/ discord Rosado is a very interesting character in Fire Emblem Engage. I'm using his design as a jumping off point for a discussion on how we talk about gender.
I really like Rosado's support with Lapis where he describes the culture of his home village: "However you see and present yourself, you're beautiful." In terms of sheer positivity, and quite possibly in terms of relatability to the audience, I think Rosado is one of the best supporting characters in the series.
He's great, I think he's one of the best things to come out of Engage. He's a loyal supportive friend who tries to see the best in all of his allies. He's "one note" in the sense that he has a defined personality and set of interests, but the way he interacts with other characters is totally unique to each one. He's not just going through the motions like Fates supports.
I'm a cis male so I appreciate the rundown of "egg culture" and I'm glad that you addressed it. I've seen a lot of people hate on rosado for not being trans and it made me feel pretty uncomfortable for lack of a better word. Mainly because it seems hypocritical to the much less restrictive concept of "identity" that we're trying to normalize.
>hate on rosado for not being trans lowkey not surprised tbh. i've seen a few posts from people in various places where they talk about their experience being a feminine male and how people expect them to be trans. as you say, with our current view of social gender, it's slightly surprising to see that kinda attitude. if anything, femboys/tomboys are one of the best examples of modern gender ideology, bc they act contrary to how you would expect them to act
Rosado is one of the most refreshing femboy characters in not just Fire Emblem but all of media in general in my opinion. Their as far as I'm aware aren't any conversations with Rosado where characters are going "what?!?!?! You're a *BOY*". Everyone kinda just accepts him for who he is. Seadall wants to get Beauty tips from him, he wants to show Mauvier another way to look at and appreciate the world, and a particular stand out to me was his conversation with Lapis where he explains that he acts the way he does because that's how the people around him acted while growing up, and that when he realized the rest of the world isn't like that he didn't try to change himself to fit in but rather embraced his uniqueness. These supports with Rosado really show a level of maturity with not just the character but with the writers in the way they approached making him as a character.
When I initially saw Rosado, I just thought "Oh a girl, then saw he's a boy, and thought "Oh, that's neat". Consider me a bad person for not taking a deep dive into Rosado, however, I do think that he can just be a guy who likes things that most guys don't like. In fact, I'm pretty sure the most common reason that most men feel like they cannot like something is due to it "not being manly". When characters in media do what Rosado does and are often labeled as an "Egg", it forces more gender stereotypes and prevents guys who do like not traditional gender-confirming ideas to feel like less of a man. While I can't speak for everyone, since I am not most men, and am in fact 1 boy. I would like to say that even though I am not a very manly guy in general, I do in fact feel driven away for the same reason that I have stated "not manly".
100% I feel you, I´m pretty feminin for a men in some cases, but I don´t feel bad about being a men at all. But I want to have the right to dress feminin if I feel like it someday without people labeling me with something I don´t identify with. It is as offensive as calling a trans person with their birth gender, I think it is a loud minority in the trans community that does it. But I expected more empathie from them since they know how bad it feels
I just saw a guy who likes to crossdress. Assuming Rosado was a real person, trying to look any deeper into it than that would just be rude. Assuming things about people is rude.
As the one non trans person in the Audience thanks for explaining what Egg means I think Rosado is a positive step for demonstrating gender in characters. Having a character be just a dude who likes stuff without constantly dropping how it’s gender related shows that it’s not really a constant demonstration of who someone is, and that you dont gotta line up perfectly. I also really like that he’s confident, but never mean to the other characters about his confidence, instead cheering people on. Just gives people a positive impression about defying gender norms, hope that we can continue straying from version exclusive gayness. Only thing i dont like is my dude has no build and cant fuckin double
It is kind of hilarious and sad that if you reclass Goldmary to a wyvern she's just straight up better than Rosado. Still gonna use him though because his mount is covered in ribbons and his hair is amazing
@@DaniDoyle I think I didnt train him as much as I could, and now it’s fucking impossible to train where i’m at. He’s still around the squad though since he’s a real one
Rosado is so damn cute! I can’t even! I love his character design and his personality! He’s my second favorite character of Fire Emblem Engage. The first being Veyle, cuz her story, character design, and personality are awesome! And my third and fourth favorites are Marni (4th) and Merrin (3rd) ❤
Idk about not being able to double. He does have amazing str growths and is adequately able to weild lances with little to no trouble. I think it's just axes aren't well suited for him, given that they're generally heavy, even to this game's generics with high bld (or con for us older fans)
I changed Rosado to Wolf Knight class and he wrecks house. Crits and double hits all around. The only thing I hate is that the wolf isn’t decked out in ribbons.
The "he might be a straight up fairy and lack a human concept of gender" thing has been mentioned by another commenter (which I think is iffy either way, he's living in a human society, he's gonna have been socialized according to our norms which does mean picking up on Gender to some degree), but also yeah it's just... Egg culture speculation online is just bullshit, I wish people could be normal about stuff sometimes! Rosado implies that gender matters little to him in his Lapis support bc of his home, so like, maybe others should do the same with him, he's just a Guy:tm: One thing I *do* want to mention though is that in the Japenese version, there was actually one moment of a "But I'm a boy" from Rosado, in his Louis support. Rosado is initially offput by Louis liking to observe him, because he's a man, but Louis counters with "I like looking at you because you're cute. When you see a dog being cute, you don't think about the dog's gender, you just see a cute dog" which I think is a neat way that that common trope is subverted. Well thought out and scripted video though, both about Rosado and how people act about gender non conformity in general online.
For whatever it's worth, in Heroes he flat out rejects the idea that he's not human. He COULD be lying I guess, but I don't think he'd really have reason to considering actual fairies are part of the Order of Heroes.
Rosado was really funny for me. Mostly because in my mind I said "dang, that's a manly girl" and didn't realise he was literally a guy until the the B support conversation with Louis. I love Rosado though, definitely been a valuable member of my team since I got him
Honestly I was headcanoning Rosado as transmasc from the start, and I remember being so confused when I saw most people thinking it was the other way around. He comes from a village where gender is irrelevant, he's comfortable indulging in typically feminine things and easily passes as a girl. If he was a woman, he would have no qualms about simply introducing himself as such. If that means coming out, I honestly think he would've just done it; I mean, this is the first Fire Emblem that lets you S-Support everyone regardless of gender. Rosado's character just makes more sense when you accept that he's a man. I headcanon him as a trans man, but he could just as easily be cis - it really doesn't matter. He's just a guy who's embraced his feminine side and doesn't care about gender roles. The specifics aren't important.
Speaking of ethnic groups in FE. In his support with Seadall, Rosado says that he actually doesn't put much effort into his appearance due to being of "the fair folk". So the cuteness thing might be a cultural thing so we definitely shouldn't impose our view on gender and stuff especially in this case.
While canonically, his peoples definitely are very much not aligned with traditional gender norms (which i think is a really cool concept that i wish was fleshed out more) he was written by, most likely, cisgendered individuals who arent from a genderless society. As such, you cant just sweep the gender representation stuff under the rug.
What I appreciate is that despite him being an effeminate man, he still touches on what I feel is at the core of being trans. In his supports with Lapis, he talks about how he thinks about how he feels on the inside and what he can do to express that on the outside. Someone I know once told me that "knowing our differences can help us understand our similarities." I was originally dissapointed that he wasn't trans, but accepting him as a man lets me appreciate him even more.
I'll admit I wasn't keen on him mostly due to how characters similar to him are treated in not only the media they're based in, but also in the fanbase. Being reduced to "lOL yOuRe a BoY tHaT loOkS lIeK a GoRl" or being completely over sexualized by annoying dudebros in the fandom. Going into Engage, I was expecting his supports to go Someone confuses him for a girl>Repeat>Something substantial. I was very pleasantly surprised to not see that, and instead see his "feminine" interests and looks be given respect. Of course, having a canon trans character would be wonderful, but I do still love to see a male character whose femininity is a core part of his character and isn't something he's ashamed of. I feel like a lot of media enjoys the trope of "man who has a secret feminine side but is too ashamed to show it" which of course is the sad reality of things, but in fantasy like Fire Emblem, there's not much reason to have the stigma, (unless its a part of the social climate and world, which it doesn't seem to be in Elyos, so I digress) so there's no need for Rosado to be ashamed. TL:DR Rosado is great actually and I feel bad for letting things outside of the game sour my initial opinion. Here's to more and great rep in Fire Emblem!
You summed up my experience with him too! I felt a looming sense of dread when he first came on screen because I was worried about the uncomfortable "YoU'RE a BoY!!!!??" supports or him being sexualised. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that all the characters just treat him like a pro at what he does and doesn't question it. Plus, he's an artist! What's not to like? One thing I like about Engage is that in support chains, a lot of the male-male supports involve them talking about feelings-- not veiled in anger, angst, or trauma-- just two dudes being honest about both the mundane and significant things that make em joyful, afraid, sad, etc., doubly so if you play as m!Alear. But this is also especially because of characters like Rosado. I think they could do supports between men like this because of the fantasy world of Elyos.
This is exactly how I felt about him at first too. Just "oh boy, another member of the sexist and obnoxious 'femboy' archetype" before being completely shocked to find out that he's actually a real genuine character written with a lot of heart
@@juicyjuustar121 Rosado is the epitome of femboy though, a well-written one. The femboy archetype isn't intrinsically sexist and obnoxious, it's just often mishandled.
@@Himomo3 yeah, thats what I meant. I thought Rosado was gonna be the typical, cliche version of a femboy, which is often very obnoxious and sexist, but I was pleasantly surprised by a femboy that was genuine and well-written
I don't really care if Rosado is trans or not. What we know is that he identifies as a male, and that's cool. But i do think that Rosado is at least a character that breaks normal social gender constructs, that's cool to see, fire emblem has always been very progressive, I remember I was shocked to see an openly lesbian character in Radiant Dawn (Heather), in retrospect Lyn can have endings with women, even if not openly romantic. But I think we are missing the point, Rosado doesn't really talk about his gender identity, and nobody else in the cast is concerned by that, because who fucking cares, he is a human (or an animated fictional character i guess), the cast of FE Engage is in the mid of a war, who tf cares about Rosado's identity. What I miss since Awakening, is that Fire Emblem for me is not about "Tea time with anime characters", but it's about their development and struggle in the middle of conflict, and I can stand FE Engage's story just because it's so ridicolous that it's comical. But I still want to scream at half the cast. I would love to see trans rapresentation in FE, I would even love to play a FE game about gender discrimination, like PoR was about racism, but I can't really stand "tea time with anime tropes", it's just not the Fire Emblem stories I grew with and I love. That said, FE Engage gameplay is maybe the best we ever had imo and I don't dislike the game so don't hate me too much, I just have personal feelings about the direction the series is taking.
I feel the need to come clean here and admit that I was pretty upset when I found out that Rosado was just another feminine male character and not a canonically trans character, although I never hated the character himself for it. I left some comments online that I largely regret now, but I still stand by my overall annoyance at how often media (particularly anime) will experiment with non-traditional gender roles and presentation but not go far enough to acknowledge the actual identity aspect. This isn’t an issue with a single character or work, but an overall trend in media that I find somewhat bothersome. Now that I’ve had the chance to experience Rosado’s character, I can see that this does not apply to him. He is very confidently and unambiguously male, and I think that’s great. I agree with your opinions regarding “egg culture”, and I think it’s important to acknowledge that it’s applied so frequently to fictional characters because that’s often the best people can get when it comes to trans representation in media. I’m still hopeful that someday we will get a canonically trans character in Fire Emblem, and while that will certainly piss a lot of people off, I think it will also cause much of the egg-based discourse to settle down.
