Just finished Tales of Arise and does anyone else feel like Shionne is somewhat trans coded? (Spoilers)
(cw/tw suicide)
I've been thinking about it for a few days and I'm honestly left wondering if I'm just reading too much into it?
Shionne's got the trans flag colors down, pink hair, blue eyes, white clothes. She has an awful past of no one accepting her due to her thorns and causing her to have this trauma of being alone and that felt very relatable to me (MTF). There's also how she wanted to kill herself because of it until she found friends that accept her for who she is, and even then it took a long time for her to really accept them.
Another theory that I have that might be a bit reaching is that Renans are also trans coded? Seeing that trans people were heavily used as villains and the big bads in the past is kinda relateable to how the Renans were treated as villains but humanized later in the story, recognizing that some of them did absolutely terrible things but that they were still people just like Dahnans, but "modified".
Hopefully what I said makes sense and that I also didn't miss anything horrifically awful or transphobic in the game, that would wreck me.
Posted Sep 19, 2021, 11:16 PM UTC
Came across this link of Life is Strange being an inspiration, which seems like a good sign. Couldn’t find anything else though.
How’d you find the game btw? I just finished Tales or Vesperia on Switch and I’ve played Xillia as well, but Abyss is probably my favorite. They were all good, but pretty traditional jrpgs. Is Arise similar?
I guess I can kinda see it? I haven't played LiS for myself but I did watch a playthrough a few years ago, can't really remember any standout parts in Arise that really pulls any elements from LiS. I also didn't really see any standout LGBTQ+ representation honestly, which was disappointing because it would make me feel more better about talking about the female lead being trans coded.
As for the other tales games, to be honest I haven't played those games yet, I've only played Tales of Zestiria and Berseria in the past lol.
In terms of Arise feeling like a pretty traditional jrpg, I would say yes. It doesn't do anything really original, but everything feels pretty good to play with and the game looks a lot more prettier than its predecessors.
The last traditional jrpg I played though was Trails of Cold Steel 2 and can I say that Tales of Arise is a refreshing breeze of fresh air compared to that game. An incredibly wholesome romance with two well-developed characters with nothing close to a harem was something I needed for some sanity.