Building a better Alphinaud

[Eldtagg]

Just a shot in the dark here:

"Zann is a Viera that was assigned the male gender at birth, but identifies as female. This caused a kerfuffle in the matriarchal Viera society, with some opposed to granting someone with an outwardly male physique the traditional roles of a female, but others willing to give her a chance. Zann is eager to prove that she is up to the task, however, and is eager to learn and grow as an adventurer."

Just off the top of my head. That could be an interesting dynamic for a character.

Can there be an issue with this type of character where their sexuality is too much 'in your face'.

I for instance is married to my wife IRL and we both agree that we share everything evenly.
Me being straight does not define me as a person. It's not what makes me, well.. me.

Wife would agree on that note.

I do not introduce me with name and make a note of 'btw I am straight'.

We recently watched the Lightyear movie and we both felt that it was incredibly 'token' that Buzz's commander was in a relationship with a woman because if she was straight, the movie would probably not even make a note of it.

I absolutely think that same gender relationship should be in videogames and treated the same as any sexuality, but when it becomes the thing that defines a character... haven't we failed at writing a compelling character then?

For me that feels kinda like the early 2000s when every video game character was the 'light-skinned angry buzz cut male' character.

No offence meant from me. I think it's very important that we can add mlre representation as long as its made tasteful and realistic.

[CrownySuccubus]

Can there be an issue with this type of character where their sexuality is too much 'in your face'.

I for instance is married to my wife IRL and we both agree that we share everything evenly.
Me being straight does not define me as a person. It's not what makes me, well.. me.

Question: do you think Urianger's implied romance with Moenbryda is "in our face"?

Or Cirilla's crush on Hien?

Or Lamitt's crush on Ardbert?

Or Runar's crush on Y'shtola?

Or, hell, Magnai's constant attempts to find his Naama?

If the answer to any or all of these is "No", then you can do the same thing with a character that isn't straight.

[Misplaced_Marbles]

Runar's crush on Y'shtola?

Most definitely yes. This one was incredibly egregious.

The rest? Not really. In fact, i'd venture to say they're all in your head(canon). Which is to say, since it's up for interpretation, the writer did a much better job with them (except Magnai being a joke).

[Raven2014]

Most definitely yes. This one was incredibly egregious.

It's probably because it came across REALLY WEIRD in the English version. The Japanese version has none of the silly (fail) romance undertone like the English localization is. In the Japanese VO, Runar treat Y'shtola more like an elder sister, and if we gonna meme, his reaction is more like a desperate underclassman with a "notice me senpai!" thing.

It's well know that the English localization takes a lot of liberty at translation, but sometime it goes far enough to actually change the impression about a character. And Y'shtola is usually the prime example for this (for some reason). I can't speak for other language, but the English Y'shtola is about 300% more sassy comparing to the Japanese version. In the Japanse dialogue she talk more like a sage would (which in the lore her supposed class/role), she talks more like a mage in English.