@@sam7559 I assume you mean Kyza, but I don’t count them at all tbh. Even in Heroes, I’m pretty sure Kyza is marked as male in the game files, whereas Bramimond and Limstella are marked as neutral or genderless. Unless I’m missing something, the English version of Kyza has always been a (presumably) cis man. IS just changed their pronouns to reflect their Japanese portrayal, which I’ve heard is very strange and quite offensive, although I haven’t looked into it that much myself.
Rosado personally resonates with me as I never really fit or resonated with gender expectations of being male, so when I was in my teens/early adulthood I too wondered if maybe I was trans and the moment I shared these thoughts I seemed to be pushed by EVERYONE around me into being trans like instantly and it felt like I was being pressured into "switching sides" just so I can "better fit" with what I like instead of expressing myself regardless of labels. I didn't really spend too much thinking about it as I personally feel that gender is a meaningless made up concept. I am comfortable with my body and I feel free to express myself without bothering with what's considered masculine or feminine. You may not call people who participate in "egg culture" bad people but I do, people who push others into choices or labels theyre not ready for or do not want are assholes and deserve to be called out
Thank you for making this vid, I haven't gotten to use Rosado that much yet but it's nice to see a thought piece that deviates from the idea that he "should've been X/Y gender", he's seems happy with who he is and you can't take that away from him.
Based take. Based Dani. As a guy who adores cuteness it gets a little tiring whenever I get a fictional character like me and everyone immediately assumes that they're trans. It's tiring and honestly a little sexist sometimes? Every time I've said something like this before, I get called transphobic so it's refreshing to hear someone else say it. (Headcanons are totally fine though of course.)
even though I’m trans I don’t really care about rosado because it doesn’t really feel like it’s even trying to be in the sphere of trans representation just an effeminate male, which is also great However I absolutely adore Timerra and Fogado-THATS the representation I want from the series I’ve grown up with
I'm glad you pointed out the hair being literally pink/blue 🏳️⚧️. I've noticed that since before learning Rosado's gender. Idk if IS intentionally chose those colors or if it's a coincidence. But I did like how they didn't do "Oh my god you're a boy and you like dresses!?! 👹", they just treat Rosado like a normal person.
6:00 Had that exact thing happen on my stream, got peppered "Hey what do you think about Rosado?" and all I could say was "I don't have any thoughts, he just joined my party?" My first thought honestly was that he looked like a vtuber avatar. I meant literally nothing by it, that's just the thought that popped into my head. Granted this individual had also asked for my opinion on a NUMBER of characters that I had barely even met, so I didn't think too much of it being about Rosado in particular, but it is notable how it's almost assumed that I would have strong first impression opinions about a character I had MAYBE heard one line from.
He definitely is the most vtuber-eqsue of the cast, other than possibly Alear. His hair and body movement feels like it would fit perfectly in tue bottom right of a twitch stream
As a very feminine man in voice and mannerisms, I add to the chorus of appreciating the talk on egg culture. Back in the day even one of my best friends seemed so convinced that I was a "girl trapped in a boy's body" with how I've just liked presenting myself with feminine tendencies. (We had a talk about that later though and thankfully there was understanding afterwards) With Rosado his appearance and traits are treated so normalized that it's refreshing, and appreciated. That being said, I do hope more work gets put into representation, like the mentioned thing on people of color; just earlier before I watched this video a friend and I were talking about S-Supports that have romantic context, and ones that are more on the platonic spectrum. Soon after we talked about Fogado and Zelkov being on the platonic spectrum, we realized a lack of people of color like them on the list of said S-Supports with romantic context. I think the only one on that list with even a hint of tan is a certain spoiler recruit from what I've seen?
In general, I would appreciate more people of color in Fire Emblem. Engage has 4 playable non-white characters (unless i am forgetting someone) which is the series highest but is also absurdly low.
I'd argue there's a bit more to Libra and Lucius than the "being mistaken for a girl" thing. If I was going to reduce Lucius and Libra to one thing it would be "has feelings for Raven", and "devout priest" respectively. Wasn't the first time I heard of "egg" in this context, but I guessed something similar to that.
@@DaniDoyle to be fair, Lobra has a few support and endings that talk about how motherly or parental he is. But that ones more ambiguous since again, it could just be parental.
as a trans woman i still love rosado as a character ad while ill admit because before release and trying to avoid spoilers i was hoping for a trans girl character considering news at the time but after hearing them and seeing rosado for themselves i understand that rosado just loves cuteness and wants to embody it at no harm to anyone
I *am* trans, but ... maybe oddly gender isn't a big part of my life, and so I'm highly appreciative of any media that approaches gender/sexuality stuff from this "I do what makes me happy" place. I wish so much that it was more normalized that way
The thing about Rosado is that the way he expresses is undeniably subversive to gender norms, while it’d be great to have a well portrayed trans character in FE, Rosado is in a lot of ways a character that challenges the ideas of masculinity and femininity, his gender doesn’t determine his interests and nobody in the game thinks it does. I think there’s a importance to people understanding that Gender *shouldn’t* really be associated with interests, in our society, it often is, but imo the only question that should be ask when it comes to gender is how a person self-identifies. When it comes to expression, interests, etc, none of that should really matter. That all said, I don’t think “rosado is a trans woman” is a completely invalid head cannon, just like a head cannon that any of the characters are eggs, I just think it’s important for people to understand that it’s not Rosado’s interest in cute things and dresses that would be the reason Rosado is a trans woman.
Personally I hc Rosado as trans masc. It’s just a comfort hc since I like seeing trans men who are feminine, it’s really just to make me feel valid. But Im okay with people saying he’s cis. It’s just my comfort hc. Him and Forrest make me happy and are my favorite characters for being unapologetically themselves.
Trans woman here. I haven’t played Engage yet but I’ve seen Rosado in RUclips videos and was really curious. I don’t think it’s bad that he’s not a trans woman and is just a feminine man, but I was a little disappointed that he wasn’t a trans woman. Because I sorta saw something relatable in him like when he was talking to Edelgard, in my head before I knew his gender it was like a younger trans girl looking for affirmation from an older trans woman. It’s fine that Rosado is just a man that likes feminine cute things. But I do wish there were more trans people in games, and I wish gender non conforming characters were a little more diverse I guess? Like I feel like there’s a lot of characters like Rosado that are designed to make you think they’re the opposite gender but they’re actually *insert* gender. It works for Rosado because (as far as I know I haven’t played the game yet) there isn’t anything shitty or problematic with how he’s written or treated but that’s just a thought I had. Overall great video, I really like how you pointed out that assuming every gnc person or character is actually trans kind of narrows gender expression. I also heard there’s a discord server and I’m getting into fire emblem so I’ll join that. Idk if I said everything I wanted to said but nice job
Personally, I really like Rosado being NOT trans. He's a an amazing example of the fact that you don't need to fit the stereotype of gender- He is confident in himself and just likes looking pretty. Personally, I like that they don't adress it. He just acts like and dresses like himself, and everyone treats it normally- and it should be. Personally, I'm trans ftm, and I like that he's not trans, because I personally find myself feeling like I'm not masculine enough if I don’t dress to fit the part. But I love pink, bows, cute stuff, pastel colors- and I think Rosado actually assured me a lot. Because it should be more normalized to dress how you want to regardless of your gender. You don’t have to fit the stereotype of your gender. Rosado is a perfect (and absolutely adorable) example of that!
As a cis man (well, I go by he/they, Im not certain if most people consider that cisgender but I do), I genuinely love Rosado so much. Im just so glad we have a character in Fire Emblem who is just a "girly" guy. Not treated as a joke, but taken as a genuine character who is just living the way he thinks is most beautiful. I just love how positive and cute he is honestly. Like, hes genuinely so kind and supportive and I want more characters like him in future games and media in general. Hes such a refreshing take on the "femboy" trope in media to me; obviously hes goofy to an extent, because hes an Engage character, but its not the fact that hes "feminine" thats treated like a joke, rather just the fact that hes so incredibly *obsessed* with cuteness, to an extent where even if he was a girl it'd still be goofy I cant believe I didnt find this video until you mentioned it in your video on the Est archetype, genuinely a very good watch that mentions a lot of things I wish people would think about before getting upset at each other. Egg culture really does cause a lot of harm to cis and trans folks alike, so many cases where real living people have been labeled as an "egg" and it just feels unhealthy and honestly... Kinda sexist. It tends to reinforce traditional gender roles which most of us can hopefully agree are unhealthy
Nono, there's a huge problem with headcanons now days. Because it's being forced into canon and then you get the problems that happened with this character, Iono and Shiver. I can't count the times people have been called transphobe for arguing with people's headcanons. Also people need to stop and realized that just because you climed a certain color combination to represent whatever you are doesn't mean that that color combination is ONLY for that.
Honestly I’m so glad rosado’s whole deal is just looking cute cause it kinda hits me close, I’ve always been secure in myself as a guy, it’s only really been a recent thing for me wanting to appear fem as a way to feel good about my look Of course if it turned out he was a girl that’d be really cool but as it is I’m glad there’s a character like that that’s handled well lol
People like to attach things to sexual orientation and gender identity that aren't necessary. Gays don't have to be flamboyant. Lesbians don't have to be masculine. Cross-dressers aren't necessarily trans. People don't fall neatly into categories all the time, and that's okay. I just find it ironic that people often forget that "straight" and "cisgender" people also range in how they look, express, and feel.
I am a big fan of Rosado I've watched all of his supports, S-Supported him, and he was pretty much the reason I bought Engage, and even though this video is a year old I just wanted to say that I'm really happy to see you talk about him! I feel like even though Rosado's supports don't talk about his gender identity or anything like that too much. I think the contents of his supports are more for the person playing on the other side than building his character. In almost all of his supports there is a big theme of accepting and embracing yourself, or supporting the other person on their way to becoming who they want to be. The way he talks and interacts with character who are hesitant or unsure is meant to represent how you should treat others/be treated by others in real life when these kind of situations occur in my opinion. Like how he says to Lapis about how he isn't sure what is bothering her but understands that it is really important to her and is willing to listen, or in Mauvier's support about how he realizes that right now Mauvier is too preoccupied with his own issues and promises with him to be there with him when he is able to take the time to find out what he likes. I wanted to say some little things too like how in JPN his voice actor is really great and in some moments he will make his voice deeper like for crits or serious moments in supports. I liked those moments a lot because it sort of showed off his "masculinity" a bit? To me it sort of felt like he feels empowered by his masculinity and that it is just as much a part of him as everything else. He might not present masculine but that doesn't mean that he isn't any less of a man. Those moments to me really encapsulate the point you made about how he is a a male character who breaks typical masculine stereotype. I think his support with Merrin showcases that well because of how both characters respect each others "cool" and "cute" and it shows how both of them despite presenting a certain way Merrin being more masc and Rosado being more fem both accept and like their own respective femininity and masculinity and each other's. Other little things is that some changes were made in some of his lines regarding localization. I remember that there was a change made in his support with Lapis. Where when he talks about his hometown there's a line in JPN that mentions other feminine looking guys and masculine looking women. I know there were some other changes in some of his supports like the one with Hortensia were the lines were changed a bit but I think that's a localization thing more than anything. Rosado's portrayal in JPN and ENG differ a little bit here and there in my opinion I think in JPN he comes off as a bit more serious but I think in ENG he's more cheeky. I rambled a lot here but all in all I really liked your video thank you so much! I'm really glad this video popped up in my feed, I'm a big fan of fe and am a part of the queer community myself so it was a real joy to watch this :D
There is this claim that "cute" means "being female", which is actually wrong because "cute" means "attractive in an endearing way". What people, especially anime fans, are saying there are ways to design cute characters. An arching head with tall and round eyes together is the way to have a cute face, then decide if the character should be a male or a female by designing the remaining body with the clothes that fit. I have read some comments saying stuff like "Draw a girl, and call it a boy to be cute," which is wrong because that would be like saying Sailor Moon is a boy despite being a girl who is just cute because of her face, and the clothes that fit to her sex.
