He Makes That *only Opens One Eye* Expression TWICE During This Ova And It’s Driving Me INSANE

From 2017! It’s baby Eliwood with his dad Elbert... what a good man, no wonder Eliwood turned out to be such a sweet person. Fire Emblem Blazing Blade is still my fav along the Radiant duology. Made this for @FECompendium

Legends Arceus, 108 Wisps and Chinese Classics

I'm finally playing Pokemon Legends Arceus and I'm just realizing the game is somewhat inspired on the Chinese classic Shui Hu Zhuan, often localized as Water Margin, or as All Men Are Brothers, or also as (-The 108-) Outlaws of the Marsh.

*THIS POST MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS*

I have seen people comment on how Spiritomb and Typhlosion (Hisui variant) are related to the number 108 in various ways, as it's the novel I'll be discussing. To gather the Pokemon facts first, let's start mentioning that to get Spiritomb in Pokemon Arceus, you have to find the 108 wisps wandering around Hisui, and some of Spiritomb's Pokedex entries read:

'Exactly 108 spirits gathered to become this Pokémon. Apparently there are some ill-natured spirits in the mix.' 'It was bound to a fissure in an Odd Keystone as punishment for misdeeds 500 years ago.'

As for Hisuian Typhlosion, Professor Laventon says in the Pokedex 'Said to purify lost, forsaken souls with its flames and guide them to the afterlife.' Additionally, from the official Legends website we also learn the following:

'It emits ghost flames –said to number as many as 108- from the fires around its neck. These flames all attack the opponent, adopting the countenance of ferocious beasts.'

Some people already explained that the number 108 is significant in various Asian religions, but to be brief, it often revolves around the idea that there are 108 'temptations' on the way to Nirvana, 108 mundane 'feelings' in the way to purification, etc. and so, many rituals and traditions involve the number in some way (rosaries have 108 beads for this reason, temples sometimes have literally 108 steps, they ring bells 108 times, etc.)

Shui Hu Zhuan, or Water Margin, is among the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. JRPG enjoyers such as myself might have heard of it because of Suikoden or Eiyuden… being a Suikoden fan for as long as I've been a Pokemon fan, my impression is that this novel is not known to westerners, so allow me to explain further.

The plot revolves around the 108 Heroes or 'Stars of Destiny' seemingly inspired by the Taoist idea that everyone's destiny is tied to a Star. Generally speaking, this funny but also tragic brutal novel is about people from all walks of life, sometimes criminals, coming together to fight evil (mostly in the form of a corrupt disastrous government and the invading regions). It's about sworn family, about friendship, about repenting, about changing times… and about how beautiful women are evil because the novel is definitely a product of its time. A number of the adventures in the book are inspiration for the characters arcs in the game, as well as for the locations.

Back to the 108 wisps, Spiritomb and Hisuian Typhlosion; other than being possibly related to Hinduism and Buddhism, the way I think they can relate to the novel is explained by this Wikipedia quote that summarizes the lore of the books: 'The 108 Heroes represent 108 demonic overlords who were banished (…) Having repented since (…) the stars are released from imprisonment by accident, and are reborn in the world as 108 heroes who band together for the cause of justice.'

I don't have enough reliable sources to talk more about it and it's been some 15 years since I read this novel -a very mistranslated version apparently-. But I know for a fact that out of the 108 heroes/Stars of Destiny, there are 36 Heavenly Spirits and 72 Earthly Fiends. These 36 are generally higher ranked or more important in the novel, and if I'm not mistaken, there are 36 characters in Pokemon Arceus that are somewhat relevant, all being ancestors to other human characters in the series -including the antagonist-, a lot of them either officials of the Galaxy Team, Wardens and leaders of the Diamond and Pearl clans, or people of various 'mundane' talents helping Jubilife Town prosper… much like in the novel.

So yeah there are many little ways I which Game Freak seemed to take inspiration from Water Margin!

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A Frederick Fire Emblem I started forever ago that will not get more finished than this, but it’s still cute so here you have it! With the outfit from the Ylissean Summer banner.

How much do I love 66 and Child Emperor you ask? WELL-

I have to do everything in this fandom not true but no one was posting these so here you have them... the man the legend

Remember when Zombieman tried to “protect” Saitama from Garou and it backfired spectacularly. This pic is from 2016 and yeah I draw Zombieman semi n4ked all the time BUT I GAVE HIM CLOTHES IN THE ONE CANON SCENE WHERE HE WAS ACTUALLY N4KED LMAO I’M DUMB AS F0CK.

*** DON’T ALTER OR REPUBLISH MY ART ***

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Some Fire Emblem memes... This is always one scary chapter but isn't it really cute how Ranulf and Ike became bestfriends in the span of like 2 days

Kyza is officially They/Them:

A POLITE POSITIVE EXPLANATION + FACTS + CONTEXT

I didn’t want to comment on this until it was officially released and I could see it running on my own game, but yes: Fire Emblem Heroes officially uses they/them pronouns for Kyza in English, and doesn’t shy away from mentioning that Kyza has a crush on Ranulf. 

Above: screenshot from Fire Emblem Heroes (2022)

Above: Sharena’s official comments for “Meet some of the Heroes”

There’s been a lot of confusion and fandom drama surrounding the decision to give Kyza they/them pronouns in English for FEHeroes, and this is partly because:

- Kyza was referred to as male he/him in the English Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn from 2007 (also true for the Spanish version). 

- Later on, a number of fans started using she/her for Kyza, explaining that Kyza was probably supposed to be a trans woman in the Japanese Radiant Dawn (because of reasons I’ll be explaining later). 

