Look guys, I’m agender and I need to speak my mind on this. I’ve seen a lot of crap get thrown around about Frisk’s gender. It was made worse when the creators directly stated that they were “ambiguous”. For some reason, y’all have decided that this means that you’ve lost some form of media representation. I’d like to point something out here.
When you play a game, there’s a particular way characters go. You have your super customization types where you have to decide if you’re a guy/gal (or “other” rarely). Sometimes you can change their ethnicity or even their species. These are very popular because they’re something you made yourself. The side result is that usually you have a pretty clear range of options, resulting in some players not being able to be precisely what they wanted. (From Pokemon to Skyrim)
You also have very strict games where you are controlling a set character, with set characteristics and set stories. You don’t usually have a say in what their name or gender/sex are. You don’t normally get to decide where the story goes, or where you’ll wind up. They’re a book that you get to play for yourself. These are typically chalked up as being fine, though people do get frustrated with the amount of scruffy white guys that star in these. (Portal/Metroid/Megaman)
Then you have the “ambiguous” types. For these, you usually get to name your character and that’s it. Recently, people seem to be trying to take the character you play in the game and put them in a box. They want to have it confirmed that a character is this or that and get very upset when you tell them otherwise. These characters serve a very unique purpose in gaming. They are wholly and singularly -you-. Each copy that gets sold is a brand new representation. If you want to think that your character is non-binary, that’s great! In -your- game they are. You have to understand that the nature of these characters is that they are you. You are them. (Undertale)
When you try to force your ideals for these characters on others, you’re essentially telling people that everyone has to throw away their experience and accept yours as the only way. When you do this, it hurts people. It says, “I don’t care what you want to see.” In a way, this actually hurts representation. You take away what these “ambiguous” characters really are.
Ambiguity is key to limitless representation. Everyone can be what they want, when they want, and how they want.
So please stop trying to take that freedom away from people. Because the moment you try to tell someone that they’re wrong for how they want to see the game? That’s the moment you are stealing someone else’s dreams of representation.
Thanks for reading, and stay determined.
