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The Natural Law argument is a fallacy more to the point, the Fantasy genre is the perfect venue in which to utterly dismantle those assumptions, to offer alternative realities and thereby challenge the so-called givens of the human condition. Because, every time shit like that is carried over, an underlying assumption is made: that such assumptions adhere to some Natural Law, wherein arguments in defense of such choices devolve into falsehood ('history shows it was always that way', and 'in a barbaric world a patriarchy is given', or, 'in a post-apocalyptic world where remnants of hi-tech is akin to magic, men will still rule and dominate every social hierarchy' ).
SIR TAPTAP SKIN
If, into this invented fantasy world, certain assumptions about gender roles, skin colour, sexual preference, etc, are carried ad hoc from our world, then it is incumbent that they be challenged. Steven Erikson wrote something I think is relevant here: I always feel a bit squicky when people talk about the progressive ideal meaning that we oughtn't "care" about diversity, but I'm glad the article seemed to acknowledge that it's an aspirational thing when it comes to creating fiction, rather than the "I don't see color" brand of real-world misguidedness.
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In that way, "the game doesn't care about its' progressiveness" is a sensible summary. So while Toby obviously put meticulate care into presenting the characters this way, the game itself and its' characters don't highlight or point at it as something abnormal. Like we're all aspiring for the real world to be, even though it isn't by any means yet. They just happen to be this particular way, like it should be. All these are cool qualities of otherwise cool characters, but not defining qualities in the sense that something would be strange if they were written another way. If Frisk was explicitly either gender (let's say female to hit all slots with the Papyrus date being straight as well), their interactions with other characters in the world wouldn't be much different. If Mettaton's diaries weren't written with a trans-evocative subtext, his other appearances wouldn't be affected much. If either Undyne or Alphys was genderswapped to make their relationship heterosexual, nothing about the romance as it's presented ingame would be different. Let's just say those words can come across as meaning something less savory.īeyond those connotations though, the article has a point. Especially with things like KiA (apparently I've only seen it alluded to here) twisting itself into a pretzel trying to explain how the game is totally not progressive because they like it and good things can't be progressive, or how using "they" to describe Frisk on /utg/ guarantees you at least one reply telling you to fuck off. I guess "not caring" is a pretty polarizing choice of words. I agree on this and most of the article's sentiment. Mettaton is trans (arguably on a gender level as ghosts seem to only use they/them by default but w/e) but like Undyne and Alphys, he's a fleshed out character with their diverse features highlighted among the others. With Alphys you know she's either bi/pan/gay, same with Undyne. The former being one dimensional characters that just end up being stereotypes while the latter is hardly diversity because it's basically meaningless (See Dumbledore.). The big problem with diversity is that it's either too much x in the character or its too little x.
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Really the beauty about Undertale and its diversity is that the characters are more than just "x" but x is still present and important to that character. I don't get how a "not caring" approach equals "You have to hook up two gay couples for the best ending, one character's gender is explicitly ambiguous (or imho just straight up nonbinary), and a good chink of the back story for one character revolves around their transition". Like the thing is the characters care a lot about their own personal issues, like I don't think it's possible for Undyne to be anything but a 10 on something and that includes being in a relationship with Alphys. Like shoot you literally have to get two girls to go into relationship (and two guys but they're much more minor) if you want the true and best ending to the game. I'm not sure I follow or agree with the "not care" interpretation.