Its ok to headcanon rosado as trans, just like it is with any characters BUT… if people only focus on calling characters that crossdress trans, isnt that reinforcing stereotypes? That people who crossdress are just secretly transgender, or that trans people have to dress a certain way etc… I like how Rosado seems to explicitly just be a dude who likes feminine things. They dont try and pass him off as some ‘femboy’ or trap fetishy thing, they dont give him a super feminine voice, they dont relate his crossdressing to his gender. This is pretty refreshing, crossdressing male characters are always depicted as being either secretly trans, literally indistinguishable from a woman, as a pervert or for fetishes. I wish gender non-conforming male characters were more normalised, like tomboy female characters are. And i really do mean that. If they have a super masculine body type, big muscles, but dress elegantly and femininely, id love to see it. People often only like feminine men when they are sexualised, so doing so would make that less normal hopefully. (I highly doubt a lot of people who have “trap” fetishes would actually support any man and body type in the world wearing feminine clothes, which is a shame. Dont really like “trap” characters anyways as they reinforce the belief that crossdressing men only crossdress because theyre secretly gay and want to trick you or are perverts.)
I think a lot of the discourse comes from thinking you'll see yourself represented when a character is introduced, and then following that up with transphobic "omg you're not a woman?:::?? Huhh??" and no homo jokes that just break people and make them fully subscribe to a "secret trans" headcanon, because it's just easier to accept that the people making the games you like secretly accept you than to acknowledge that your identity is seen as so controversial that you won't see it represented in a nintendo game I think people project their problems with the game as a whole (the fact that there is no trans character) onto the gnc characters, instead of onto IS and Nintendo. Which is bad. There are real femboys out there and they can hear you. The best solution for this is to put a trans girl character in fire emblem engage 2 and make her canonically and consentually make out with rosado. Don't @ me
The moment they used "he" talking about Rosado I was like "so cute I already love him". And then I felt people started to ruin my fun with their labels
Overall as an unscripted video this is a pretty good take on potential issues with people painting in broad strokes. I do think that the video's preemptive motivations for Rosado gender discourse is a little premature. As you conceded in the video, most people have swiftly moved on to aspects of his design and character. And I will give that credit entirely to how well done Rosado's supports are in avoiding the bait and switch gags and instead just rolling with the fact that Rosado likes cuteness. The positivity arising from how mundane the game treats Rosado's interests is refreshing. This post-gender roll take on this type of FE character was not what I expected, but I welcome it and do think most people are as well. I will admit that I initially would have preferred a character that was more like me, this version of Rosado was so eerily unproblematic that I can't help but adore him. That said, it is still important to clear the air and make sure people don't try to make Rosado something he is not. Don't get me wrong, I still want an explicit trans/NB character in a mainline FE game. Yet with my own gender identity being a relatively fluid NB individual, I feel like I was pretty open to any way the game could interpret Rosado pre-release. I was in the "Trans? Cool. Cis? Cool. NB? COOL AF" camp. My mind was pretty selfishly going "please tell me FE Heroes was conditioning the fan base that they/them pronouns are valid with Kyza/Limstella/Arval and they have the courage to do it in a mainline game." And when I saw he was referred to as male my response was just "This fine fella is a king and deserves the entire world. OMG he named his Wyvern Camille? He keeps winning!" Any form of playing with gender expectations is worthwhile even if that does not mean explicitly challenging gender identity. As for head canons and fanfics, my operating principle is go nuts as long as you understand the source material. One of my go to rules when looking at media is to "engage with it on its own terms" which I know is a painful pun in this context. The game's terms are only referring to Rosado as unambiguously he, with only a tiny smattering of gender non-conforming attitudes from his village. Contrasting this limited landscape, your concerns about egg culture have a lot of basis. I know because I myself had to work through all the subtle to overt enby-phobia and shaming of keeping in touch with AGAB traits that most mainstream online trans spaces have. It kills all sorts of nuance one can have. When making head canons, adding nuance in those confines is the way to go. Explicit text should always be looked at in the place of informational absence. Since this is a fictional character and not a person who can answer interviews the text is what you have. I personally view Rosado as male (cis or transman is frankly irrelevant) with some culture-attributed agender leanings, which is fairly consistent with the support information. If one can make a head canon that adheres to Rosado liking cuteness being a complete non-issue, then I don't see a problem.
I've seen a few gay and bisexual RUclips complained about being labeled an egg despite being completely fine with the gender they were assigned at birth. That "egg culture" in the Trans community is unfortunately hurting other LGBT communities. Side note it's fine to have a head cannon, so long as you remember it's not canon.
This is a really good video! Rosado is very good and I love him! Him and Merrin are definitely my two favorites, even though I haven’t finished the game yet. As a guy who likes things that can be described as cute, Rosado personally makes me happy : ) Also Rosados kinda my best unit and a I gave him a forged killer axe and the Ike emblem and can easily get 80-90 crit. Plus he’s a wyvern rider. I like flying units. Oh and how did you make cod dip without cod???? Unless I’m missing something 3:47
Me seeing Rosado: Perfect Me seeing he is male: EVEN BETTER I absolutely agree with everything you said, Rosado is a man, that's that, unless the devs say otherwise, Rosado is man
Great video, as someone who in the past year realized they were non-binary, it was nice to see a character while not trans, still challenge the idea of gender norms! The breakdown of what egg culture was helpful as well as I'm still somewhat new to learning about everything involving the expansiveness of the LGBTQ+ and Trans communitya Seeing the harm it can cause even if unintended was helpful in seeing how inherent biases can inadvertently force the gender norms back into play that we strive to break past!
I love it when Cis people (or in this case cis characters)challenge the gender Norm. Also congratulations on coming out / realizing your non-binary :-)
@@DaniDoyle Same! I find that it leads to a ton of creative designs that are visually dynamic and tend to stick with the player (or at least me) and secondly thank you! Took a long time and ton of self reflecting but I'm happy where I am now!
Rosado is a femboy for me, because femboys have no more representation nowadays sadly. Trans try to claim all femboys for them, what I can understand since they have also little representation in media, but it is not fair to be mad if a femboy appears, get mad at the other cis character, why you hate on the femboy? :(
Yeah I don't really care about the representation argument, it's fine if people want more of a specific race or sexuality in media but I feel like a lot of are obsessed with that stuff they need to have it on everything and/or put a lot of weight on that, like for example I've seen a lot of people in comments that weren't gonna get the game until they saw that you can be bi with everyone, and that to me seems weird priority wise. And now we have people looking for this kind of stuff everywhere to the point of male characters can't no longer be good friends without people assuming they're gay, or Japan can't no longer do this femboy trope without people assuming they're trans, even tho it's a well known established trope in anime, even in FE.
I love Rosado's portrayal. Never mind that we don't have true trans representation in Engage. We've got an entire game world where gender conformity is such a non-issue that nobody even feels it's worth discussion. From our perspective as outsiders, Rosado is the elephant in the room that nobody's talking about. But within the game world, there is no elephant. He's just Rosado. The tolerance of diversity seen in engage is completely normal. The real world in this area has a lot of needless conflict that really just doesn't even make sense. I'm going to flip a common term on its head. "Truth is stranger than fiction." Generally, it's used to show how weird reality can be. But in this instance, we get a look at just how ordinary fiction can be. And that's truly beautiful.
As a cis man who does go by he/they and likes to experiment with makeup from time to time, I appreciate this rundown cuz I too love Rosado. I feel like I connect with him in a way I never knew. Thank you for this.
I love him for the same reason I love Kanji Tatsumi from Persona 4, because Kanji is also a dude who loves cute stuff, and that's that. It doesn't have to be this statement on gender or anything political, they're just a couple boys who love some goddamn fluff, and as a big dude who loves cuteness, that resonates with me, brother
I think that characters like Rosado and Forrest do need to exist now and even after we get trans characters in FE. As a transfem/genderfluid person I feel like so often I have to fit the box of "I am girl I like female things" when I am still just me. Such a big part of being trans is rejecting gender and stereotypes so that everyone can just. Be themselves. Would I have loved Rosado to be the second formal trans/NB character in FE? yes. But will I be upset having characters like him until we do get a formal first trans character? Nope, and will enjoy his existence all the same. This honestly will become less of an issue when we do get a trans character finally, but for now we suffer.
I think Rosado is similar to Chihiro Fujisaki. Fujisaki is not a trans girl. He's a dude who is insecure about his masculinity and turns to cross dressing to stop being relentlessly bullied. One can say that he is "trans coded", one can headcanon him as a trans girl. But in canon, he's a full blown cis dude. Rosado is in a way similar but the stark opposite. He's a dude who is absolute secure about his love for cute things, but that doesn't defer from his masculinity at all. That's like saying Merrin is a trans dude because she's tomboyish and likes to be "cool". She's not,a and no one is arguing she is. So why would Rosado be trans? I would certainly not be opposed to having more cannon trans representation in media in general, I am absolutely glad that guilty gear gave us canon trans Bridget, but I don't think that applies to Rosado.
This is an excellent video. I appreciate that someone else takes a problem with Egg Culture (tm). There are definitely characters that you look at and you go, “Oh. This is what this writer thinks of trans women.” But Rosado is not one of them. And thankfully, if he was he would at least be positive for once
Rosado tied for my favorite character alongside Chloé. As a trans woman, his talk about how everyone being beautiful regardless of how they look regardless of gender was so important to me. That kind of positivity is so rare and I hope we get more characters Luke him going forward in both fire emblem and other video games
As a trans guy, Rosado is not trans canonically, I'm fine with people who headcanon him as trans as long as they don't go down the path at getting angry at people for not going along with their headcanons or insisting their headcanon is canon as while I haven't personally seen it for Rosado specifically I have seen it in the past within other fandoms and other characters Again on the other side of the coin, You shouldn't get pissy about someone's headcanon either if they're being nice and respectful about it At the end of the day I still like how Rosado as a character is as he's not the "Oh my god he's a boy????" Type he's just kinda accepted as he is and pushes the message that people are who they are despite their expression which I think is still a trans supportive message even coming from a cis character Trans masc people can still dress femininely sometimes but if they still say they're a guy they're a guy and the trans fem version of this holds true too
I would posit that canonically Rosado is neither confirmed to be cis nor trans, rather than just canonically not trans. Cis is not the default and a character who is not confirmed cis can be either cis or trans.
As someone who's a fan of 2 femboy vtubers(both femboy in character and irl) my opinions of those who engage in egg culture are very low. Both of them at one point in their lives had to deal with these clowns and hearing about their experiences pissed me off. For some reason whenever you call out egg culture you are either called a bigot or told "egg culture doesn't exist " When it comes to fictional characters we can't have a single femboy character without the "they are a closeted trans woman/man" folks crawling out from their lockers to proclaim said character is trans, which starts endless fighting. Then the people who engage in egg culture wonder why the relationship between femboys and trans people is in the gutter atm.
I feel I would be more okay with Rosado just being a feminine man if fire emblem actually had trans characters. I personally view Rosado as being non-binary, non-binary identity comes in many different forms and whatnot hell rosado could be a non-binary man. I love his design, I love the little outfit he wears, ect ect. I personally have created many characters that are men who look fairly like rosado in my own art. But I just don't like how the fire emblem refuses to include even subtle trans representation. And the fact that rosado is literally the visual representation of what half of my internet transfem friends dreamed they looked like just makes it all the more just frustrating. Like the trans colors, the somneil outfit, the little cat ear buns. Ooofff I just want a fire emblem game where we have all the genders and everyone can get married.
While Rosaso is deff the representation of many trans people's gender goals, he also resembles the gender representation of multiple cis men i know. Locking specific gender attributes into or out of specific gender categories doesn't help anyone.
