LGBTQ Splatoon fans

sevenleaf

Inkling Commander
Joined
Jun 28, 2023
Messages
380
Location
a dunkin donuts parking lot
Pronouns
they/he
Switch Friend Code
SW-5819-4806-4093
hey wait it just hit me that until yesterday this thread had been inactive since before side order dropped

(3.5 months later, after it’s already been discussed elsewhere on these forums) so how about that they/them DJ and those just barely not confirmed lesbiabs
 

OnePotWonder

Inkling Fleet Admiral
Joined
Jan 31, 2024
Messages
758
Location
Marooner’s Bay
Pronouns
He/Him
Switch Friend Code
SW-2068-8904-6306
hey wait it just hit me that until yesterday this thread had been inactive since before side order dropped

(3.5 months later, after it’s already been discussed elsewhere on these forums) so how about that they/them DJ and those just barely not confirmed lesbiabs
I think it's a little awkward that Nintendo made Acht they/them in Side Order when they were previously confirmed female (a long time ago on twitter). I feel like it suits the character better, though, so it's not really that big a deal.
 

sevenleaf

Inkling Commander
Joined
Jun 28, 2023
Messages
380
Location
a dunkin donuts parking lot
Pronouns
they/he
Switch Friend Code
SW-5819-4806-4093
I think it's a little awkward that Nintendo made Acht they/them in Side Order when they were previously confirmed female (a long time ago on twitter). I feel like it suits the character better, though, so it's not really that big a deal.
it is kind of awkward for official sources to go from she/her to they/them with no explanation, i’ll admit that lol. but i keep it in mind that like… at first they weren’t even supposed to like, exist as a character iirc. they just existed to put a face and a name to all the OE music. so back when OE was released, they probably weren’t the most thoroughly fleshed out character, yknow?

there’s also the issue that english-language 3rd-person pronouns don’t have direct equivalents in japanese, and japanese first-person pronouns don’t have english equivalents. strictly speaking, acht doesn’t use they/them pronouns in the original japanese, they use 僕 boku… which english localizers had no way of knowing until they got a speaking role!

i would by no means label myself a Japanese First Person Pronoun Expert, lol. and i do know that otherwise presumably cis female characters using masculine first-person pronouns has been a thing in jp media, and these characters often get localized to just… she/her-using female characters. but i do think that the choice to localize acht as using they/them is pretty cool. a sign that trans and nonbinary identities are getting more normalized, enough that nintendo’s localization teams decided that having a character use they/them in english is a good close equivalent to using ‘boku’ in japanese?
 

Lisku

Inkling Commander
Joined
Jan 30, 2024
Messages
453
Pronouns
He/him
it is kind of awkward for official sources to go from she/her to they/them with no explanation, i’ll admit that lol. but i keep it in mind that like… at first they weren’t even supposed to like, exist as a character iirc. they just existed to put a face and a name to all the OE music. so back when OE was released, they probably weren’t the most thoroughly fleshed out character, yknow?

there’s also the issue that english-language 3rd-person pronouns don’t have direct equivalents in japanese, and japanese first-person pronouns don’t have english equivalents. strictly speaking, acht doesn’t use they/them pronouns in the original japanese, they use 僕 boku… which english localizers had no way of knowing until they got a speaking role!

i would by no means label myself a Japanese First Person Pronoun Expert, lol. and i do know that otherwise presumably cis female characters using masculine first-person pronouns has been a thing in jp media, and these characters often get localized to just… she/her-using female characters. but i do think that the choice to localize acht as using they/them is pretty cool. a sign that trans and nonbinary identities are getting more normalized, enough that nintendo’s localization teams decided that having a character use they/them in english is a good close equivalent to using ‘boku’ in japanese?
yeah, I think it would’ve been a lot better if they had just made a new character to represent nonbinary people. it’s still great that they’re being diverse though
 

sevenleaf

Inkling Commander
Joined
Jun 28, 2023
Messages
380
Location
a dunkin donuts parking lot
Pronouns
they/he
Switch Friend Code
SW-5819-4806-4093
yeah, it feels like they were only trying to satisfy people, I think it would’ve been a lot better if they had just made a new character to represent nonbinary people

but it does make sense for a sanitized character to be nonbinary
a completely new nonbinary character would be cool but i don’t think acht being nonbinary was just to satisfy people tbh. i think the choice to translate acht as using they/them in english is just… localizers doing what they do, finding ways to make things that don’t quite translate 1:1 make sense to a new audience. in the past that might’ve meant ignoring the first-person pronoun situation and translating a similar character as just a presumably cis woman; here, that means they/them acht

