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Asexual characters in gaming

P

purseowner

Member
I'm playing Final Fantasy IX for the first time at the moment, and something struck me about the character of Vivi.

257


Zidane sees Vivi looking glum and assumes it's about a girl. Vivi replies that he doesn't really think about that sort of thing, which of course baffles Zidane.

It got me thinking - what examples can we come up with of implied asexual characters in gaming?

Now obviously there'll be very few explicit examples, due to the rather lacking representation of asexuals in media in general, let alone in gaming.

(Having not played FFIX before, I have no idea if anything later in the game contradicts his inclusion in this thread of course)

And just for clarification, this isn't about headcanoning characters, it's about implied representation that could genuinely be perceived as such. I'm sure there'll be lots of Nintendo responses too, but it'd be nice if people could come up with more thoughtful ideas - I'm talking about asexual characters not genderless ones.
 
L

Luke_Wal

Member
I might be totally wrong here, but I guess I was under the impression that "asexual" just describes anybody who isn't sexually attracted to others, while the type of characters OP is talking about would be called "gender non-binary," as they identify as neither male nor female.
 
D

Death Penalty

Member
Luke_Wal said:
I might be totally wrong here, but I guess I was under the impression that "asexual" just describes anybody who isn't sexually attracted to others, while the type of characters OP is talking about would be called "gender non-binary," as they identify as neither male nor female.
Click to expand...

No, Vivi identifies as male but as mentioned in the OP he doesn't think about women in that way. Given FFIX's plot, it's very likely Vivi is genuinely asexual.
 
B

Bladenic

Member
Vivi is a 9 year old (spoiler)
Actually like a few months

He doesn't think about that stuff because he's too young. Sorry to take away a potential representation but I think Vivi is grasping for major straws. And yes, there's a spoiler later in the game that nullifies that assumption regardless of Vivi's age.
 
M

MDSVeritas

Member
Luke_Wal said:
I might be totally wrong here, but I guess I was under the impression that "asexual" just describes anybody who isn't sexually attracted to others, while the type of characters OP is talking about would be called "gender non-binary," as they identify as neither male nor female.
Click to expand...

As far as I can tell from the OP's post the thing they are looking for representation of seems to line up with the definition of asexual. What gives you the impression they mean gender non-binary?
 
J

Jamix012

Member
...Do you mean characters that no experience any sexual attraction? Your OP does not suggest that, but that is the commonly accepted meaning for "asexual"
 
K

KojiKnight

Member
I mean... how often would you be able to tell a character is actually asexual in a game? Being sexually attracted to one gender or another is pretty easy to portray, but asexual seems rather hard to portray without it being called out specifically.


What I mean is, how can you be sure that the character is asexual and just not attracted to any of the available cast unless it's point blank said?
 
D

DemWalls

Member
I think there are plenty of characters who may be seen as asexual, especially from before games started to offer various forms of more or less 'cinematic' storytelling... but I guess there's almost always a good amount of 'headcanoning' involved.
 
F

Fevaweva

Member
Almost all Space Marines are asexual. There are some exceptions, like Dom from Gears of War, but everyone else is a grizzled sexless machine.
 
J

Jamix012

Member
purseowner said:
What about my OP doesn't suggest that that's what I'm referring to...?
Click to expand...

You just mention that Vivi appears genderless and doesn't care about gender (potentially as a concept), but that doesn't (to me) imply that they don't experience sexual attraction.
 
D

Death Penalty

Member
Bladenic said:
Vivi is a 9 year old (spoiler)
Actually like a few months

He doesn't think about that stuff because he's too young. Sorry to take away a potential representation but I think Vivi is grasping for major straws. And yes, there's a spoiler later in the game that nullifies that assumption regardless of Vivi's age.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's about age as
black mages die after a few years anyway and are "born" fully mature.
It's more than likely because
black mages are artificially created lifeforms.
So, by definition, because Vivi identifies as male and has no sexual interests, it's very likely he's asexual. Just because his whole race likely is doesn't change that.

Jamix012 said:
You just mention that Vivi appears genderless and doesn't care about gender (potentially as a concept), but that doesn't (to me) imply that they don't experience sexual attraction.
Click to expand...

The OP specifically uses male pronouns for Vivi, there's no mention of him being genderless...
 
M

MegaSackman

Member
Bladenic said:
Vivi is a 9 year old (spoiler)
Actually like a few months

He doesn't think about that stuff because he's too young. Sorry to take away a potential representation but I think Vivi is grasping for major straws. And yes, there's a spoiler later in the game that nullifies that assumption regardless of Vivi's age.
Click to expand...

Yeah, this.
 
P

purseowner

Member
Jamix012 said:
You just mention that Vivi appears genderless and doesn't care about gender (potentially as a concept), but that doesn't (to me) imply that they don't experience sexual attraction.
Click to expand...

You misread the OP entirely. Read my example again.

Won't quote the above posters directly because I don't want to see the spoilers, but shame that my opening example is apparently 'nullified' later on. But I do agree with what was said regarding a whole race being asexual still being representation.
 
H

Hippopuncher12

Member
While Vivi could be asexual I guess, my take on it is that he is like a 10 year old kid, maybe younger than that so I doubt he would even have sexual feelings anyway.
 
Shifty

Shifty

Member
Baiken from Guilty Gear. Part of her backstory is having abandoned her gender, presumably in service of being a badass.

purseowner said:
I'm talking about asexual characters not genderless ones.
Click to expand...