Wasn’t expecting this to be long, and since it’s about my gender experiences I’ll break it down real quick. I use he/she/they as I identify with all three, but I’m Amab, and being that I have a traditional anti-trans family most all my experiences are from the “boy” side of my identity. Okay on to what I actually wanted to say sorry As someone under the trans umbrella I have never minded the “femboy” archetype in fire emblem because I kinda see my self in them. Due to convenience and society I mostly present as a boy, but I have always been more feminine then most boys (not liking sports, loving cute things, having long hair, etc) even since I was very little and didn’t know I was fluid(is that the term? Whatever), and people “mistake” me for a girl all the time and my reactions to that has been honestly kinda similar to about every FE femboy depending on the situation. I found it kinda funny, but I would get mad when they wouldn’t let it go. There have been awkward situations, like the time my friends dad saw me in a picture and asked if I was his girlfriend, where I’d clam up. I’ve laughed, I’ve argued, I’ve smiled, I’ve frowned, all of that at some point because of how even complete strangers have responded to my gender. And even people I know in my family or friends will make comments. “Man you should cut you hair, you look so girly” “oh it’s you, I though some girl had shown up” yata yata. As someone who has definitely been in those positions, I never read the FE supports as being just a bit so much as anime exaggerations of genuine responses. People get uncomfortable when they got it wrong (like chrom with libra), people will demean you (like Leo with forest), people will be surprised when they realize (like 80% of these supporters) I’m not saying they have all been handled amazingly, nor am I saying you should like them if you don’t. I’m also not entirely ignorant to the fact that they use it as comedic relief. I’m just saying that it’s very much so an experience that people, including myself, have and will go through regardless of wether they are trans or not. I happen to be, but I still have and am affected by those experiences with peoples perception of my gender.
Honestly, when I first saw and heard Rosado, I just groaned. I don't mind feminine identifying men, but fire emblem has a bad tendency to make the way they dress and look the butt of every joke in their convos. But I'm surprisingly shocked by how unaffected most characters act towards Rosado, which is a pleasant change in pace.
Trans lesb here! I do like Rosado. I actually invested in him in my first playthrough because I like him, even though his personality can seem a little shallow. I actually chose him over Rosemary because I don't like her "I'm perfect and I know it" attitude. And being a wyvern rider is pretty cool. I think there's also something to be said for the English VA here, since Rosado speaks with a male-but-effeminate-sounding voice. Because of that and his given pronouns in game, I've always seen him as a femboy, and I think that characterization is still pretty cool. I think having more GNC folks in games can only benefit everybody, and I'm willing to wait for a truly trans character in FE instead. Why make a character something they're not when you can celebrate what they are?
Isn't it clear that Rosado is a dude who like to dress cute? Its not that hard. Its funny how he will wear bikinis when you go to the swimwear. Guy is just that confident.
i love that the way he expresses his gender isn't anywhere a punchline to a joke, made a big deal by other characters, or otherwise distracts from his character! he's just someone who enjoys looking cute, and that isn't inherently related to sex, gender, gender expression, or sexual orientation. im just sad that discourse on him, even when positive, frames him in a weird way where the only reason people like him is because "he's a cute femboy!!! look at him hes so adorable" and fetishizes his appearance. he is a really interesting character and i rarely hear things about his actual character rather than his design, such as him being a great artist.
I like the points you make in this video, but I still headcanon Rosado as genderqueer because he's not real and it makes me happy :3 The only canon nonbinary characters in FE are Kyza and Limstella, and Limstella isn't even human. My personal headcanon for Rosado is that he has no gender, and doesn't care how people gender him. Gender matters so little to him that he doesn't need to put a label on it. I love all different interpretations of Rosado though, cis or trans
[edit: just leaving this edit here to clarify that since making this comment I have come out as a trans woman, my views on the video and the character are unchanged but I thought I'd clarify] Excellent video thank you for the video. These two characters are very important to me personally and really like how you broke this discourse down in a reapectful manner. As someone gender nonconforming myself representation can often result in this kind of discourse and it's always saddening when it derails from just a discussion of headcanons into a harmful hate towards these characters that I see myself in. Forrest in particular helped me realize this part of myself. Rosado's sheer positivity especially in his lapis support brings me near to tears everytime I read it
as a femboy myself, i'm so glad he's such a good representation for feminine men. I've had many trans people (especially on twitter) calling me trans, saying i didn't want to admit it because of internalized transphobia and what not. Breaking gender roles isn't allowed anymore i guess, i hate this "egg convertion theory culture" nonsense
This is what Rosado said in Japanese translated into English that I found. "The thing is-people born there are generally delicate and androgynous looking. No one in the village judges sex based on looks. There are many boys like me, and a lot of handsome girls. Yes! I didn't realize it back in the village, but here, being cute makes you unique." There are dialogue changes against the Japanese-to-English translation going on in Japanese video games. They are bad because they lie about what the characters said, and how the work was made. Representation should have been minor where personality and skill are important in characters where we can relate to them, despite being different from ourselves.
It's very on vogue to hate on the translation team for not making the exact decisions you would have, but translation is a very complicated process, and especially from Japanese to English bot everything is going to have a one to one "correct" translation, as not only do the exact words need to be conveyed, but also the intended cultural meaning.
As someone who identifies as transmasc who learned to express more of my gender identity by embracing femininity it makes me so sad that people try to make it so cut and dry when gender is so much more than just a simple black and white presentation.
I feel like you're missing something in this video when you talk about Rosado as if he is a random person on the street dressing and acting as he does instead of as a fictional character. He's a character made by a massive company, and the decisions made about what the character does, looks like, and acts like are made by a company. The reason why Intelligent Systems doesn't have Rosado say "I'm a trans girl!" is because they've decided either that they as a company don't want that to happen in their game or that the audience buying the game doesn't want him to do that. The actual answer to "why is Rosado a boy" is not "because he considers himself a boy". The reason why Intelligent Systems has a boy character who looks and acts identically to a girl is because femboys are insanely popular- among both queer people and straight people (and mostly straight people- there are more of them after all). His "boyhood" has less to do with internal gender identity and a lot more to tell the audience "this is a femboy- you like those right?". And I think if we look at the first, and only, Fire Emblem character that was actually written to explicitly be trans in game, it's kinda obvious what IS thinks about us, and also is at least why I roll my eyes at Rosado. The entire joke around Kyza is that "he thinks he's a girl, but he looks like (and therefore is) a boy". (In the Japanese version- the English version changed this, thank god). IS isn't that cool with trans people. When we're put into the game, it's as a joke. So writing femboy after femboy after femboy makes it pretty obvious- people are perfectly fine with a boy who looks and acts femininely, and they are very much not going to be cool about if that same boy says that he's not a boy and we should really stop calling him one. At heart- it's just a clear sign that my fellow fire emblem fans would probably like me a lot more if I wore a ton more makeup, dressed a bit more cutely, and also told everyone I met "I'm a boy" instead of telling them I'm a girl.
There's definitely a larger conversation to be had about companies (and IS's in specific) approach to queer representation, especially trans representation, and to the ways in which certain marginalized groups are seen as "more palatable" to general audiences than others (see also the number of MLM pairings vs WLW pairings in base 3houses), and by no means am I trying to hail IS as a bastion of progressive values, and you're right, rosado was designed by a corporation, just like the rest of the cast. However, I do still think there is great value in his existence as a binary man proudly breaking gender stereotypes, for the reasons I listed in the video, and wanted to push back against the hate and misgendering I saw, as well as use it as a jumping off point for a large discussion around feminine men.
"The reason why Intelligent Systems doesn't have Rosado say "I'm a trans girl!" is because they've decided either that they as a company don't want that to happen in their game or that the audience buying the game doesn't want him to do that. " If you had a situation where every part of Intelligent Systems was 100% willing to make every type of lgbtq character, you would still end up with characters like Rosado, including potentially Rosado himself. We would probably have more trans characters by that point- maybe Lucius, maybe Forrest, maybe Rosado- but the thing is, there is a huge overlap between the experiences of transfem, fem nonbinary, and femboy characters. So unless you have things that are very explicit like a character being like "I wish i was a girl", theres often nothing that makes a character only possibly X or Y or Z because we dont see their internal mental processes and so on. The possibility of Rosado being designed as a trans character would be higher if Intelligent Systems was totally on board with that, but theres nothing about the character that makes them seem exclusively transfem. However, while I dont think your take is 100% on point, its definitely a reasonable perspective that illuminates real dynamics. I also know how painful it can be to feel like other people would like/approve of you more if your gender and/or presentation was different. Also, if it makes you feel better, Bridget from guilty gear has been super popular since becoming trans- she has absolutely received more celebration than 99%+ of femboy characters. Yeah, theres been a noisy minority complaining, but they really are a drop in the bucket compared to the massive outporing of celebration- it outweighs the celebration that character got before as a femboy, and outweighs Rosado’s popularity by a lot. I think a lot of that is that bridget’s song is an emotionally potent work of art, but yeah. I know that theres a lot of awful transphobic people, but a ton of people really empathize with, respect, and celebrate you being trans. I also think Rosado(who come across to me as a nonbinary man, although perhaps i am biased because that is close to what i am) has some very nice quotes about gender: "I was born in a village near the Lake of Mystery. Some people call it the village of the fair folk. It's a place of wonder. Beauty beyond the silly expectations that come with stuff like gender. Everyone accepts everyone there. However you see and present yourself, you're beautiful" "That was my normal, growing up. It was a big shock when I left - seeing how different I was. But I realized I love being different. And I want everyone to know being different is amazing." "Your differences are what make you unique. What make you... you. In a way, being apart from my home village has made me even more confident in who I am."
I find the talk about Rosado slightly infuriating because it very much does mirror the talks a real life friend of mine has had to endure. He's a guy, he's said that he considers himself slightly gender fluid but still wants to be called "he" (though does not mind if people who are unsure use gender neutral pronouns) and he often likes to dress in more feminine clothes. He's also got a pretty thin frame and looks quite feminine. And so many people assume that he's trans, on "both sides", so some people who are trans wants to "help him realize who he is" and get angry when he rejects their help, and people who are anti-trans attacks him for "being trans".
i perceive Rosado as intersex such a person could be comfortable identifying as male but aspects of their personality would be undeniably female. sort of like a hybrid gender
Hard agree on the calling other people eggs. The transvestigation is coming from inside the house. I basically only make egg accusations as a joke nowadays, and only to/about close friends in private spaces. I think trans people oftentimes make those sorts of judgements about random cis people when they themselves just came out (if I did it, you can too). It's strangely subservient to the gender binary to think you can just pick out who's trans like that.
Thanks for making this video, I thought it was very informative and in a safe way. Shamefully I have to admit that I haven't really done enough to try to understand the trans community and so I probably still have a lot of ignorance around the culture. I will say that I had a similar sentiment during FE:3H and also I think it came up with Genshin Impact. I don't know if this is due to my ignorance or if this parallels what you're talking about in this video. Basically it revolves around fan art and shipping. Taking hetero characters and making them homo for the purposes of fanfic, fanart, or headcanon. So for example Dimitri and Felix in FE:3H, while I don't know if we necessarily have a sexual orientation for Felix, Dimitri is canon hetero. Dimitri isn't a romance option for Male Byleth and has had romantic interest in Edelgard in the past. To your point, I don't take it overly seriously because they are fictional characters. Though it always struck me as kind of hypocritical for a community that 1 of their core values I believe is that you have sovereignty around your identity (gender or otherwise) and sexual preferences to be taking that away from fictional characters for I guess indulgent fantasies. Also, I would add that in addition to these being just fictional characters, the people doing it are probably overwhelmingly younger and less mature individuals too. I think that makes it more forgivable as I know when I was younger I did dumber things generally speaking. Am I way off base here or is this in line with what you're talking about in your video?
