Is Final Fantasy in general endorsing transgenderism
- Thread starter Danru
- Start date
- Tagged users None
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2008
- Messages
- 9,413
- Location
- Νεφελοκοκκυγία
- Gil
- 3,746
- FFXIV
- Polyphemos Bromios
- FFXIV Server
- Moogle
- Free Company
- KupoCon
Final Fantasy has plenty of androgynous male protagonists, but not many that can be given the label of transgender (that I am aware of).
Characters like Bartz, Firion, Cecil, Edward, Cloud, Squall, Vaan (and it goes on), are sometimes shown with some effeminate qualities (mainly facial) to suit Japanese concepts of male beauty, but these characters seem to fully identify as male. They are not trans characters.
Cloud cross-dresses at Wall Market, but that is only used for its comedic value. Cloud isn't actually transitioning into a woman any more than Red XIII walking on two legs is suggestive of trans-speciesism. It’s only a joke (albeit an extended joke over about 15-30 minutes of gameplay involving a side quest).
There are some genderless characters in Final Fantasy such as Quina and Gogo. Gogo the mimic is covered in robes and does not betray obvious signs of gender (and Gogo doesn’t speak to reveal anything like this). Quina is a member of a species which have no gender and so this isn’t even anything about concepts of one’s own identity at all (I think such concepts are meaningless for Quina's species), and therefore Quina is not a transgender character either.
There may be some examples of transgender characters in Final Fantasy, but not that many.
People sometimes cite Faris (from FFV) as a good example, but I don’t think she/he really counts as transgender either. Faris is a female pirate captain who is dressed as a male and pretends to be a male. It is known to the party fairly early on in the game that Faris is in fact a woman merely acting as a man in order to get the respect of her pirate crew. Faris becomes one with the crew and becomes the captain, but I’d be cautious in putting forward the idea that Faris actually identifies as a male. It’s only a charade. I’m also doubting that Square was attempting to push Faris as a trans-male as Faris has her origins in historical precedents of women who pretended to be men in order to join pirate crews (Anne Bonny and Mary Read, etc).
Back to Wall Market, it is possible that the guys in the Men’s Hall (the wrestling ring building where Cloud has to do his squats to win the wig) may be transgender to an extent. They like wigs and seem fairly relaxed where cross-dressing is concerned. They have names such as ‘Beautiful Bro’… But seeing as their character model appearances are that of hyper masculine macho-men, this seems to betray the entire scene as another joke about masculinity.
The sorceress Adel (FFVIII) is sometimes interpreted as being transgender (as a guy identifying as a woman and becoming a sorceress). This is largely because Adel has torso musculature which would even make Tarzan yelp with a sense of insignificance. It is hard to tell from the PSX era graphics, but Adel doesn’t appear to be wearing any clothes on her upper body (unless the black tattoo is actually clothing, as some argue). So it is possible that Adel is a transgender woman.
So as things are I wouldn’t say that Final Fantasy is explicitly endorsing transgenderism, but there are characters with ambiguous appearances who don’t really discuss their gender or make a thing about it. Other characters are clearly male (physically and in terms of their perceived identities), but they have the ‘androgynous’ facial features popular with the Japanese market.
This might encourage a discussion of transgenderism amongst fans as fans cosplay as female versions of male characters, etc, but the characters themselves are not really transgender.
Characters like Bartz, Firion, Cecil, Edward, Cloud, Squall, Vaan (and it goes on), are sometimes shown with some effeminate qualities (mainly facial) to suit Japanese concepts of male beauty, but these characters seem to fully identify as male. They are not trans characters.
Cloud cross-dresses at Wall Market, but that is only used for its comedic value. Cloud isn't actually transitioning into a woman any more than Red XIII walking on two legs is suggestive of trans-speciesism. It’s only a joke (albeit an extended joke over about 15-30 minutes of gameplay involving a side quest).
There are some genderless characters in Final Fantasy such as Quina and Gogo. Gogo the mimic is covered in robes and does not betray obvious signs of gender (and Gogo doesn’t speak to reveal anything like this). Quina is a member of a species which have no gender and so this isn’t even anything about concepts of one’s own identity at all (I think such concepts are meaningless for Quina's species), and therefore Quina is not a transgender character either.
There may be some examples of transgender characters in Final Fantasy, but not that many.
People sometimes cite Faris (from FFV) as a good example, but I don’t think she/he really counts as transgender either. Faris is a female pirate captain who is dressed as a male and pretends to be a male. It is known to the party fairly early on in the game that Faris is in fact a woman merely acting as a man in order to get the respect of her pirate crew. Faris becomes one with the crew and becomes the captain, but I’d be cautious in putting forward the idea that Faris actually identifies as a male. It’s only a charade. I’m also doubting that Square was attempting to push Faris as a trans-male as Faris has her origins in historical precedents of women who pretended to be men in order to join pirate crews (Anne Bonny and Mary Read, etc).
Back to Wall Market, it is possible that the guys in the Men’s Hall (the wrestling ring building where Cloud has to do his squats to win the wig) may be transgender to an extent. They like wigs and seem fairly relaxed where cross-dressing is concerned. They have names such as ‘Beautiful Bro’… But seeing as their character model appearances are that of hyper masculine macho-men, this seems to betray the entire scene as another joke about masculinity.
The sorceress Adel (FFVIII) is sometimes interpreted as being transgender (as a guy identifying as a woman and becoming a sorceress). This is largely because Adel has torso musculature which would even make Tarzan yelp with a sense of insignificance. It is hard to tell from the PSX era graphics, but Adel doesn’t appear to be wearing any clothes on her upper body (unless the black tattoo is actually clothing, as some argue). So it is possible that Adel is a transgender woman.
So as things are I wouldn’t say that Final Fantasy is explicitly endorsing transgenderism, but there are characters with ambiguous appearances who don’t really discuss their gender or make a thing about it. Other characters are clearly male (physically and in terms of their perceived identities), but they have the ‘androgynous’ facial features popular with the Japanese market.
This might encourage a discussion of transgenderism amongst fans as fans cosplay as female versions of male characters, etc, but the characters themselves are not really transgender.
Well much of Amano's artwork looks weird. Like Bartz sprite in game has brown hair, but his artwork is like what is that o.o.
I dunno. Final Fantasy is a weird series. I am in a way glad Tetsuya Nomura took over.
Even Sakaguchi himself admitted he was better at telling stories than creating action games though.
I mean he was the writer for Blue Dragon video game which was pretty fun.
I dunno. Final Fantasy is a weird series. I am in a way glad Tetsuya Nomura took over.
Even Sakaguchi himself admitted he was better at telling stories than creating action games though.
I mean he was the writer for Blue Dragon video game which was pretty fun.