both happily married to someone else.
I can find those sorts of stories about men, but it's harder to find them for women. And I find them meaningful, so I tend to default to female = canon. Because I like having a female character with significant relationships with both men and women beyond 'romance options'.
* The more customizable the game is, the more likely I'll try a male character. Still, while several of my long-running tabletop characters were male, recently I've played a lot more women. Go figure.
** Heterocentrism in games is a different rant; Tharja still has an obsession with Robin regardless, but she can't marry female Robin. (Add in my frustration of Rune Factory 3 that some of the in-game conversations with other characters don't change when you get married: I'd like a way to be friends with the other girls that doesn't make me feel like I'm leading them on.)
So, when I play games where you can choose gender, I usually choose female first*. And I really appreciate games where that doesn't make that much difference: Calem's version of Pokemon X is the same as Serena's, with the exception of who the Rival is, because being a Pokemon Trainer isn't dependent on being a boy or a girl. While female!Robin has different romantic options than male!Robin**, that is a small part of the story. (Robin needs to marry someone to recruit Morgan; but the main plot of the game isn't about Robin's romance. Many of the support conversations are the same, even though eligible bachelors/bachelorettes get an additional conversation for the proposal.)
But having Serena as the protagonist means you have a game about a girl who is a hero, and best friends with another girl who is okay with taking a different path, and has a boy rival who is all right with being beaten by a girl regularly and wants to get stronger, not to 'put her in her place', but because he knows he keeps her on her toes. And a female Robin (who is not married to Chrom) lets you have a man and a woman who are equally main characters and close friends, even while they are both happily married to someone else.
I can find those sorts of stories about men, but it's harder to find them for women. And I find them meaningful, so I tend to default to female = canon. Because I like having a female character with significant relationships with both men and women beyond 'romance options'.
* The more customizable the game is, the more likely I'll try a male character. Still, while several of my long-running tabletop characters were male, recently I've played a lot more women. Go figure.
** Heterocentrism in games is a different rant; Tharja still has an obsession with Robin regardless, but she can't marry female Robin. (Add in my frustration of Rune Factory 3 that some of the in-game conversations with other characters don't change when you get married: I'd like a way to be friends with the other girls that doesn't make me feel like I'm leading them on.)
