So if the Sprite is genderless

[Broso]

How do "they" have a grandpa who is clearly male? How do sprites even reproduce? The grandpa being male does suggest they do have multiple genders. The grandpa also clearly states that he is a sprite himself, so there is no way the Sprite is just adopted or something like that.

[AliceEngine]

Maybe they have some postnatal gender development going on like idk some snails probably, snails are pretty weird.

[Captain Plan it]

your getting sprites "basicly elfs" and the mana sprites mixed up you need to play seiken densetsu 3(secert of mana 2) its realy good and it expands on the lore allot more

[ceilyurie]

I think they are either a trap or a futa, could remove the clothes and find out.

[Blade12775]

Maybe their like frogs. No gender until they want to mate and then they choose a gender at that moment.

[GunofBrixton]

SPOILERS:

Because Sprite is not the race of it's Grandpa. Grandpa is a Dwarf and Sprite isn't.

[Broso]

Originally posted by GunofBrixton:

SPOILERS:

Because Sprite is not the race of it's Grandpa. Grandpa is a Dwarf and Sprite isn't.

Where did you get that information from?

[Futa Fanatic]

Originally posted by Virsalus:

Originally posted by GunofBrixton:

SPOILERS:

Because Sprite is not the race of it's Grandpa. Grandpa is a Dwarf and Sprite isn't.

Where did you get that information from?

have you not played the game through yet?

[Broso]

I have. Please remind me what I have missed.

[Futa Fanatic]

Originally posted by Virsalus:

I have. Please remind me what I have missed.

in the game it tells you the sprite doesnt come from the Dwarf Village (has memory loss), he if i recall comes from another relm? and when you beat the mana beast he disappears because he's connected with the mana fortress and with magic so killing the beast removes magic from the world ie = no sprite

[Broso]

I thought they established that the sprite disappears after the death of the mana beast because they are a sprite and the sprite realm and human realm can't overlap without mana?

[Faerador]

Originally posted by Game->Killah!!:

in the game it tells you the sprite doesnt come from the Dwarf Village (has memory loss), he if i recall comes from another relm? and when you beat the mana beast he disappears because he's connected with the mana fortress and with magic so killing the beast removes magic from the world ie = no sprite

That's not the grandpa being talked about, man. Obviously, that dude is a dwarf, and obviously not related to Popoi. Popoi's ACTUAL grandpa is the one who gives you Sylphid magic, and he is definitely a sprite like Popoi, and grandpa is definitely a "he." It's just ♥♥♥♥♥♥ writing and a bad plot hole, because this game was made for kids.

[magerker]

Popoi is not genderless, is just his/her gender is a mistery.

[Mordeth Kai]

Popoi is not genderless, he is male. Original SNES:
"He ate ALL the ship's food!"

There's a few other conversations that make it clear, aside from his mannerisms. Because the elder refers to him as 'it' it caused a bit of confusion for some people. Not a fan of localizers of this game taking liberties with this....

[Elith]

Originally posted by Mordeth Kai:

Popoi is not genderless, he is male. Original SNES:
"He ate ALL the ship's food!"

There's a few other conversations that make it clear, aside from his mannerisms. Because the elder refers to him as 'it' it caused a bit of confusion for some people. Not a fan of localizers of this game taking liberties with this....

Yeah localizations can be odd, but this was more of a problem in fitting text back in the day, Some dialog was just completely cut out.He will often refer to オイラ(Papoi acts kind of like a bumpkin). Due to this, when I played the game I interpreted Papoi as male.

I don't think it ever mentioned but it is possible during the inn flavor texts, I could have missed it. Japanese is kind of a hard to absorb langauge to me at least.


https://www.famitsu.com/images/000/146/224/y_5a0d9c1468c0d.jpg

[Vampire337]

At the risk of drawing the ire of everyone who's the least bit triggered... The game only seems to identify a gender for the sprite from characters who don't directly know Popoi, ie the ship's cook referring to the sprite as a "he", or Gnome assuming that the female in the group is (presumably his) wife. The remake never explains why genderless pronouns are used, but the characters which are friends of the sprite appear to always use the genderless pronouns if any, so I get the sense that in the world of the remake this is acceptable and no one finds it odd enough to question. I did a quick skim of the original text at https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/snes/588646-secret-of-mana/faqs/19271 and it appears that the dwarf elder refers to the sprite child with both "his" and "it" pronouns ("Weep as you hear his story" / "Please help it!"). I suppose I can't fault Squaresoft for opting for less culturally tone-deaf language in their remake. Perhaps the Boomers and early GenXers can go play their old SNES carts and ROMs, and this revamped version is for the later GenX, Millenneal and younger crowds.

Additionally, the game never makes any assertions about how sprites reproduce, so it's left to the audience to believe whatever they choose to in that regard. It's believable that sprites are magical creatures and gender plays no role in how they're created (truly, a video game sprite is drawn, not birthed). Grandpa may simply choose to identify as male and Popoi feels no real need to identify as any gender. Being from an older 'generation', perhaps Grandpa learned that it was easier to get past human stereotyping by being referred to as the male gender, and Popoi only seems to focus on how awesome he/she/it is, and narcissism doesn't really require a gender.

Ultimately, I don't see much in the context of the story that requires the sprite to have a gender; there's no romantic involvement, we're shown no gender-defining bodily features, no real attachment to potential gender-stereotypes (clothing styles, colors, etc). Popoi doesn't even have the same armor limitations as either of the gendered members in the party. I think that questions and inferences about the sprite's gender just distract from the story and say more about us and our own preconceived notions.