It's funny (and also not funny) to see that people are getting upset about a character's desing and in the supports they tell you that he comes from a land where everything is considered beautifull. It's like teaching a lesson and your students doesn't understand it lol Come to think of it, reminds me of Eula Lawrence in Genshin Impact, her family had slaves and she is against her family, but people hate her because she is a Lawrence
I do like the feminine characters and I’m glad rosado isn’t reduced to the “YOURE A BOY?” trope but it’s really disappointing that fire emblem as a whole has such an issue with any inclusivity at all. Nearly every character has finite gender roles and a lot of women are over sexualized. I think the only masculine woman i know of in this game is Sully and It’s very saddening to only see feminine male characters who are all canonically straight and who’s femininity is typically treated as a gag, while not seeing any masculine women nor lesbians. Gay people are truly treated as a joke in fire emblem and I truly do not think they have gotten any better over the years. I think Niles is a good bisexual character but having the lgbt man be the character who chooses to make people uncomfortable with what’s basically sexual harassment is certainly a choice. I personally like Niles but again it was certainly a choice they made. The only actual gay character in the entire series to my knowledge is Leon, who downright displays his love for Valbar. It’s just incredibly disappointing how fire emblem physically refuses to create gay or lesbian characters and all the feminine men are straight. You can truly only use the story of staying true to yourself and doing what you like and being who you are so many times with the same trope of character before it gets a little upsetting. It would also work much better if, for once, these characters were gay or trans so that they have a true struggle but I don’t think they would do that nor do I believe they would be able to portray that story correctly. It’s just a very safe and disappointing choice to make another feminine straight male character who has the same motivation of being who you are no matter who says otherwise. I’d also wish people would not call these characters femboys because it implies homosexuality when these characters are never and assumingely will never be homosexual or bisexual and it’s a misuse that makes me personally uncomfortable. I think rosado is a cool character but the stark lack of any inclusivity on any region in these games piss me off and seeing yet another feminine straight male character makes me disappointed because I want to see more characters like me in these games and I want other people to see characters like them as well. I think over the years fire emblem has gotten kind of better at portraying non white characters but there is truly so few of them, especially black characters that you could hardly say they’ve gotten any better
Quick thing before I give my point on rosado, I am a cis, heterosexual man, so take my opinions with a grain of salt. Honestly, Rosado being a cis man into feminine things is alot cooler than if he were a trans man into feminine things. Not because I’m transphobic, trans people are fucking rad, but because the archetypical “man into feminine things is gay/trans” is such a tired sterotype that it’s a bit boring to me. It feels limiting that a trans character has to fit in a specific outline, why can’t they be a trans man and that’s that? I personally have never been into hypermasculine hobbies(with the exception of maybe video games, but even then my sisters are also gamers and I don’t really consider gaming a hyper masculine hobby). Cars, sports, going to the gym and the general idea of masculine “coolness” have never appealed to me, yet I’ve always felt comfortable with who I am. I feel saying a character who’s into feminine things is kidna reinforcing that dumb stereotype. A straight man wearing dresses is equally as valid as a gay man who wears dresses and I think the fact that rosado’s gender and sexuality being the primary discussion point is missing the forest for the trees. The point I see with him is that regardless of whatever labels he ascribes himself to, he’s comfortable with who he is and everyone accepts him for that. There’s no “wait you’re a man!!” Or anything of the sort, everyone’s kinda chill like that, and I think the message we can take is that it’s ultimately fine to identify in whatever way you want. Of course you’re still allowed to ascribe your own headcannon, to whoever you want, I’m just saying my own piece here. Either way, rad ass video TLDR: The fact he’s a cis man who’s comfortable with being into cute things is super cool in my opinion and I think the discussion primarily being around his sexuality and gender is ultimately missing the point.
To be fair, we don't know if he is Cis or Trans, so he easily could be either (as is the case with most characters). But either way I'm a fan of feminine men getting more screentime.
I was taken aback when I first heard Rosado's voice, thought "oh, that's interesting", then moved on with my life. I think people obsess too much about representation. It's fine to want representation, but it's rude to the developers to be all mad because they didn't create a character that fits in your very specific neat little box. Characters are meant to serve a story after all.
@@DaniDoyle I think it's valid to be upset, I did not intend to imply it wasn't. What I meant was expressing anger in an unhealthy way towards the developers of a game or the creator of a story is not warranted. At the end of the day it is their story and they have full rights to create any kind of character they want. You can feel upset or disappointed for not feeling represented, that is also your right, but it was their story to tell and getting angry as I've seen people be solves nothing.
Honestly I just think that rosado partly because of the history the series has with characters like forrest, just makes a bad impression, when I first saw him as an enemy and read over his personal skill being a debuff to men around him I just groaned and thought "oh boy its this joke again" which makes me uncomfortable in a similar way to drag specifically as a performance does, where it feels like femininity is being used as a joke and a costume. I won't go too far into that because that's a huge tangetn with a massive can of worms, but looking more into rosado's character, I do like him, he's neat, I wish there was also an actual trans woman there that contrast could help a lot (similar to grnablue fantasy having two trans women, one who literally remakes her body entirely to be feminine and one who loves herself as she is as butch as possible yet still confidently a woman, sorta like the opposite of trans masc rosado headcannons) but for what he IS, I like him, outside of his personal skill I hate that its dumb and stupid and an unfunny joke that gives bad first impressions and evokes forrest more than he needs to.
To be completely honest, I do not like Rosado. Personally I just find him really irritating to listen to and I do not enjoy most of his conversations with the cast. HOWEVER, I will say it is nice to have another feminine male in Fire Emblem where their whole schtick is "wait, you're a man?" and I do not think that hating him for not being trans is a good thing in the slightest.
i got lapis' support with rosado and had to stop for a minute after i played it, it was very shocking to see a game, or media, so open about the gender spectrum and having a character that literally represents opposing gender norms.
People want so bad to put him in a category Jesus Christ leave my nigga Rosado alone . Play the game and relax why do people have to look so deep into it .Just seen my first cutscene of him on my play through and I love his energy 🔥🔥🔥
there is a 90s japanese rock band X.the leader is yoshiki. kinda like Rosdo. no one knows his sexual orientation, people call him a him. i am very sure nintendo doesn't care of diversity (that much). rosado is a good character, and not particularly strange. for 1000 years, japan holds culture of homosexuality. reading history books of Nobunaga Oda is interesting.
@@DaniDoyle Same-sex love is noticed in Japan for a long time, but it is never a cultural thing since same-sex marriage is taboo-at least from what I have read.
"Although it is still a predominantly white franchise unfortunately." So uh... the games are sort made by Japanese people in Japan. You act like white is the "standard" for some reason which it isn't. This is just how anime-style characters are drawn over there.
@@DaniDoyle it kind of does. You said the franchise is prominently white but that objectively is not true. To imply that the artists draw prominently white characters because they like white people more for some reason would be silly because the artists aren't even white themselves. They're not going out of their way to draw white characters, they're just drawing characters the way people been drawing them in Japan for years. The vast majority of the time when someone says a Japanese character is white they're not, they're Asian for obvious reasons. People just see the skin color and assume. If you go to a African country and look at their art most of it will be of African people. If you go to an Asian country and look at their art most of it will be of Asian people. If you go to a European country and look at their art most of it will be of, yes, European people. That is not a bad thing. Yelling at a country that their art needs to represent the people in your country just because you happen to have access to it too isn't helpful.
@@DaniDoyle I'm not mad though? I thought we were just having a discussion where we so happened to have different opinions. I thought it was a potentially interesting discussion. Why are you assuming things about me? I haven't once insulted you, nor do I desire to. Why can't a civil conversation be had on this topic without one assuming the worst of the other?
As fire emblems first black man, the fact they made Devdan a slave who speaks like a caveman, has a creepy obsession with kids, and is shown to be much lower intelligence than the rest of the cast feels at least subconsciously racist. His character design is also reminiscent of blackface/minstril shows that were common in the United States and Japan.
I haven’t played the game yet but I’m looking forward to meeting Rosado. Interesting video and I think I agree. I’m just glad to have more femboys in games.
I have a question In the video, something said is that if someone wants to headcanon Rosado as trans, a valid point to that is that his hair has the colors of the trans flag I don't know if it was said seriously or as a joke, but I have seen a lot of people use that as an absolute argument for why he and other characters whit that color combination in desing are trans Is there any special reason for that or is just people taking headcanons a bit to far?
@@DaniDoyle I knew that colors are part of the flag. Maybe I wasn't clear with the question. My bad. Let me try again. Why do some people consider having the colors of the trans flag in your color scheme as a prove that a character is trans?
@@DaniDoyle I'm not saying that you said Rosado is trans. You were very clear on your video. I just don't understant the believe of "character uses colors that match trans flag = character is trans" that some people have (not saying that you have it), and hoped that maybe you could explain it to me. Again, sorry if I'm not being clear enough.
It sounds like you should ask them instead of asking me just because I'm a trans person doesn't mean that I know the thoughts and motivations of every other trans person out there.
Игры
I really like Rosado's support with Lapis where he describes the culture of his home village: "However you see and present yourself, you're beautiful." In terms of sheer positivity, and quite possibly in terms of relatability to the audience, I think Rosado is one of the best supporting characters in the series.
This, I loved this
He's great, I think he's one of the best things to come out of Engage. He's a loyal supportive friend who tries to see the best in all of his allies. He's "one note" in the sense that he has a defined personality and set of interests, but the way he interacts with other characters is totally unique to each one. He's not just going through the motions like Fates supports.
I'm a cis male so I appreciate the rundown of "egg culture" and I'm glad that you addressed it. I've seen a lot of people hate on rosado for not being trans and it made me feel pretty uncomfortable for lack of a better word. Mainly because it seems hypocritical to the much less restrictive concept of "identity" that we're trying to normalize.
>hate on rosado for not being trans
lowkey not surprised tbh. i've seen a few posts from people in various places where they talk about their experience being a feminine male and how people expect them to be trans. as you say, with our current view of social gender, it's slightly surprising to see that kinda attitude. if anything, femboys/tomboys are one of the best examples of modern gender ideology, bc they act contrary to how you would expect them to act
Rosado is one of the most refreshing femboy characters in not just Fire Emblem but all of media in general in my opinion.
Their as far as I'm aware aren't any conversations with Rosado where characters are going "what?!?!?! You're a *BOY*". Everyone kinda just accepts him for who he is.
Seadall wants to get Beauty tips from him, he wants to show Mauvier another way to look at and appreciate the world, and a particular stand out to me was his conversation with Lapis where he explains that he acts the way he does because that's how the people around him acted while growing up, and that when he realized the rest of the world isn't like that he didn't try to change himself to fit in but rather embraced his uniqueness.
These supports with Rosado really show a level of maturity with not just the character but with the writers in the way they approached making him as a character.
Yeah i agree, i was pleasantly surprised that everyone just accepted Rosado as a boy without question shock etc.
Thanks for this! As a cis woman who likes dressing like a man sometimes I really appreciate the sentiments expressed here. Really nuanced discussion.
When I initially saw Rosado, I just thought "Oh a girl, then saw he's a boy, and thought "Oh, that's neat". Consider me a bad person for not taking a deep dive into Rosado, however, I do think that he can just be a guy who likes things that most guys don't like. In fact, I'm pretty sure the most common reason that most men feel like they cannot like something is due to it "not being manly". When characters in media do what Rosado does and are often labeled as an "Egg", it forces more gender stereotypes and prevents guys who do like not traditional gender-confirming ideas to feel like less of a man. While I can't speak for everyone, since I am not most men, and am in fact 1 boy. I would like to say that even though I am not a very manly guy in general, I do in fact feel driven away for the same reason that I have stated "not manly".
