I think there are a lot of reasons there’s more female rep. Of course both lesbians and trans woman are more of a conversation in the public eye. Lesbians are fetishized or romanticized more often, and trans woman are much more of a hot button issue.
I think a lot of it too is just the fact that Fire Emblem is an anime game that does attract a lot of anime fans. And generally anime leans towards female supporting casts. Girls are just cuter and more moe for a lot of people. So there’s kinda overlap there.
These are just generalizations really, but I think they do definitely contribute to the gender representation gap
I don’t really think these things are created equal. For the WLW pairings you have: literally the main character (only available on one route), Dorothea and Mercedes, who are both wonderful. And also, a literal goddess. And a literal saint in Rhea.
For the men, you have Linhardt, who is great. And then:
Yuri, DLC only, also falls into the duplicitous bisexual category (alongside Niles from Fates)
Jeritza, DLC only, only available on one route, who is also literally evil
Alois, a straight married man whose ending is entirely platonic
Gilbert, a straight divorceed man whose ending is entirely platonic
I like all of these characters, and think they’re all really unique and fleshed out. But that doesn’t change the fact that our MLM representation is both locked behind DLC and fall into harmful stereotypes.
Yeah that makes sense . I myself find cute boys more cute but that might be because i’m gay .
Might be partially also that most gamers used to be cis het guys and such and well those prefer female characters. Well those gneralizations seem to be true though…
Sure Edelgard is a house leader but you also murder her on 3/4 routes. Also while I love her she is both the most loved and most hated characters, if you fall into the hate camp it be a thing. Claude should have totally been a romance target, when I saw it’s about equal I am saying their about equally bad.
Yuri had to be queer, IS only let them make 3 characters actually gay, it’s very clear it’s by mandate. You couldn’t make a design like Yuris and be like “hetero” Jearitza is not in fact evil and he is the only ending that gives you a bonus CG. He’s DLC but free DLC cuz houses was rushed out of the door. He is also Route locked like Edelgard but that is 1 route locked romance to 1 route locked romance since i would not count Rhea or Sothis as a romance.
The lack of “Sterotypes” isn’t really true either. Dorothea obviously falls under some bi sterotypes but is simply a good character and more then that. I love her one of my all time favorite characters. Mercades obviously is a good girl TM but I think there is also a context for the WLW choices in Three Houses which is they did the Conversion Therapy thing in Fates and lesbian groups in Japan were upset about that and Rhjata’s rep. They were very loud at telling IS they fucked up so Mercades is clearly like an attempt to lower down the amount of people who were upset at them by going “here the church girl, that’s the opposite of what you all were complaining about”. Obviously there were way more obviously queer characters like Catherine or Shamir that would have made more sense but given the hard 3 each gender cap for actual romances they had to chose really carefully. They probably should have chosen not Jeritiza and done Claude but their not vastly different. Their just about equal like I said.
Scrolling through the thread I think maybe there is even more queer men then queer women. Here’s all the queer men I saw in the thread since it seems like that would be useful to the people looking for that.
Storage has a bi male lead
Deity Device has MLM leads
Sacred Echos has equal WLW MLM
Four Kings 50/50
Lady of the Masks has a gay married couple
FE0/UJP sound about equal.
Vows of Fates is about guys getting married
Vyland Saga has a gay male protag
Last Royal has 2 Gay Men
Mark of Dragon has a gay man
Host of the dark has a trans man, 2 gay men, and a bi guy lord in act 2 I think?
Restoration Army sounds like it’s just very queer all around.
Cycles of Remorse has a gay man.
topazlight is working on a trans guy lead game.
Soulds of the Forest sounds like it has several queer men including a trans man.
Searching for light has I think 8 queer men in it?
Project Jade has added in a queer thief guy.
That’s all the ones I noticed but i could have easily missed some. Scrolling through though it doesn’t seem like there is a massive gulf between WLW and MLM rep or even Trans Masc vs Trans Fem rep.
Ya DoW’s MC is a Lesbian. The Golden Marrow’s Country does have a sapphic poly ending that is extremely hard to do blind, basically impossible. I messed it up and am still mad.
I don’t love that, I am simply stating the games on this thread that were mentioned, not judging the quality.I couldn’t even say the quality of all the sapphic rep in games I’ve played since a lot of rom hacks supports are still janky.
THIS! Like just pure M+M couples I find them a lot less. It could be that people in generally are more accepting towards lesbian characters or more like have an affinity to that. But yeah I have noticed that especially in hacks.
My heart was broken when I actually played the game cuz from the trailers I just knew he was gonna be bisexual lol. wroooong.
Diety Device is the best gay representation I’ve seen in a hack. I love that game. Project Jade’s Kirin is a close second, he has troupes but then he like much deeper than expected. Who are the gay guys in 4 kings??
The gay guys in Four Kings get a whole sequel too! Lol. Go check it.
I think lesbians are more common because a lot of hack authors are either straight men and a little confused writing from the perspective of attraction to men or sapphics with yuri brainworms that have yet to fully mature.
I mean if their sapphics and many people are then writing people like themselves is natural and a good thing to do. Not really Yuri Brainworms, that’s lived experienced and like thoughts, feelings, desires.