…i also dunno if i love the implication that acht being nonbinary is because they were sanitized, tbh. this isn’t directed at you, it’s something i’ve seen a lot. idk, i just think “they’re nonbinary because they had their individuality and free will taken away” is kinda iffy, especially because, like… we see them in side order when they’ve definitely recovered, at least mentally (they’re still green and all), from sanitization. they’re themself again, and they’re nonbinary!

that being said, though, i do think there’s something that could be done with the idea that their gender identity came alongside recovering from sanitization? like, they went from a ‘slacker’/student who slipped through the cracks in octarian military school, to tartar’s personal DJ, to… finally being away from all of that and able to be themself for the first time. you could also use this to explain old stuff using she/her on them lol
 

Lisku

Inkling Commander
Joined
Jan 30, 2024
Messages
453
Pronouns
He/him
a completely new nonbinary character would be cool but i don’t think acht being nonbinary was just to satisfy people tbh. i think the choice to translate acht as using they/them in english is just… localizers doing what they do, finding ways to make things that don’t quite translate 1:1 make sense to a new audience. in the past that might’ve meant ignoring the first-person pronoun situation and translating a similar character as just a presumably cis woman; here, that means they/them acht

…i also dunno if i love the implication that acht being nonbinary is because they were sanitized, tbh. this isn’t directed at you, it’s something i’ve seen a lot. idk, i just think “they’re nonbinary because they had their individuality and free will taken away” is kinda iffy, especially because, like… we see them in side order when they’ve definitely recovered, at least mentally (they’re still green and all), from sanitization. they’re themself again, and they’re nonbinary!
yeah, It does make a lot of sense that they’re non-binary because they’re sanitized. I also like the idea that it was a character development thing, I mean many years have gone by since octo expansion
 

MandatoryCatalyst

Inkling Cadet
Joined
Jan 31, 2024
Messages
151
Location
Anywhere, Everywhere
Pronouns
He/They/Any
Switch Friend Code
SW-2709-1571-0800
…i also dunno if i love the implication that acht being nonbinary is because they were sanitized, tbh. this isn’t directed at you, it’s something i’ve seen a lot. idk, i just think “they’re nonbinary because they had their individuality and free will taken away” is kinda iffy, especially because, like… we see them in side order when they’ve definitely recovered, at least mentally (they’re still green and all), from sanitization. they’re themself again, and they’re nonbinary!
Honestly if you ask me, I don't think it was really implied that it's their sanitization that gives way to their gender nonconformity, specifically since we see through all of their letters to Marina and their childhood photos that they get less conforming with time. Their tentacle style falls less and less in line with the Octoling soldier cut, and the increase in individuality via things like their increase in piercings throughout the photos implies to me they were already in-universe gnc pre-sanitization, and therefore most likely also nonbinary as well.

Of course the actual word "nonbinary" is... most likely inaccurate considering the source material. While it's very cool that Acht uses they/them and is, in my opinion, intended to be somewhat androgynous, I think the fact that their identity is never stated directly is somewhat an act of like... not actually wanting to fully commit to a nonbinary character. That said this is just me being a bit pedantic, even with my slight pessimism over how nonbinary and/or gnc characters are treated in popular media, the fact we even got they/them Acht in the first place is incredibly cool. And also very funny given that the only other non-player character to be they/them'd in Splatoon is... Orion. Who also has green skin. [Scoffs] Of course you have green skin and pronouns...

Which, side note just for me, one thing about Acht I find most damning in terms of how they're viewed by the game itself in terms of gender is how Marina accuses them of hitting on Pearl. Acht kind of has to be viewed as some form of genderless for that dialogue to even exist in my opinion, as while Pearl and Marina aren't subtle in terms of how they're being queercoded, given how Acht previously fulfilled a societally feminine role as a soldier, this would be much more blatantly gay if they weren't viewed as genderless. Though of course I'm still going to headcanon them as a nonbinary lesbian anyways...

Edit: oh yeah this is a thread about LGBT+ fans lol. I'm nonbinary and also a lesbian yippieeee
 

OnePotWonder

Inkling Fleet Admiral
Joined
Jan 31, 2024
Messages
758
Location
Marooner’s Bay
Pronouns
He/Him
Switch Friend Code
SW-2068-8904-6306
Really, if you ask me, my biggest concern with Acht is how they managed to regain their autonomy despite seemingly never ascending the Spire of Order. I would like to see that lore hole filled, especially since it's not as simple as "they climbed the spire before Order took over the memverse." Eight was supposed to be the first test subject.