100% I feel you, I´m pretty feminin for a men in some cases, but I don´t feel bad about being a men at all. But I want to have the right to dress feminin if I feel like it someday without people labeling me with something I don´t identify with. It is as offensive as calling a trans person with their birth gender, I think it is a loud minority in the trans community that does it. But I expected more empathie from them since they know how bad it feels
I just saw a guy who likes to crossdress. Assuming Rosado was a real person, trying to look any deeper into it than that would just be rude. Assuming things about people is rude.
As the one non trans person in the Audience thanks for explaining what Egg means
I think Rosado is a positive step for demonstrating gender in characters. Having a character be just a dude who likes stuff without constantly dropping how it’s gender related shows that it’s not really a constant demonstration of who someone is, and that you dont gotta line up perfectly. I also really like that he’s confident, but never mean to the other characters about his confidence, instead cheering people on. Just gives people a positive impression about defying gender norms, hope that we can continue straying from version exclusive gayness. Only thing i dont like is my dude has no build and cant fuckin double
It is kind of hilarious and sad that if you reclass Goldmary to a wyvern she's just straight up better than Rosado. Still gonna use him though because his mount is covered in ribbons and his hair is amazing
@@DaniDoyle I think I didnt train him as much as I could, and now it’s fucking impossible to train where i’m at. He’s still around the squad though since he’s a real one
Rosado is so damn cute! I can’t even! I love his character design and his personality! He’s my second favorite character of Fire Emblem Engage. The first being Veyle, cuz her story, character design, and personality are awesome! And my third and fourth favorites are Marni (4th) and Merrin (3rd) ❤
Idk about not being able to double. He does have amazing str growths and is adequately able to weild lances with little to no trouble. I think it's just axes aren't well suited for him, given that they're generally heavy, even to this game's generics with high bld (or con for us older fans)
I changed Rosado to Wolf Knight class and he wrecks house. Crits and double hits all around. The only thing I hate is that the wolf isn’t decked out in ribbons.
The "he might be a straight up fairy and lack a human concept of gender" thing has been mentioned by another commenter (which I think is iffy either way, he's living in a human society, he's gonna have been socialized according to our norms which does mean picking up on Gender to some degree), but also yeah it's just... Egg culture speculation online is just bullshit, I wish people could be normal about stuff sometimes! Rosado implies that gender matters little to him in his Lapis support bc of his home, so like, maybe others should do the same with him, he's just a Guy:tm:
One thing I *do* want to mention though is that in the Japenese version, there was actually one moment of a "But I'm a boy" from Rosado, in his Louis support. Rosado is initially offput by Louis liking to observe him, because he's a man, but Louis counters with "I like looking at you because you're cute. When you see a dog being cute, you don't think about the dog's gender, you just see a cute dog" which I think is a neat way that that common trope is subverted.
Well thought out and scripted video though, both about Rosado and how people act about gender non conformity in general online.
For whatever it's worth, in Heroes he flat out rejects the idea that he's not human. He COULD be lying I guess, but I don't think he'd really have reason to considering actual fairies are part of the Order of Heroes.
Rosado was really funny for me. Mostly because in my mind I said "dang, that's a manly girl" and didn't realise he was literally a guy until the the B support conversation with Louis.
I love Rosado though, definitely been a valuable member of my team since I got him
Turns out the manly girl was a girly man all along. what a plot twist
Honestly I was headcanoning Rosado as transmasc from the start, and I remember being so confused when I saw most people thinking it was the other way around. He comes from a village where gender is irrelevant, he's comfortable indulging in typically feminine things and easily passes as a girl. If he was a woman, he would have no qualms about simply introducing himself as such. If that means coming out, I honestly think he would've just done it; I mean, this is the first Fire Emblem that lets you S-Support everyone regardless of gender.
Rosado's character just makes more sense when you accept that he's a man. I headcanon him as a trans man, but he could just as easily be cis - it really doesn't matter. He's just a guy who's embraced his feminine side and doesn't care about gender roles. The specifics aren't important.
exactly!
Speaking of ethnic groups in FE. In his support with Seadall, Rosado says that he actually doesn't put much effort into his appearance due to being of "the fair folk". So the cuteness thing might be a cultural thing so we definitely shouldn't impose our view on gender and stuff especially in this case.
That's a good point, I didn't think of how it could have affected his personality.
While canonically, his peoples definitely are very much not aligned with traditional gender norms (which i think is a really cool concept that i wish was fleshed out more) he was written by, most likely, cisgendered individuals who arent from a genderless society. As such, you cant just sweep the gender representation stuff under the rug.
What I appreciate is that despite him being an effeminate man, he still touches on what I feel is at the core of being trans. In his supports with Lapis, he talks about how he thinks about how he feels on the inside and what he can do to express that on the outside.
Someone I know once told me that "knowing our differences can help us understand our similarities." I was originally dissapointed that he wasn't trans, but accepting him as a man lets me appreciate him even more.
I am not gonna pretend i fully understand what the community thinks of Rosado but what i think is he rocks those dresses really well
I'll admit I wasn't keen on him mostly due to how characters similar to him are treated in not only the media they're based in, but also in the fanbase. Being reduced to "lOL yOuRe a BoY tHaT loOkS lIeK a GoRl" or being completely over sexualized by annoying dudebros in the fandom. Going into Engage, I was expecting his supports to go Someone confuses him for a girl>Repeat>Something substantial.
I was very pleasantly surprised to not see that, and instead see his "feminine" interests and looks be given respect. Of course, having a canon trans character would be wonderful, but I do still love to see a male character whose femininity is a core part of his character and isn't something he's ashamed of. I feel like a lot of media enjoys the trope of "man who has a secret feminine side but is too ashamed to show it" which of course is the sad reality of things, but in fantasy like Fire Emblem, there's not much reason to have the stigma, (unless its a part of the social climate and world, which it doesn't seem to be in Elyos, so I digress) so there's no need for Rosado to be ashamed.
TL:DR Rosado is great actually and I feel bad for letting things outside of the game sour my initial opinion. Here's to more and great rep in Fire Emblem!
You summed up my experience with him too! I felt a looming sense of dread when he first came on screen because I was worried about the uncomfortable "YoU'RE a BoY!!!!??" supports or him being sexualised. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that all the characters just treat him like a pro at what he does and doesn't question it. Plus, he's an artist! What's not to like?
One thing I like about Engage is that in support chains, a lot of the male-male supports involve them talking about feelings-- not veiled in anger, angst, or trauma-- just two dudes being honest about both the mundane and significant things that make em joyful, afraid, sad, etc., doubly so if you play as m!Alear. But this is also especially because of characters like Rosado. I think they could do supports between men like this because of the fantasy world of Elyos.
This is exactly how I felt about him at first too. Just "oh boy, another member of the sexist and obnoxious 'femboy' archetype" before being completely shocked to find out that he's actually a real genuine character written with a lot of heart
@@juicyjuustar121 Rosado is the epitome of femboy though, a well-written one. The femboy archetype isn't intrinsically sexist and obnoxious, it's just often mishandled.
@@Himomo3 yeah, thats what I meant. I thought Rosado was gonna be the typical, cliche version of a femboy, which is often very obnoxious and sexist, but I was pleasantly surprised by a femboy that was genuine and well-written
I don't really care if Rosado is trans or not. What we know is that he identifies as a male, and that's cool. But i do think that Rosado is at least a character that breaks normal social gender constructs, that's cool to see, fire emblem has always been very progressive, I remember I was shocked to see an openly lesbian character in Radiant Dawn (Heather), in retrospect Lyn can have endings with women, even if not openly romantic. But I think we are missing the point, Rosado doesn't really talk about his gender identity, and nobody else in the cast is concerned by that, because who fucking cares, he is a human (or an animated fictional character i guess), the cast of FE Engage is in the mid of a war, who tf cares about Rosado's identity. What I miss since Awakening, is that Fire Emblem for me is not about "Tea time with anime characters", but it's about their development and struggle in the middle of conflict, and I can stand FE Engage's story just because it's so ridicolous that it's comical. But I still want to scream at half the cast. I would love to see trans rapresentation in FE, I would even love to play a FE game about gender discrimination, like PoR was about racism, but I can't really stand "tea time with anime tropes", it's just not the Fire Emblem stories I grew with and I love. That said, FE Engage gameplay is maybe the best we ever had imo and I don't dislike the game so don't hate me too much, I just have personal feelings about the direction the series is taking.
Ps. English is not my first language, I'm sorry for any errors.
I feel the need to come clean here and admit that I was pretty upset when I found out that Rosado was just another feminine male character and not a canonically trans character, although I never hated the character himself for it. I left some comments online that I largely regret now, but I still stand by my overall annoyance at how often media (particularly anime) will experiment with non-traditional gender roles and presentation but not go far enough to acknowledge the actual identity aspect. This isn’t an issue with a single character or work, but an overall trend in media that I find somewhat bothersome.
Now that I’ve had the chance to experience Rosado’s character, I can see that this does not apply to him. He is very confidently and unambiguously male, and I think that’s great. I agree with your opinions regarding “egg culture”, and I think it’s important to acknowledge that it’s applied so frequently to fictional characters because that’s often the best people can get when it comes to trans representation in media. I’m still hopeful that someday we will get a canonically trans character in Fire Emblem, and while that will certainly piss a lot of people off, I think it will also cause much of the egg-based discourse to settle down.
We do have one though, in Radiant Dawn.
@@sam7559 I assume you mean Kyza, but I don’t count them at all tbh. Even in Heroes, I’m pretty sure Kyza is marked as male in the game files, whereas Bramimond and Limstella are marked as neutral or genderless. Unless I’m missing something, the English version of Kyza has always been a (presumably) cis man. IS just changed their pronouns to reflect their Japanese portrayal, which I’ve heard is very strange and quite offensive, although I haven’t looked into it that much myself.
Rosado personally resonates with me as I never really fit or resonated with gender expectations of being male, so when I was in my teens/early adulthood I too wondered if maybe I was trans and the moment I shared these thoughts I seemed to be pushed by EVERYONE around me into being trans like instantly and it felt like I was being pressured into "switching sides" just so I can "better fit" with what I like instead of expressing myself regardless of labels. I didn't really spend too much thinking about it as I personally feel that gender is a meaningless made up concept. I am comfortable with my body and I feel free to express myself without bothering with what's considered masculine or feminine.
You may not call people who participate in "egg culture" bad people but I do, people who push others into choices or labels theyre not ready for or do not want are assholes and deserve to be called out
Thank you for making this vid, I haven't gotten to use Rosado that much yet but it's nice to see a thought piece that deviates from the idea that he "should've been X/Y gender", he's seems happy with who he is and you can't take that away from him.
Based take. Based Dani. As a guy who adores cuteness it gets a little tiring whenever I get a fictional character like me and everyone immediately assumes that they're trans. It's tiring and honestly a little sexist sometimes? Every time I've said something like this before, I get called transphobic so it's refreshing to hear someone else say it. (Headcanons are totally fine though of course.)
Remember what they did to that one character from a yoyo-wielding fighter, Bridget?
@@nushia7192 Well… the creator said Bridget is trans. While clearly in this game Rosado identifies as male.Different situation.
even though I’m trans I don’t really care about rosado because it doesn’t really feel like it’s even trying to be in the sphere of trans representation just an effeminate male, which is also great
However I absolutely adore Timerra and Fogado-THATS the representation I want from the series I’ve grown up with
I'm glad you pointed out the hair being literally pink/blue 🏳️⚧️. I've noticed that since before learning Rosado's gender. Idk if IS intentionally chose those colors or if it's a coincidence. But I did like how they didn't do "Oh my god you're a boy and you like dresses!?! 👹", they just treat Rosado like a normal person.
In my comment, i noted the sort of queer baiting element to rosado. And i feel like the color of his hair kind of further reinforces that concern.
6:00 Had that exact thing happen on my stream, got peppered "Hey what do you think about Rosado?" and all I could say was "I don't have any thoughts, he just joined my party?" My first thought honestly was that he looked like a vtuber avatar. I meant literally nothing by it, that's just the thought that popped into my head.
