Referring to the Sprite as "Them"

[Alhanalem [DD1 Community Dev]]

I'm pretty sure in the original game the NPCs used the pronoun 'it' with the Sprite character. In this version "they/them" is used instead, which is confusing because the sprite is a single being and they/them refer to a group.

Was there some terrible negative connotation implied with 'it' that they had to change it?

[AliceEngine]

Referring to a person as "it" is kinda degrading. They could have also just asked for a gender, if Popoi doesn't tell, grandpa should.

[Etherealtroll]

Calling a person "It" is considered rude, they/them is safer to use for someone without identifying their gender. I agree though in heart, I have had a few conversations around why we dont have a unisex word for a singular person because I also agree they/them feels like it refers to a group, it doesnt specifically though.

[KnightimeX]

I'm completely convinced the Sprite is just an adorable looking little boy.
Has more male tendencies than I have ever seen compared to natural female normalities.

[Doresh]

I dunno, moe pranksters come in all genders.

And the whole "they/them" thing reminds me of the majestic plural.

Originally posted by AliceEngine:

Referring to a person as "it" is kinda degrading. They could have also just asked for a gender, if Popoi doesn't tell, grandpa should.

Popoi is spritegender.

[Etherealtroll]

Originally posted by KnightimeX:

I'm completely convinced the Sprite is just an adorable looking little boy.
Has more male tendencies than I have ever seen compared to natural female normalities.

Because wearing a dress, having long hair and hair accesories is very masculine.

[heyboots✨]

They has been used as a singular pronoun since the 1300s when Middle English was still in common use, don't worry about.

[Xan151]

In the original game on the SNES, Popoi was always gender neutral in Japan.
In the USA, the sprite was considered male and I know that some other language versions considered the sprite a female.
See the sprite however you want it to be, male, female, none or both, suit yourself.

[Buffmania]

I'm aware that in the original japanese release they went out of their way to leave his gender ambigous by not using any sexed pronouns whatsoever.

However, in the snes english translation they only use pronouns with him twice. One instance of "its" and one of "Him".

Other indications are his equipment sharing with the other two. Popoi has 4 pieces shared with the hero and 8 with the girl. Of the girl's 8, only one is traditionally worn specifically by females: the golden tiara. The other 7 are either silly animal hats or spellcaster robes which don't seem to be specific to gender.

The last thing I can think of posibly indicating his gender is the scene where the gnome mistakes Primm for Popoi's wife. There is a possibility that gnome assumed a homosexual marriage, but the absence of any similar relationships elsewhere in the world and the fact that gnome did not assume Randi was a husband don't seem to point to this. So gnome either assumes a genderless or male Popoi.

Also, the whole long hair, robes and hair accesories argument is pretty weak if you understand historical attire. Cropped, unadorned hair and fitted clothes didn't show up until 1400s europe. Even then it was restricted to middle class and elites.

[Hiroshi Mishima]

Originally posted by Etherealtroll:

Because wearing a dress, having long hair and hair accesories is very masculine.

Magical creatures are often depicted as having long hair, and it could just as easily be a robe like the Grandpa wears. I don't know why people automatically assume "dress" when they see outfits like this. Also consider that a lot of boys are voiced by women in games and cartoons.

I mean for Pete's sake, even men wear kimonos.

And incidentally it's kind of pointless to make a big deal about the sprite being they/them when there's a grandfather, which means the sprites clearly DO have genders. It's also quite probable that the sprite had parents.

[maestro]

Blame the English Language for lacking a gender-neutral single pronoun. It's one of those quirks about the English Language that I could never understand, just like how Single and Plural 2nd person pronoun are one and the same, causing certain groups of people to try and add one, despite the fact that one doesn't officially exist (yous, yinz, etc).

[Seraphita]

See Undertale. "Them" = person with ambiguous gender. "It" is more to define an object...

[Buffmania]

Originally posted by Hiroshi Mishima:

And incidentally it's kind of pointless to make a big deal about the sprite being they/them when there's a grandfather, which means the sprites clearly DO have genders. It's also quite probable that the sprite had parents.

Very observant with that one! Overlooked it myself. That's a pretty big nail in the coffin for the genderless sprite argument. But it leaves open the male/female ambiguity.

[maestro]

Originally posted by Buffmania:

Originally posted by Hiroshi Mishima:

And incidentally it's kind of pointless to make a big deal about the sprite being they/them when there's a grandfather, which means the sprites clearly DO have genders. It's also quite probable that the sprite had parents.

Very observant with that one! Overlooked it myself. That's a pretty big nail in the coffin for the genderless sprite argument. But it leaves open the male/female ambiguity.

I think they did this, because,

A). Randi, Primm, and the Dwarf Elder don't know how to properly gender a young sprite without literally lifting their skirt up,
B). They wanted to leave it ambiguous becuase you have 1 guy and 1 girl in the group, and so they thought that players would be able to pick-and-choose what gender the remaining member is, and could name them anything and be "correct".
C). They didn't want a gender-lopsided group for equality purposes.

[TSVStriFe]

Back in the 90s Ted Woolsey was responsible for the translation most of the time and he was always kinda blunt with the translations :P

[maestro]

That, and he was also severely limited on space. Like, he had to work down to the wire. Every single byte mattered. Every time you use "them" instead of "it", you are using 2 extra letters. 20 times later and you have saved enough letters for an entire sentence.