Sorry to detract. Perhaps I could make this its own post; the Side Order sub-board has been a bit of a desert lately.
 

sevenleaf

Inkling Commander
Joined
Jun 28, 2023
Messages
380
Location
a dunkin donuts parking lot
Pronouns
they/he
Switch Friend Code
SW-5819-4806-4093
Honestly if you ask me, I don't think it was really implied that it's their sanitization that gives way to their gender nonconformity, specifically since we see through all of their letters to Marina and their childhood photos that they get less conforming with time. Their tentacle style falls less and less in line with the Octoling soldier cut, and the increase in individuality via things like their increase in piercings throughout the photos implies to me they were already in-universe gnc pre-sanitization, and therefore most likely also nonbinary as well.

Of course the actual word "nonbinary" is... most likely inaccurate considering the source material. While it's very cool that Acht uses they/them and is, in my opinion, intended to be somewhat androgynous, I think the fact that their identity is never stated directly is somewhat an act of like... not actually wanting to fully commit to a nonbinary character. That said this is just me being a bit pedantic, even with my slight pessimism over how nonbinary and/or gnc characters are treated in popular media, the fact we even got they/them Acht in the first place is incredibly cool. And also very funny given that the only other non-player character to be they/them'd in Splatoon is... Orion. Who also has green skin. [Scoffs] Of course you have green skin and pronouns...

Which, side note just for me, one thing about Acht I find most damning in terms of how they're viewed by the game itself in terms of gender is how Marina accuses them of hitting on Pearl. Acht kind of has to be viewed as some form of genderless for that dialogue to even exist in my opinion, as while Pearl and Marina aren't subtle in terms of how they're being queercoded, given how Acht previously fulfilled a societally feminine role as a soldier, this would be much more blatantly gay if they weren't viewed as genderless. Though of course I'm still going to headcanon them as a nonbinary lesbian anyways...

Edit: oh yeah this is a thread about LGBT+ fans lol. I'm nonbinary and also a lesbian yippieeee
you get it!!!

yeah i agree, i really don't think the cause and effect here was "acht got sanitized and lost their gender that way". at most i think it'd be like how i pitched in my previous post - they were always gnc but weren't able to really figure out their identity until after they got away from the domes. and got their free will back after being sanitized. you could get into some fun headcanon-crafting about octarian gender roles and what it means to be trans or gnc as a 'female' octarian military trainee with that... though, really, you could get into the same headcanon-crafting if you interpret acht as having ID'd as nonbinary all along, and i lean towards believing that, tbh. i really just don't like the interpretation i've seen (again, not here, elsewhere online) that they use they/them because sanitization stripped them of their identity - not only does it have weird implications about nonbinary folks (hi, my gender isn't an absence of an identity, thanks) but like. look at them. listen to their dialogue. do they seem like they're an empty shell at the point side order happens???

as for whether it's accurate to call them 'nonbinary'... it'd be really cool if it was confirmed that they identify that way, at least in the english localizations, but tbh i'd say it's safe to say the localization teams knew what they were doing by having a character (besides captain 3) be referred to with they/them. like, acht is a named, speaking, pretty major character in side order - there's not really any excuses of "they're a blank slate" or "the characters don't know anything about them" (that one especially - marina knew them back in the octarian domes!) to hide behind.
(i'm struggling to phrase this next point but) it's also worth noting that, unless i'm forgetting something, none of the binary-gender characters technically have it explicitly told how they identify - their presentation, pronouns, and presence in a game made by a major company lead us to reading them one way or another. in this way, acht's gender sort of has the same treatment as the characters around them, y'know?

also yeah the flirting accusation dialogue is awesome because there's no possible 100% cishet gender conforming explanation for it. even if you ignore all the just-barely-still-subtext in pearl and marina's dialogue and you fill in the end of that line to be like, "in front of Eight" or something, if you're trying to also deny that acht is nonbinary, your options are essentially: 1. insisting on reading acht as female, which makes it gay; 2. insisting it's not gay because a character in a nintendo game who looks like this:

is actually intended to be male (but like, not in a trans way, guys)
 