Granted this individual had also asked for my opinion on a NUMBER of characters that I had barely even met, so I didn't think too much of it being about Rosado in particular, but it is notable how it's almost assumed that I would have strong first impression opinions about a character I had MAYBE heard one line from.
He definitely is the most vtuber-eqsue of the cast, other than possibly Alear. His hair and body movement feels like it would fit perfectly in tue bottom right of a twitch stream
It is weird that... when you put it that way... I kinda want to see a Rosado like V-tuber now?
As a very feminine man in voice and mannerisms, I add to the chorus of appreciating the talk on egg culture. Back in the day even one of my best friends seemed so convinced that I was a "girl trapped in a boy's body" with how I've just liked presenting myself with feminine tendencies. (We had a talk about that later though and thankfully there was understanding afterwards)
With Rosado his appearance and traits are treated so normalized that it's refreshing, and appreciated.
That being said, I do hope more work gets put into representation, like the mentioned thing on people of color; just earlier before I watched this video a friend and I were talking about S-Supports that have romantic context, and ones that are more on the platonic spectrum. Soon after we talked about Fogado and Zelkov being on the platonic spectrum, we realized a lack of people of color like them on the list of said S-Supports with romantic context. I think the only one on that list with even a hint of tan is a certain spoiler recruit from what I've seen?
In general, I would appreciate more people of color in Fire Emblem. Engage has 4 playable non-white characters (unless i am forgetting someone) which is the series highest but is also absurdly low.
I'd argue there's a bit more to Libra and Lucius than the "being mistaken for a girl" thing. If I was going to reduce Lucius and Libra to one thing it would be "has feelings for Raven", and "devout priest" respectively.
Wasn't the first time I heard of "egg" in this context, but I guessed something similar to that.
I didn't mean to imply that the characters were one note but that that was the extent of their femininity (sorry if my phrasing was off)
@@DaniDoyle After hearing it again, I think it’s half the phrasing and half me.
@@DaniDoyle to be fair, Lobra has a few support and endings that talk about how motherly or parental he is. But that ones more ambiguous since again, it could just be parental.
as a trans woman i still love rosado as a character ad while ill admit because before release and trying to avoid spoilers i was hoping for a trans girl character considering news at the time but after hearing them and seeing rosado for themselves i understand that rosado just loves cuteness and wants to embody it at no harm to anyone
Yeah i was i initially nervous but he's one of my favorite FE characters now, I love his confidence and personality
I *am* trans, but ... maybe oddly gender isn't a big part of my life, and so I'm highly appreciative of any media that approaches gender/sexuality stuff from this "I do what makes me happy" place.
I wish so much that it was more normalized that way
The thing about Rosado is that the way he expresses is undeniably subversive to gender norms, while it’d be great to have a well portrayed trans character in FE, Rosado is in a lot of ways a character that challenges the ideas of masculinity and femininity, his gender doesn’t determine his interests and nobody in the game thinks it does.
I think there’s a importance to people understanding that Gender *shouldn’t* really be associated with interests, in our society, it often is, but imo the only question that should be ask when it comes to gender is how a person self-identifies.
When it comes to expression, interests, etc, none of that should really matter.
That all said, I don’t think “rosado is a trans woman” is a completely invalid head cannon, just like a head cannon that any of the characters are eggs, I just think it’s important for people to understand that it’s not Rosado’s interest in cute things and dresses that would be the reason Rosado is a trans woman.
Personally I hc Rosado as trans masc. It’s just a comfort hc since I like seeing trans men who are feminine, it’s really just to make me feel valid. But Im okay with people saying he’s cis. It’s just my comfort hc. Him and Forrest make me happy and are my favorite characters for being unapologetically themselves.
Trans woman here. I haven’t played Engage yet but I’ve seen Rosado in RUclips videos and was really curious. I don’t think it’s bad that he’s not a trans woman and is just a feminine man, but I was a little disappointed that he wasn’t a trans woman. Because I sorta saw something relatable in him like when he was talking to Edelgard, in my head before I knew his gender it was like a younger trans girl looking for affirmation from an older trans woman. It’s fine that Rosado is just a man that likes feminine cute things. But I do wish there were more trans people in games, and I wish gender non conforming characters were a little more diverse I guess? Like I feel like there’s a lot of characters like Rosado that are designed to make you think they’re the opposite gender but they’re actually *insert* gender. It works for Rosado because (as far as I know I haven’t played the game yet) there isn’t anything shitty or problematic with how he’s written or treated but that’s just a thought I had. Overall great video, I really like how you pointed out that assuming every gnc person or character is actually trans kind of narrows gender expression. I also heard there’s a discord server and I’m getting into fire emblem so I’ll join that. Idk if I said everything I wanted to said but nice job
Personally, I really like Rosado being NOT trans.
He's a an amazing example of the fact that you don't need to fit the stereotype of gender-
He is confident in himself and just likes looking pretty.
Personally, I like that they don't adress it. He just acts like and dresses like himself, and everyone treats it normally- and it should be.
Personally, I'm trans ftm, and I like that he's not trans, because I personally find myself feeling like I'm not masculine enough if I don’t dress to fit the part.
But I love pink, bows, cute stuff, pastel colors- and I think Rosado actually assured me a lot. Because it should be more normalized to dress how you want to regardless of your gender. You don’t have to fit the stereotype of your gender. Rosado is a perfect (and absolutely adorable) example of that!
As a cis man (well, I go by he/they, Im not certain if most people consider that cisgender but I do), I genuinely love Rosado so much. Im just so glad we have a character in Fire Emblem who is just a "girly" guy. Not treated as a joke, but taken as a genuine character who is just living the way he thinks is most beautiful.
I just love how positive and cute he is honestly. Like, hes genuinely so kind and supportive and I want more characters like him in future games and media in general. Hes such a refreshing take on the "femboy" trope in media to me; obviously hes goofy to an extent, because hes an Engage character, but its not the fact that hes "feminine" thats treated like a joke, rather just the fact that hes so incredibly *obsessed* with cuteness, to an extent where even if he was a girl it'd still be goofy
I cant believe I didnt find this video until you mentioned it in your video on the Est archetype, genuinely a very good watch that mentions a lot of things I wish people would think about before getting upset at each other. Egg culture really does cause a lot of harm to cis and trans folks alike, so many cases where real living people have been labeled as an "egg" and it just feels unhealthy and honestly... Kinda sexist. It tends to reinforce traditional gender roles which most of us can hopefully agree are unhealthy
Rosado is such a fun character and he quickly became my favorite
I love him so much and the supports I saw only made me love him even more
Nono, there's a huge problem with headcanons now days. Because it's being forced into canon and then you get the problems that happened with this character, Iono and Shiver. I can't count the times people have been called transphobe for arguing with people's headcanons.
Also people need to stop and realized that just because you climed a certain color combination to represent whatever you are doesn't mean that that color combination is ONLY for that.
I think as long as someone doesn't try to claim their head cannon is cannon it's not an issue
Honestly I’m so glad rosado’s whole deal is just looking cute cause it kinda hits me close, I’ve always been secure in myself as a guy, it’s only really been a recent thing for me wanting to appear fem as a way to feel good about my look
Of course if it turned out he was a girl that’d be really cool but as it is I’m glad there’s a character like that that’s handled well lol
People like to attach things to sexual orientation and gender identity that aren't necessary.
Gays don't have to be flamboyant.
Lesbians don't have to be masculine.
Cross-dressers aren't necessarily trans.
People don't fall neatly into categories all the time, and that's okay.
I just find it ironic that people often forget that "straight" and "cisgender" people also range in how they look, express, and feel.
I agree, but compared to the other characters, Rosado is quite flamboyant
I am a big fan of Rosado I've watched all of his supports, S-Supported him, and he was pretty much the reason I bought Engage, and even though this video is a year old I just wanted to say that I'm really happy to see you talk about him!
I feel like even though Rosado's supports don't talk about his gender identity or anything like that too much. I think the contents of his supports are more for the person playing on the other side than building his character. In almost all of his supports there is a big theme of accepting and embracing yourself, or supporting the other person on their way to becoming who they want to be. The way he talks and interacts with character who are hesitant or unsure is meant to represent how you should treat others/be treated by others in real life when these kind of situations occur in my opinion. Like how he says to Lapis about how he isn't sure what is bothering her but understands that it is really important to her and is willing to listen, or in Mauvier's support about how he realizes that right now Mauvier is too preoccupied with his own issues and promises with him to be there with him when he is able to take the time to find out what he likes.
I wanted to say some little things too like how in JPN his voice actor is really great and in some moments he will make his voice deeper like for crits or serious moments in supports. I liked those moments a lot because it sort of showed off his "masculinity" a bit? To me it sort of felt like he feels empowered by his masculinity and that it is just as much a part of him as everything else. He might not present masculine but that doesn't mean that he isn't any less of a man. Those moments to me really encapsulate the point you made about how he is a a male character who breaks typical masculine stereotype. I think his support with Merrin showcases that well because of how both characters respect each others "cool" and "cute" and it shows how both of them despite presenting a certain way Merrin being more masc and Rosado being more fem both accept and like their own respective femininity and masculinity and each other's.
Other little things is that some changes were made in some of his lines regarding localization. I remember that there was a change made in his support with Lapis. Where when he talks about his hometown there's a line in JPN that mentions other feminine looking guys and masculine looking women. I know there were some other changes in some of his supports like the one with Hortensia were the lines were changed a bit but I think that's a localization thing more than anything. Rosado's portrayal in JPN and ENG differ a little bit here and there in my opinion I think in JPN he comes off as a bit more serious but I think in ENG he's more cheeky. I rambled a lot here but all in all I really liked your video thank you so much! I'm really glad this video popped up in my feed, I'm a big fan of fe and am a part of the queer community myself so it was a real joy to watch this :D
There is this claim that "cute" means "being female", which is actually wrong because "cute" means "attractive in an endearing way". What people, especially anime fans, are saying there are ways to design cute characters. An arching head with tall and round eyes together is the way to have a cute face, then decide if the character should be a male or a female by designing the remaining body with the clothes that fit. I have read some comments saying stuff like "Draw a girl, and call it a boy to be cute," which is wrong because that would be like saying Sailor Moon is a boy despite being a girl who is just cute because of her face, and the clothes that fit to her sex.
Its ok to headcanon rosado as trans, just like it is with any characters BUT…
if people only focus on calling characters that crossdress trans, isnt that reinforcing stereotypes? That people who crossdress are just secretly transgender, or that trans people have to dress a certain way etc…
I like how Rosado seems to explicitly just be a dude who likes feminine things. They dont try and pass him off as some ‘femboy’ or trap fetishy thing, they dont give him a super feminine voice, they dont relate his crossdressing to his gender.
This is pretty refreshing, crossdressing male characters are always depicted as being either secretly trans, literally indistinguishable from a woman, as a pervert or for fetishes. I wish gender non-conforming male characters were more normalised, like tomboy female characters are.
And i really do mean that. If they have a super masculine body type, big muscles, but dress elegantly and femininely, id love to see it. People often only like feminine men when they are sexualised, so doing so would make that less normal hopefully.
(I highly doubt a lot of people who have “trap” fetishes would actually support any man and body type in the world wearing feminine clothes, which is a shame. Dont really like “trap” characters anyways as they reinforce the belief that crossdressing men only crossdress because theyre secretly gay and want to trick you or are perverts.)
100%
I think a lot of the discourse comes from thinking you'll see yourself represented when a character is introduced, and then following that up with transphobic "omg you're not a woman?:::?? Huhh??" and no homo jokes that just break people and make them fully subscribe to a "secret trans" headcanon, because it's just easier to accept that the people making the games you like secretly accept you than to acknowledge that your identity is seen as so controversial that you won't see it represented in a nintendo game
I think people project their problems with the game as a whole (the fact that there is no trans character) onto the gnc characters, instead of onto IS and Nintendo. Which is bad. There are real femboys out there and they can hear you.