Would you mind clarifying this a bit? Since the topic is about implicit asexuality I can see the line getting kind of blurry, particularly since characters being genderless is often also an implicit thing.

(Also, Toadette)

ElBoxyBrown said:
I forgot Nintendo said that, even though Toadette exists.
Click to expand...

Huh. Well there it is.
 
B

benicillin

Banned
I might be mistaken, but I believe that the Salarians in Mass Effect are asexual. The fact that that's the only example that comes to mind is indicative of how far representation has to go, though.
 
B

BTA

Member
I don't know why I keep clicking FF9 spoilers in this thread when I only half-knew them and want to play the game at some point, whoops.

I'm not sure why people think you're talking about nb characters when your post is clearly about someone not expressing interest in people, in any case.
 
P

Platy

Member
PSqueak said:
Toads are agender, not really asexual.
Click to expand...

They are asexual in a way that they only have one sex. This means they can have genders.

Basically toad and toadette exists, but they both have the same nothingness downstairs.

which explains my theory that peach is just a toadette that bought human hormone replacement
 
S

SomTervo

Member
IIRC it's completely possible to play Max from Life Is Strange as asexual.

She's probably the weirdest protagonist in any game I've ever played. Edit: woops, definitely don't mean to imply asexual people are weird, I just mean that she's incredibly fringe in terms of how protagonist's personalities are usually played out, and that includes her potential asexuality.

Shifty. said:
Baiken from Guilty Gear. Part of her backstory is having abandoned her gender, presumably in service of being a badass.

Would you mind clarifying this a bit? Since the topic is about implicit asexuality I can see the line getting kind of blurry, particularly since characters being genderless is often also an implicit thing.

(Also, Toadette)
Click to expand...

Uh. Asexuality is nothing to do with gender. It's your sexual orientation.

I.e. you're not heterosexual (into the opposite sex) or homosexual (into the same sex) or bisexual (into both) but asexual (into neither/no-one).

The operative morpheme is 'sex' (asexual) which refers to your biological sex, not your gender - that is your internalised perspective/understanding of your self (i.e. 'masculine' or 'feminine' or neither) which is influenced by culture/society.
 
E

ElBoxyBrown

Banned
a Master Ninja said:
It feels like 343i injected a little "romance" between Cortana and Master Chief, but maybe I misinterpreted those awkward cutscenes.
Click to expand...
Asexuals can still fall in love. But I didn't see Chief falling in love with Cortana. It's more of him expressing deep sadness for losing his one and only friend that understood him.
 
D

Death Penalty

Member
purseowner said:
That's not how sexuality works...

Anyway, Zidane isn't that much older.
Click to expand...

It's massive spoiler territory, but Vivi's age shouldn't have anything to do with this conversation. I know you're still playing through so I'm treading very carefully here, but there's nothing later in the game to contradict your analysis that Vivi is probably asexual and a lot to support it.
 
P

PSqueak

Banned
Platy said:
They are asexual in a way that they only have one sex. This means they can have genders.

Basically toad and toadette exists, but they both have the same nothingness downstairs.

which explains my theory that peach is just a toadette that bought human hormone replacement
Click to expand...

I should clarify, i meant to say that the fact that they're agender doesn't mean necessarily they have to be asexual, sure nintendo games will never straight up make references to sex in a mario game, but in RPG games Toads have shown romantic interest on characters and such, since that's the highest level nintendo is gonna be willing to go, well have to use our imaginations and assume romantic connotations go hand in hand with sexuality, i guess.
 
LordKasual

LordKasual

Banned
Platy said:
Every female playable main character =P
Click to expand...

This is, unfortunately, the correct answer.

691ebcdf0fdf4b1e9a019666395402f8.jpg
Click to expand...

Except for ^ this one, it was legitimately jarring to notice Kat actually making advances and musing over male NPCs in the game.

Controlling a female character who actually pursues her sexuality is a huge contrast. It almost never happens.

Female characters usually have tunnel vision for the player / a single character, or are essentially completely asexual.
 
M

Mesoian

Member
According to the lore, the Gorgons from Zelda, at least in BOTW.

Which I think is a copout because even if that's true, the behaviors and attitudes are all specifically masculine and it reduces the entire race until a joke made in the Gerudo's village after another joke about race and sexual preference.

Edit: and now I see you're talking about asexual and not genderless. Nevermind.
 
M

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
BeeDog said:
Daud from the Dishonored series. It had been explicitly stated that he is asexual.
Click to expand...
Was gonna say this. He's said to be completely uninterested in sex.

Kinsei said:
Maya from Borderlands 2 is asexual.
Click to expand...
Oh? I don't recall that.

KojiKnight said:
I mean... how often would you be able to tell a character is actually asexual in a game? Being sexually attracted to one gender or another is pretty easy to portray, but asexual seems rather hard to portray without it being called out specifically.


What I mean is, how can you be sure that the character is asexual and just not attracted to any of the available cast unless it's point blank said?
Click to expand...
Yeah, it needs to be pretty much spelled out, because otherwise you can't know. Even if they don't have a love interest it doesn't mean they are asexual (hell, even if they DO have one, they can still be asexual, just not aromantic).

Platy said:
Every female playable main character =P
Click to expand...
Right? :\ Either that or they're gay.
 
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