Alphine_Agnitio

Trans Bird Trans Bird 🏳‍⚧️
Joined
Jan 30, 2024
Messages
203
Location
Midwest USA
Switch Friend Code
SW-5178-8280-0912
hey wait it just hit me that until yesterday this thread had been inactive since before side order dropped

(3.5 months later, after it’s already been discussed elsewhere on these forums) so how about that they/them DJ and those just barely not confirmed lesbiabs
this forum got a burst of life because of squid school making a short about it but its been struggling to retain numbers for awhile now

wheter thats a good or bad thing depends on how you look at it ig
 

sevenleaf

Inkling Commander
Joined
Jun 28, 2023
Messages
380
Location
a dunkin donuts parking lot
Pronouns
they/he
Switch Friend Code
SW-5819-4806-4093
this forum got a burst of life because of squid school making a short about it but its been struggling to retain numbers for awhile now

wheter thats a good or bad thing depends on how you look at it ig
as it is now we've got a chill core group of people who come back regularly, so there's that

i do wish some of the folks who joined in jan/feb and then dropped off by march had stuck around, but ig social media to forums isn't an easy switch for everybody
 

Alphine_Agnitio

Trans Bird Trans Bird 🏳‍⚧️
Joined
Jan 30, 2024
Messages
203
Location
Midwest USA
Switch Friend Code
SW-5178-8280-0912
as it is now we've got a chill core group of people who come back regularly, so there's that

i do wish some of the folks who joined in jan/feb and then dropped off by march had stuck around, but ig social media to forums isn't an easy switch for everybody
I've been on and off for forums for years so this place is like home to me but I can't lie and say social media(discord specifically) isn't more convient in a lot of ways
 

OnePotWonder

Inkling Fleet Admiral
Joined
Jan 31, 2024
Messages
758
Location
Marooner’s Bay
Pronouns
He/Him
Switch Friend Code
SW-2068-8904-6306
as it is now we've got a chill core group of people who come back regularly, so there's that

i do wish some of the folks who joined in jan/feb and then dropped off by march had stuck around, but ig social media to forums isn't an easy switch for everybody
Funnily enough, for me the switch was from forums to forums. Hence why I was able to settle in so quickly.
 

sevenleaf

Inkling Commander
Joined
Jun 28, 2023
Messages
380
Location
a dunkin donuts parking lot
Pronouns
they/he
Switch Friend Code
SW-5819-4806-4093
I've been on and off for forums for years so this place is like home to me but I can't lie and say social media(discord specifically) isn't more convient in a lot of ways
oh yeah it's definitely a lot more convenient to use discord for a lot of stuff - it's instant messaging vs. squidboards' DM system, which is essentially just a private thread. plus, discord has voice chat, which a lot of us want in order to play together. and pretty much every comp player who wants to, like... participate in the competitive scene needs a discord, since every tournament wants at least the captain in a discord server & hosts their helpdesk there, sendou.ink profiles link to discord, etc...

twitter's easier to let go of practically (the psychological draw of that site is another beast entirely) but it's also got stuff squidboards doesn't have - namely, news from official nintendo accounts. we haven't convinced the SRL interns to move to squidboards after all. we're also an english-speaking forum, so anyone who wants to see what the japanese-speaking side of the fanbase is up to can't exactly rely on squidboards for that.

me personally, i'm... still on twitter but very sparingly, and i never really interacted with people that much on there, so i use a combination of this site and discord to interact with the splatoon community. on discord i sit in a lot of servers for access to their announcements and resources, talk in some smaller ones, and of course my team has its own server. but for public conversation i like it here best - discord's too fast-paced for me to really get my thoughts out, and twitter doesn't have the space for it (and also it feeds off of conflict which isn't the environment i want to be rambling in. lol)

but that's just me. i used forums when i was definitely too young to be on most of those forums, but stopped for a while when i was a teenager and mostly used social media during that time. but even then i felt like i was using social media differently than my peers did? maybe i was always meant to return to forums... but i'm definitely not a representative of everyone who started (actively; my account's from june '23 but i hardly used it for a while) using squidboards after the squid school short. especially younger fans than me, i'd think, grew up more thoroughly surrounded by social media and likely feel more at home there, and less so on a forum like this.

i'm not sure if there's a solution to this tbh. besides elon completely deleting twitter out of nowhere to own the libs, forcing the splat community to mass migrate to here, of course
 

