Caeliat's page

I find it truly perplexing that someone can claim that a character's sexuality is so overt as to be beating the reader over the head with it, while also claiming that they wouldn't have assumed the character was queer at all until they read the comments. Which is it?

Representation: If explicit, it's "in your face" and "pandering" and "forced". If implicit, it's "too subtle, couldn't tell, I choose to erase queer folk."

If it's not catering to a cishet white majority, they will be damned sure to let you know how many things are wrong with it. How dare you create content that is not targeting straight white men. How dare you say that this heroic character is not heteronormative.

On the subject of Navasi's birth name, I not only see a firm point of not stating it for the sake of her new identity (and possibly protecting her own past), but hints of how people treat deadnames. It's not relevant, and if people knew it, they could use it to hurt her. It's safer forgotten.

Thank you for this, Amanda. Navasi is amazing. And thank you to the devs who have chimed in on this thread.

To the straight people who complain that Navasi's sexuality is "too subtle", that they "didn't get it", that "stating sexuality isn't necessary" or that "pandering is insulting"... maybe consider that, for once, this character's backstory is not for you. Much like with Shardra. And that that is okay. Straight folks are plenty catered to. You can't even tell when you're being pandered to, because literally everything else in the media is a representation of what you look like and who you love. Yes, this is an effect of your privilege. If you couldn't tell that Navasi was in love with her partner, ask yourself why you are unaware of this. Ask yourself why coded language to address queer sexuality and identity has been a necessity in Europe and the US over the last few centuries. Stop assuming straight people are the default.

This goes for any time you think a minority is being "over-represented" (whatever the hell that means) or pandered to. There is no quota. Let minority people cheer for those whose identities they relate to. It's a big sandbox and you have plenty of toys.

If you need to erase her backstory or pick and choose through it to empathize with Navasi as a character... how do you manage to empathize with anything else in fantasy? Lizardfolk are fine, but you can't play a character if it turns out she canonically likes girls? When you say "let players choose" on issues like this, you are saying "let people pretend that real people, with them at the table, have identities that don't matter and can be replaced with something else". Several people who have replied to this thread aren't straight. Try to picture how reading your words feels like to us.

I have to wonder how many of the straight folks who so vehemently defend "let players choose the sexuality of an iconic" get mad when fanfiction writers come up with non-straight pairings.

What I think would be interesting is why. Why, in a world where a complete transformation is possible (and fairly easy at high levels, I'd think), would she not choose it? If she didn't, was it a hard decision? Something she never really considered because she became comfortable with her body before it was really an option?

First, we don't know whether or not she took it.

Second, this question has already been answered in this thread, in this very page. There is a multitude of reasons, and not all of them are related to finances, to the result of a surgical procedure, or the chance of something going wrong.

To use a poor analogy, imagine that you play an amateur sport. Why don't you want to go 'all the way' and become an Olympic athlete? There's a multitude of reasons for that, and whatever her body looks like, I'm pretty certain's Shardra's answer as to why it is like that is "because I am happy with it that way; another round of beer, please!"

Her present happiness and harmony with herself should be enough of an answer.

Tirisfal wrote:

thejeff wrote:

Crystal Frasier wrote:

thejeff wrote:

True when it comes to real people. (Or in that case one fictional person to another.)

Somewhat less so when dealing with fictional characters. We often know many things about fictional characters that would be horribly rude to ask of real people.

So we know details about any other iconic's personal bits? Kyra's cup size? Whether or not Valeros is circumcised? The color of Lini's squeedily spooch?

No. Though from the art, cup size could probably be guessed. We do however know, or at least can assume barring accidents or other unrevealed trans characters, the basic nature of their bits. Color, size, circumcision and such things all are much smaller details.

More importantly, this is a character detail as well as a physical detail, which the other things you list generally aren't. Did she seek out a magical method to change her personal bits? Did she choose not to? Has she not made up her mind? Is she still looking for a way? And more importantly, for all of those, why?
There's character insight in all of that.

If it's really that important for you to know (and it really isn't), why haven't you spoken up about Val's junk, or how Alain manscapes, or whether or not Imirjika's any different downstairs than a human woman? How is any of that unimportant to you when you so desperately need answers for this?

Because those are all trivial details, almost completely unimportant to the character's background and motivation?

I don't desperately need answers. It's not that important.
I do think there's a significant difference between asking such questions about a fictional character and about a real person and between minor cosmetic details and major life choices.

The thing that you should realize here is that, regardless of their fictional status, these characters are still written by real people and real people relate to them. If you don't think it's appropriate to ask a cis person about their body parts, you certainly don't ask it about a transperson, especially because many of them have body dysphoria. You're not offending Shardra, she's a character, but you're reinforcing the idea that it is okay to ask something like this about a person just because they are trans. Real or not, it's an implication that is very real for transpeople, and there are several of them in this thread alone; there's more to their identity than what's below their waist. If someone's body parts are trivial to you because they are cis, they should be trivial to you if they are trans. It's not your business and they don't come up on a roleplaying level unless you're drawing fanservice Paizo art (hi Liz!).

On a happier tone, I've been basking in how awesome Shardra is for the past two days, Crystal. Wonderfully done, and I am so proud of this thread.

EDIT: I just realized that her mace and Kolo's tail look alike. That is far too adorable.

I did not participate, but I dropped by for a few moments to cheer for one of the participants while waiting for my afternoon game--and the atmosphere in the room was great. This looked really fun, and is excellent proof that a good DM makes the event--the ads, in particular, were a touch of genius. I'll be certainly looking out for this next year!

And thus, Stompy is retired, off to a green, tasty pasture and lots of baby Stompies. Look for them on the Rock three seasons from now!

"Gold ENnie for Best Monster/Adversary goes to Pathfinder: Bestiary 2, Paizo Publishing"

Between that and pmg and sm on a motherf*cking plane, WOOO!

ETA, again: "Gold ENnie for Best Setting goes to Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea World Guide"

That's the fifth gold. ^_^