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Rambling Thoughts About the Remaster (Patreon)

Published:
2023-01-30 13:41:18
Imported:
2026-06

Content

As I'm working my way through these early pages, I'm running up against this strange obstacle that's involving more decision making than I'd like.

As you all likely know, there is no concept of gender in Supercell. At least not nearly in the same way we have one irl. There couldn't be. They have a general notion of reproductive compatibility but that tells you nothing about a person, especially when no one can reliably guess any kind of sex just by looking at someone.

So, there's a part of me that wants to eliminate gendered language wholesale, but in the same way that reading names like Thotzev Zhtatzgha takes people out of the story momentarily because they're trying to figure out what they're reading or how to pronounce it (my bad), the reality is that most contemporary English speakers (and any subsequent translations this comic gets), aren't really speaking in they/them terms 100% of the time and if I went that direction, it would stick out, and not in a way I think benefits the story.

I really wish I wasn't on a limited time frame to make this call lol. Decisions...

Comments

Applestone

But Al made a point of changing her name to Al despite her actual name being feminine, because names are important in her culture and she went against that, so that is something you would have to sacrifice if you threw out any gendered language, right? Also Kraon is definitely Kheil's dad, a man who is a competent leader but struggles with upbringing his daughter, while Tanni-Hal is an awesome mother-figure for her. Oz is distinctly male, Tazho is distincly male and Loksan is clearly female. For me, gender reveals for the non-obvious characters like Thotzev and Fiida are fun. So far I only misgendered women as men, unless Fangs is a dude. Also I'm not really a fan of they/them because I'm used to those words meaning plural, but I accept that there's currently no better alternative. You might run into trouble here and there though when it's not obvious to the reader whether you refer to - as Dave Chappelle said it - "one they or many theys". :-) For what it's worth, my vote is "keep the genders".

BMBrice
>>100743163

That's not quite accurate. Kastina's BS is less a gender thing and more of a vestigial population control turned traditionalist sexual/reproductive oppression thing. A rough equivalent to how it plays out is more along the lines of the Indian caste structure where people are saddled with certain expectations and roles based on their circumstances at birth and there's little to no way to move between them. The thing about the morphism in the comic is that it's a near total wildcard. Any of these characters could have a whole onslaught of genital diversity and it really doesn't make a difference. At any point I could claim Kraon personally gave birth to Fallan or that Kheil has an outstanding schlong and there would be no ground to dispute it. Especially since both languages the characters speak in-world are genderless except for the hyper specific clauses that exist in Kastina's Kolzni to address the above issue. So it's really coming down to whether I want to lean into that aspect of the world building, which would involve accepting the inherent weirdness in-text to the audience, or try and strike a balance where I more or less keep the gendered language to some extent while increasing genderless terminology strategically. Regardless of what I go with, Chapelle can take his ass backwards self-victimizing bully schtick and cry himself to sleep in a wet blanket for all I care lol.

Applestone
>>100743163

Ah, that's some interesting insight into Al's background. I get the feeling that that's going to play a role when her plan to forge a senatorial permit blows up. :-) Also I dare you to draw Kheil with an outstanding schlong. XDDD Well, all in all I mostly care about what Project Supercell is, what were to happen if Kheil wanted to opt out, if Kraon is really going to raise an international rebellion (https://www.supercellcomic.com/pages/0264.html), and how they're ultimately going to deal with the attackers while having Loksan around. So if you want to make everything gender neutral, then it won't impact my experience any further than not having any more surprising gender reveals, but that's ok. Maybe you can use one of your language's pronouns instead of they/them. They certainly won't be harder to remember than the names you come up with. :-)

BMBrice
>>100743163

In discussing this with my editor, we're actually getting close to something a lot more workable that'll make sense to people more effortlessly ^^ I also realized I may have jumped the gun when I said "they don't have a concept of gender" because regardless of its definition, Kastina absolutely created one so they could legislate around it, even if they don't call it that, specifically. So most, if not all Kastina characters will likely retain their own references intact

Applestone
>>100743163

Alright, you do that. :-) Using genders primarily for a caste system instead of the usual things is an interesting novel concept for sure.

Aauron

Ooof! That doesn't sound like an easy problem (just be glad they don't have 7 different genders). One option might be to ask what the characters themselves would pick if they were to pick up English (or similar). Some characters might have a strong preference ("X sounds more badass!"), some might not pick the "obvious" choice (they might have their own unique logic for it). There's also a -ton- of gender neutral pronoun choices (fae/ey/per/be/xe/zie/...) each with their own flavour. You could even lift the native Tepnem-Rho terms (or approximation) if they're not to much of a mouthful. It's a subtle thing, but I'm glad you're giving it thought. I think it's important if you don't want people "misgendering" characters all the time.