- Now, Fire Emblem Heroes has changed to They/Them pronouns in English.

I’ll also add that mentions of Kyza’s crush on Ranulf were removed or ‘reworded’ in the non-Japanese releases of Radiant Dawn, but FEHeroes decided to be open and clear about it instead.

So was Kyza trans in the source material? Was Kyza officially gay? Why are people mad or confused? Well, with my questionable skills communicating in English, I’ll try to be as informative and objective as posible:

The short answer is: Kyza is indeed officially queer and has a crush on Ranulf in the source material, which is the original Japanese Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn from 2007. FEHeroes giving Kyza They/Them pronouns in English is correct, since it complies with Kyza using standard neutral Japanese in the source material; at the same time, they/them pronouns is a good way to reflect Kyza’s apparent genderfluidness that is also very much canon in the source material. To top this, in FEHeroes they’ve also opted for giving Kyza a kimono that mixes elements from the typically male and female new year wear.

It’s correct for people to say Kyza in non-binary / genderqueer even when not taking into account the current development in FEHeroes. However, Kyza was only ever confirmed to be queer, never confirmed as gay or trans specifically (but also not negating those two concepts either.) Kyza’s queerness was presented in a positive way in Radiant Dawn, albeit stereotypical (for Japanese standard in 2007). 

Up until this point, I’ve avoided explaining much so that the ‘short answer’ actually remained as short as possible. So now, let’s go with the LONG ANSWER:

The long answer: Fire Emblem 20th Anniversary Encyclopedia describes Kyza as having the body of a man but the heart of a woman (very typical, probably unfortunate, way to write queer guys, gay guys, transwomen, etc. in Japanese media). Kyza’s attraction to Ranulf is confirmed in that book too. Going back to the Japanese game, Kyza’s mannerisms fluctuated in this way:

- Kyza presents themselves as what many would say is ‘somewhat masculine’ when on duty or in public, but still using ‘standard neutral’ Japanese; this is, however, something working women usually do in Japan in general, as using ‘strongly feminine’ language in the work place is seen as informal and unprofessional (as is ‘strong masculine’ language as well, for that matter.)

- When in private or only with Ranulf, Lyre and other friends, Kyza changes their mannerisms to more informal and what many consider “feminine” because, for instance, Kyza uses ‘atashi’ as personal pronoun in this context, talking in what I’ve come to call a ‘big sister’ way (but strictly speaking, STILL using ‘standard neutral‘ Japanese).

Now, ‘atashi’ is gender neutral, as are all the pronouns Kyza ever uses in Japanese (if I remember correctly). It’s just that ‘atashi’ is often used by women nowadays because it sounds... cutesy and nice, supposedly. But, in fact, elderly men are still heard using atashi because ‘only women use atashi’ is a recent thing for some reason. Grown men using ‘atashi’ is often seen as ‘effeminate’ and because of this, often times this is how queer characters are written in Japan, in special (and sadly) if they’re a parody character and not legit queer representation. 

Anyway, the point is: Kyza’s description and mannerisms are all about 'being a man but also a woman’. In Japan (in special in the Japan of 2007 when the game came out) the way Kyza was written is similar to that associated with transwomen as well as queer guys in general (those be gay, bi or otherwise, even crossdressers). The Japanese media still has a tendency to group all of them together. While Kyza’s queerness was always pretty clear because of this reason, this is also why we don’t know specifically if Kyza is gay or trans or otherwise... Kyza could be ANY of those things. 

This is also why a good chunk of the fans opted for using English she/her with Kyza all these years, interpreting Kyza as a trans woman based on the way Kyza is presented in the Japanese Radiant Dawn and their description in the 20th Anniversary Encyclopedia (body of a man, heart of a woman). Even if in the end FEHeroes has chosen to reflect Kyza’s genderqueernes using They/Them pronouns, that ‘transwoman’ interpretation was very legit for all the reasons I already explained, and I can understand why many who saw Kyza that way and thought of them as a trans icon for more than a decade are feeling dissapointed now. However, trans people using They/Them pronouns is not unheard of (on the contrary!) and many of us are fluid about our pronouns too, it’s not like both concepts cancel each other or anything.

Part of the drama going around comes from the fact that Kyza very much comes from the stereotype we already talked about which, sadly, overlaps with ‘okama’ stereotypes as well. If you don’t know what ‘okama’ means, please don’t use the word lightly as it’s mostly considered a slur nowadays.

Luckily though, they didn’t give Kyza any of the stereotypical bad attributes often associated with the ‘gay guy’ trope. Kyza is not used as a “clown gay character” or ‘degenerated gay weirdo’ either (which, unfortunatedly, is pretty common in media all over the world). Kyza also had their own personality and goals outside of having a crush and being queer. Kyza’s queerness was presented in a positive way in Radiant Dawn and other characters never treat Kyza badly for being queer (it’s not like Kyza’s queerness is that relevant in the game anyway, plus Kyza is a very minor character that appears in like 6 scenes only).

I really do feel that given the very few lines and space for development and explanations they have in FEH, settling for they/them pronouns in English is posibly the best decision, since it informs us that Kyza is indeed genderqueer without negating any of the most obvious interpretations, such as Kyza being genderfluid or Kyza being a transwoman.

And all of that said, I want to mention that I don’t have the availability to be replying to messages about this, pluz I already said everything I know about the topic anyway. Feel free to reblog adding comments and correcting me and discussing (politely, hopefully) just don’t expect me to follow up. Thanks.

A print I drew some years ago! I still love my Life is Strange girls…

From 2016! There has always been something about this picture that I didn’t like, I don’t know if Genos’s leg or what... but I remember that drawing this Saitama was really fun!