I’m sorry if the question comes off as insensitive, but can’t Kisegawa be considered trans? Yes, the game treats her as a minor personality in Uendo’s body and you’re not meant to see too deeply in it, but she is an AMAB woman, right?Not disagreeing with you on the general take that AA as a series displays the typical homophobia of the 2000s, I just think this one is an unique case.
Hey anon, this is absolutely a fair question, and thanks for asking! <3
I considered discussing Kisegawa Uendo’s treatment in the post you’re referring to, however, for a couple of reasons, I decided against it.
- talking about Uendo involves spoiling the twist of a case in the last game in the series, which many people haven’t played.
- Kisegawa’s gender being (presumed) different from her body’s sex is accepted with the same stride as Owen’s age being different from the body’s age. The characters simply accept and do not contradict the presented identities of DID alters.
- As a DID alter, Kisegawa’s existence is treated as a mental health issue, rather than a queer identity.
I want to stress that as someone who’s plural, I actually really like the way the Uendo system was treated and I like that the identities of their system members weren’t questioned.
But due to the circumstances surrounding it, and Kisegawa’s plurality being the identity question in focus, I don’t think its fair to treat the narrative’s acceptance of Kisegawa as female as an example of the narrative accepting a queer character.
Added to that of course, the question I was answering was are any of the characters “gay”– which of course Kisegawa’s existence doens’t answer.
You’re very right that it’s a unique case, and I actually don’t dislike the way it was handled. But until I see the narrative handle a singlet trans person with the same dignity and respect as it does as female system member in a (presumed) amab system body, I’m not going to give AA series credit for it.
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