Here’s my stance on this, with specific regards to Killer Instinct. Like you listed above, I think that in a fighting game it’s easy for a gay or transgender character to be an over the top stereotype, versus how it can easily be worked into an RPG, adventure, or other mainly-story-related game. MKX is a definite exception, and I think they did a really good job of integrating that aspect of Kung Jin’s character because of how subtle they made it; it’s part of him without BEING him. The only reason I believe that worked as well as it did, though, is the way it was worked into their story and cutscenes. Though that series also has a vast majority of human characters, and there’s plenty of room (and story cutscenes/dialogue) to be able to really work with character interaction.
Killer Instinct, on the other hand, only has 6 fully-human characters at the moment, and with the vast amount of robots/creatures etc, I don’t really see much room for relationships other than alliances; the way the KI story is, there isn’t enough screen time or cutscene budget to really construct the emotions and story to make this a real part of a character without going “LOOK THIS IS THE GAY CHARACTER! SEE THE RAINBOW CATSUIT HE’S WEARING?” I don’t think there would be much subtlety, in comparison to the way it was handled in MKX.
It’s entirely possible that any (or ALL) of the human characters except for TJ could be gay, as I believe his Story is the only one with any hints towards his (straight) preference. They could be part of any of the fill-in-the-blank-sexual categories, really. But I really wonder how it would be done without going down the stereotype route, as unlike race or gender, it’s a lot harder to visually represent sexual orientation. I’m not opposed to having a gay character in the game, maybe IG will surprise us and will have designed a character around a preference like that for Season 3.
No, Orchid is NOT transgender… That’s just something trolls said when Orchid first came out, because she is more muscular and some thought she had a “man’ish” face.
A dapper looking Male around the height of Sabre wulf (Human form). He is an ancestor of Sabre Wulf and is also a Warewulf hunter. He sought out more power to hunt after he suffered a debilitating injury inflicted by a Warewulf (through arcane arts? idk). Male Vampire Guy(Idk what we should name him), spends his time locked in the caste at day and in the night hunt. Eventually his clan figured out he was drinking people and tried to kill him. Unable to be killed, the Sabre clan sealed him in a coffin after using a Wolf Paw Item thing to empower their leader. This turned the Leader into a wolf temporarily and he savagely beat Male Vampire Guy until he’s a pile of flesh after a hard fought battle. They threw the flesh in a cross shaped coffin and sealed it with chains and talisman.
Sabre Wulf went on a rampage after being scratched by the Wolf Paw Thingy and Broke the chain on Vampire Guy’s coffin. Slowly but surely Vampire Guy regenerated.
He is very handsome and loves to drink attractive people.
Imagine what would come out if they mixed every concept in this thread into a character!
Anyway, I haven’t seen to this day a better concept than this and I think it was one of the firsts.
You know the part in MKX where Kung is talking to Raiden at the Raining Temple about Joining the Shaolin Monks? It’s there. If you don’t listen carefully, you’ll miss it.
Some part of me likes to assume that people’s prejudices and temperaments are malleable, and I don’t like the idea of accepting his posting style as the status quo and letting him basically dish out hate speech uncontested, even if it comes from a place of naivety rather than malice.
To the credit of myself and others who have pushed back on a lot of this kind of crap in the past, I do get the sense that these forums are a lot more palatable than they have been in the past.