2Ws2Ls

Inkster Jr.
Joined
Feb 16, 2024
Messages
23
Location
snipe, plat, high ground, and the like
Pronouns
it/its
Switch Friend Code
SW-3607-4410-2815
as it is now we've got a chill core group of people who come back regularly, so there's that

i do wish some of the folks who joined in jan/feb and then dropped off by march had stuck around, but ig social media to forums isn't an easy switch for everybody
i do try my best to be active here, but i often dont have very much to say so often i just. dont. i also dont like liking/other reaction type things so often i look afk but i assure you im termanly on this site.
 

youre_a_squib_now

Inkling Fleet Admiral
Joined
Jan 30, 2024
Messages
832
Location
eastern time
Switch Friend Code
SW-8478-8105-6114
I never really found a good place to be a part of the community until here. I would watch all the big spoon youtubers but there wasn't really anywhere for me to actually converse with people, you know? none of the discord servers I could find really clicked with me. So as soon as I saw the squid school short I knew I had to try it. And i was right :)

I do still use discord but outside of like 2 or 3 relatively small splatoon servers it's only for very specific things (like a tournament discord or to use the helpdesk for a mobile game or smth)
 

sevenleaf

Inkling Commander
Joined
Jun 28, 2023
Messages
380
Location
a dunkin donuts parking lot
Pronouns
they/he
Switch Friend Code
SW-5819-4806-4093
i once made a vow to never make a twitter account. i still haven't.

i did end up making a tumblr account though so idk if i've done much better
tumblr being my primary ‘social media’ for most of my teen/college years is probably why i’m so bad at using other social media LOL
 

MandatoryCatalyst

Inkling Cadet
Joined
Jan 31, 2024
Messages
151
Location
Anywhere, Everywhere
Pronouns
He/They/Any
Switch Friend Code
SW-2709-1571-0800
tumblr being my primary ‘social media’ for most of my teen/college years is probably why i’m so bad at using other social media LOL
SAME but I prefer it that way. I'm too rambly when I speak (Thanks autism) for Twitter, and the tags function on Tumblr allow for, as one user phrased it a million years ago that really stuck with me, an "indoor voice". I don't always want to make a post so much as I want to quietly say something in addition or in reference to but not outright alongside or overtop of. Even forums, while better in the sense of "I don't have to limit what I say to character limits", the fact that there's no equivalent, while not a BAD thing, still something I like having more than not. That and frankly all other social media sites I find far too hostile without as easy of a time with self moderation tools. I'm so big on curating ones own experience so I value that a lot.

Though of course, in all honesty I'm not much of a social media person. I use Tumblr a lot (and clearly am a regular here), but like... on Tumblr I stick to my circle of mutuals and don't interact with communities at large much at all. I haven't joined a Discord I wasn't explicitly invited into by one of my preexisting friends in years, and even then, the servers I've joined have been small friend servers and not really public communities in the slightest, the majority of which are dead anyways. Here there's, if we're being generous, a maybe two dozen regulars. I'm longwinded and rambly but only in small spaces lol

Which, side note. I will say I think it's a tad bizarre Squid School went and praised the forums and talked about how more people should use them, only to... not really use them himself, or do much else other than a single short to promote them. It feels a bit counterintuitive if you know you have a big say in a fandom or community, want and encourage something to happen, and then proceed to not really engage with it at all after a single mention. I'm not hurting over it (Again, small spaces and all that), but I just found that funny. Beneficial overall at least, even with only the handful of stragglers left over from that, these are still probably the most active the boards have been in quite some time.
 

Dessgeega

Egyptian Goo God
Joined
Feb 23, 2016
Messages
2,535
Switch Friend Code
SW-3756-0533-5215
Building a community requires constant efforts and persistent maintenance. That's more work than many people are willing to commit to. One of the mods said last year it would be up to the community to keep this place lively, and you've seen how that's gone.

As sevenleaf mentioned, there's a small group of regulars here. Not really enough to be community for a game of this scale, the site is more of a hang-out. A small Discord server could serve the same purpose. And that's fine! If folks enjoy hanging out here, the site doesn't have to be anything else. People have commented on my cynicism regarding the site changing owners (and I'm sure several of you don't like me as a result lawl), but if Warchamp wants to keep the lights on for the short list of users here, more power to everyone involved. We're just never going to see activity and popularity on the level of the site's heyday, and it is what it is. That's partially due to the state of the game, but yeah.

And yes, I am LGBT. Which one? IT IS A MYSTERY!
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top Bottom