Hildibrand Quest Localization Error

[FrejaRachnea]

There's not really any board for this specific issue, but there are some issues with the quest (aptly) named "A Case of Indecency" in the Hildibrand questline.

The punchline of the quest is Hildibrand putting on a dress and acting as the beautiful and fair maiden, much to the shock of the spectators and groom, which is -fine-, but some of the wording used in the quest's dialogue could use some more care and attention to its tone and implications.

The dialogue in question are the lines "Wh-what have you done with my bride, you cross-dressing deviant!?", "H-how dare you make a mockery of my wedding day? Guards! Arrest that pervert at once! Lock him up in gaol and throw away the key!", and "Arabella? Oh, thank the gods you're safe! Come with me quickly -- there's a dangerous madman about!", all said by Vannes.

The mandragoras running away in terror from him in a dress making a kissy face at them is also pretty questionable, but there's no problematic implications in any dialogue there due to the lack of dialogue.

There has been a recent resurgence of allegations of all queer people being groomers, as well as general transphobia that exists in the community outside of (and to a lesser degree, within) servers with a high queer population like Faerie and Siren, which makes issues with the dialogue especially relevant today.

There is nothing deviant, dangerous or perverted about people with masculine bodies in dresses, or with Hildibrand presenting as a woman, and it'd be nice if the game world reflected that sentiment given that -TONS- of clothing's gender restrictions are being removed. An easy response is "those comments were made under the context of the bride vanishing and Hildibrand replacing her", but that sentiment can be captured in ways that don't use language or feelings of disgust that have historically been used to target femme presenting men and trans women.

It might be seen as too minor to change, and obviously only upsets a reaaallly small amount of people given that it's only targeted AT a reaaallly small amount of people, but it would be very cool and chill to not have minority groups be implicated with words like "deviant" and "dangerous".

[Rongway]

There is nothing deviant, dangerous or perverted about people with masculine bodies in dresses, or with Hildibrand presenting as a woman

It's not deviant for anyone cis or trans to wear clothing that expresses their gender identity. Or obfuscates it, if that's what they desire or require for comfort or safety. However, Hildibrand is not presenting as a woman. He is literally a man in a dress, wearing the dress for the express purpose of deceiving someone. Pointing out that that is deviant behavior is not inherently anti-trans.

[FrejaRachnea]

It'd be nicer if the issue was approached with a bit more empathy and understanding rather than naturally drifting towards rules lawyering in order to explain why the joke is okay and not transphobic. Also, a large amount of the population says that all trans women are deviant men in dresses using deception to trick people into thinking they're women.

I've seen a bunch of trans people upset and off-put by it, changing the dialogue up a bit to be more considerate could keep the same joke but without the uncomfortable implications, and would help the community feel at least a -bit- more supported in a game that is pretty barren in terms of representation for anyone that's not cisgender and heterosexual outside of the activities kept 'in the shadows'.

Like, really? We can't even have a liiiiiiiiiiiiiitttle crumb? Do we have to write and publish papers explaining ourselves every time we want a bit of consideration? It's exhausting.

[Rongway]

a large amount of the population says that all trans women are deviant men in dresses using deception to trick people into thinking they're women.

Yes, and they're wrong. Trans women are just trying to go about their day and pee in the ladies' room in peace.

But we're not talking about a trans woman right now. We're talking about Hildibrand, a man, putting on a dress to entrap someone. It's not "rules lawyering".

[Adeacia]

I myself am trans and found the scene in question to be funny. I get that people may see it as offensive, but I personally do not.

[spiritchrysalis]

Quite honestly, as a nonbinary person, I see what FrejaRachnea is getting at.

I also agree that the plot specifically presents Hildibrand as misrepresenting himself as a particular person, which everyone on this thread agrees isn't what's happening in transphobic situations.

But there are a fair number of folks here (at least in the US) who don't distinguish well between 'trans woman in a dress that the viewer feels isn't "passing"' and 'man in a dress'. In 2022, I think there's a wealth of incompetent and bumbling behaviors SquareEnix could have chosen from rather than the Dude In A Dress joke. And SquareEnix knows this, or they wouldn't have improved some of the dated Final Fantasy VII scenes with similar in the remake.

I don't personally read the choices as transphobic, but I do think they could have simply found a different way to Be Funny in this scene that wasn't adjacent to transphobia.