The best solution for this is to put a trans girl character in fire emblem engage 2 and make her canonically and consentually make out with rosado. Don't @ me
Rosado is a hot dude. The real impact his identified gender has in the game is Skill activations (Rafel, Louis, etc.)
The moment they used "he" talking about Rosado I was like "so cute I already love him". And then I felt people started to ruin my fun with their labels
Overall as an unscripted video this is a pretty good take on potential issues with people painting in broad strokes. I do think that the video's preemptive motivations for Rosado gender discourse is a little premature. As you conceded in the video, most people have swiftly moved on to aspects of his design and character. And I will give that credit entirely to how well done Rosado's supports are in avoiding the bait and switch gags and instead just rolling with the fact that Rosado likes cuteness. The positivity arising from how mundane the game treats Rosado's interests is refreshing. This post-gender roll take on this type of FE character was not what I expected, but I welcome it and do think most people are as well. I will admit that I initially would have preferred a character that was more like me, this version of Rosado was so eerily unproblematic that I can't help but adore him.
That said, it is still important to clear the air and make sure people don't try to make Rosado something he is not. Don't get me wrong, I still want an explicit trans/NB character in a mainline FE game. Yet with my own gender identity being a relatively fluid NB individual, I feel like I was pretty open to any way the game could interpret Rosado pre-release. I was in the "Trans? Cool. Cis? Cool. NB? COOL AF" camp. My mind was pretty selfishly going "please tell me FE Heroes was conditioning the fan base that they/them pronouns are valid with Kyza/Limstella/Arval and they have the courage to do it in a mainline game." And when I saw he was referred to as male my response was just "This fine fella is a king and deserves the entire world. OMG he named his Wyvern Camille? He keeps winning!" Any form of playing with gender expectations is worthwhile even if that does not mean explicitly challenging gender identity.
As for head canons and fanfics, my operating principle is go nuts as long as you understand the source material. One of my go to rules when looking at media is to "engage with it on its own terms" which I know is a painful pun in this context. The game's terms are only referring to Rosado as unambiguously he, with only a tiny smattering of gender non-conforming attitudes from his village. Contrasting this limited landscape, your concerns about egg culture have a lot of basis. I know because I myself had to work through all the subtle to overt enby-phobia and shaming of keeping in touch with AGAB traits that most mainstream online trans spaces have. It kills all sorts of nuance one can have. When making head canons, adding nuance in those confines is the way to go. Explicit text should always be looked at in the place of informational absence. Since this is a fictional character and not a person who can answer interviews the text is what you have. I personally view Rosado as male (cis or transman is frankly irrelevant) with some culture-attributed agender leanings, which is fairly consistent with the support information. If one can make a head canon that adheres to Rosado liking cuteness being a complete non-issue, then I don't see a problem.
I've seen a few gay and bisexual RUclips complained about being labeled an egg despite being completely fine with the gender they were assigned at birth. That "egg culture" in the Trans community is unfortunately hurting other LGBT communities. Side note it's fine to have a head cannon, so long as you remember it's not canon.
This is a really good video! Rosado is very good and I love him! Him and Merrin are definitely my two favorites, even though I haven’t finished the game yet. As a guy who likes things that can be described as cute, Rosado personally makes me happy : )
Also Rosados kinda my best unit and a I gave him a forged killer axe and the Ike emblem and can easily get 80-90 crit. Plus he’s a wyvern rider. I like flying units.
Oh and how did you make cod dip without cod???? Unless I’m missing something 3:47
You don't actually need any of the ingredients, using them just increases the meal grade
Me seeing Rosado: Perfect
Me seeing he is male: EVEN BETTER
I absolutely agree with everything you said, Rosado is a man, that's that, unless the devs say otherwise, Rosado is man
Great video, as someone who in the past year realized they were non-binary, it was nice to see a character while not trans, still challenge the idea of gender norms! The breakdown of what egg culture was helpful as well as I'm still somewhat new to learning about everything involving the expansiveness of the LGBTQ+ and Trans communitya Seeing the harm it can cause even if unintended was helpful in seeing how inherent biases can inadvertently force the gender norms back into play that we strive to break past!
I love it when Cis people (or in this case cis characters)challenge the gender Norm. Also congratulations on coming out / realizing your non-binary :-)
@@DaniDoyle Same! I find that it leads to a ton of creative designs that are visually dynamic and tend to stick with the player (or at least me) and secondly thank you! Took a long time and ton of self reflecting but I'm happy where I am now!
Rosado is a femboy for me, because femboys have no more representation nowadays sadly. Trans try to claim all femboys for them, what I can understand since they have also little representation in media, but it is not fair to be mad if a femboy appears, get mad at the other cis character, why you hate on the femboy? :(
Yeah I don't really care about the representation argument, it's fine if people want more of a specific race or sexuality in media but I feel like a lot of are obsessed with that stuff they need to have it on everything and/or put a lot of weight on that, like for example I've seen a lot of people in comments that weren't gonna get the game until they saw that you can be bi with everyone, and that to me seems weird priority wise.
And now we have people looking for this kind of stuff everywhere to the point of male characters can't no longer be good friends without people assuming they're gay, or Japan can't no longer do this femboy trope without people assuming they're trans, even tho it's a well known established trope in anime, even in FE.
I love Rosado's portrayal.
Never mind that we don't have true trans representation in Engage.
We've got an entire game world where gender conformity is such a non-issue that nobody even feels it's worth discussion.
From our perspective as outsiders, Rosado is the elephant in the room that nobody's talking about.
But within the game world, there is no elephant. He's just Rosado.
The tolerance of diversity seen in engage is completely normal. The real world in this area has a lot of needless conflict that really just doesn't even make sense.
I'm going to flip a common term on its head. "Truth is stranger than fiction." Generally, it's used to show how weird reality can be. But in this instance, we get a look at just how ordinary fiction can be. And that's truly beautiful.
As a cis man who does go by he/they and likes to experiment with makeup from time to time, I appreciate this rundown cuz I too love Rosado. I feel like I connect with him in a way I never knew. Thank you for this.
I love him for the same reason I love Kanji Tatsumi from Persona 4, because Kanji is also a dude who loves cute stuff, and that's that. It doesn't have to be this statement on gender or anything political, they're just a couple boys who love some goddamn fluff, and as a big dude who loves cuteness, that resonates with me, brother
I think that characters like Rosado and Forrest do need to exist now and even after we get trans characters in FE. As a transfem/genderfluid person I feel like so often I have to fit the box of "I am girl I like female things" when I am still just me. Such a big part of being trans is rejecting gender and stereotypes so that everyone can just. Be themselves. Would I have loved Rosado to be the second formal trans/NB character in FE? yes. But will I be upset having characters like him until we do get a formal first trans character? Nope, and will enjoy his existence all the same. This honestly will become less of an issue when we do get a trans character finally, but for now we suffer.
I think Rosado is similar to Chihiro Fujisaki. Fujisaki is not a trans girl. He's a dude who is insecure about his masculinity and turns to cross dressing to stop being relentlessly bullied. One can say that he is "trans coded", one can headcanon him as a trans girl. But in canon, he's a full blown cis dude. Rosado is in a way similar but the stark opposite. He's a dude who is absolute secure about his love for cute things, but that doesn't defer from his masculinity at all. That's like saying Merrin is a trans dude because she's tomboyish and likes to be "cool". She's not,a and no one is arguing she is. So why would Rosado be trans? I would certainly not be opposed to having more cannon trans representation in media in general, I am absolutely glad that guilty gear gave us canon trans Bridget, but I don't think that applies to Rosado.
I don't think you watched the video but go off I guess.
@@DaniDoyle I did, I was not saying YOU claimed Rosado was trans, I am actually agreeing with the video.
But I can understand how my comment can be interoreted that way, my bad :v is that any better?
This is an excellent video. I appreciate that someone else takes a problem with Egg Culture (tm).
There are definitely characters that you look at and you go, “Oh. This is what this writer thinks of trans women.” But Rosado is not one of them. And thankfully, if he was he would at least be positive for once
Rosado tied for my favorite character alongside Chloé.
As a trans woman, his talk about how everyone being beautiful regardless of how they look regardless of gender was so important to me. That kind of positivity is so rare and I hope we get more characters Luke him going forward in both fire emblem and other video games
Same!
Rosado is Rosado. He is fabulous.
Rosado is just a man who like cute things I don't see the problem here, he is a pretty humble dude
I also said that rosado is a man who likes cute things I'm not certain what your comment is trying to say
As a trans guy, Rosado is not trans canonically, I'm fine with people who headcanon him as trans as long as they don't go down the path at getting angry at people for not going along with their headcanons or insisting their headcanon is canon as while I haven't personally seen it for Rosado specifically I have seen it in the past within other fandoms and other characters
Again on the other side of the coin, You shouldn't get pissy about someone's headcanon either if they're being nice and respectful about it
At the end of the day I still like how Rosado as a character is as he's not the "Oh my god he's a boy????" Type he's just kinda accepted as he is and pushes the message that people are who they are despite their expression which I think is still a trans supportive message even coming from a cis character
Trans masc people can still dress femininely sometimes but if they still say they're a guy they're a guy and the trans fem version of this holds true too
I would posit that canonically Rosado is neither confirmed to be cis nor trans, rather than just canonically not trans. Cis is not the default and a character who is not confirmed cis can be either cis or trans.
@@DaniDoyle Mm I suppose
As someone who's a fan of 2 femboy vtubers(both femboy in character and irl) my opinions of those who engage in egg culture are very low. Both of them at one point in their lives had to deal with these clowns and hearing about their experiences pissed me off. For some reason whenever you call out egg culture you are either called a bigot or told "egg culture doesn't exist " When it comes to fictional characters we can't have a single femboy character without the "they are a closeted trans woman/man" folks crawling out from their lockers to proclaim said character is trans, which starts endless fighting. Then the people who engage in egg culture wonder why the relationship between femboys and trans people is in the gutter atm.
I feel I would be more okay with Rosado just being a feminine man if fire emblem actually had trans characters. I personally view Rosado as being non-binary, non-binary identity comes in many different forms and whatnot hell rosado could be a non-binary man. I love his design, I love the little outfit he wears, ect ect. I personally have created many characters that are men who look fairly like rosado in my own art. But I just don't like how the fire emblem refuses to include even subtle trans representation. And the fact that rosado is literally the visual representation of what half of my internet transfem friends dreamed they looked like just makes it all the more just frustrating. Like the trans colors, the somneil outfit, the little cat ear buns. Ooofff I just want a fire emblem game where we have all the genders and everyone can get married.
While Rosaso is deff the representation of many trans people's gender goals, he also resembles the gender representation of multiple cis men i know. Locking specific gender attributes into or out of specific gender categories doesn't help anyone.
Wasn’t expecting this to be long, and since it’s about my gender experiences I’ll break it down real quick.
I use he/she/they as I identify with all three, but I’m Amab, and being that I have a traditional anti-trans family most all my experiences are from the “boy” side of my identity.
Okay on to what I actually wanted to say sorry
As someone under the trans umbrella I have never minded the “femboy” archetype in fire emblem because I kinda see my self in them. Due to convenience and society I mostly present as a boy, but I have always been more feminine then most boys (not liking sports, loving cute things, having long hair, etc) even since I was very little and didn’t know I was fluid(is that the term? Whatever), and people “mistake” me for a girl all the time and my reactions to that has been honestly kinda similar to about every FE femboy depending on the situation. I found it kinda funny, but I would get mad when they wouldn’t let it go. There have been awkward situations, like the time my friends dad saw me in a picture and asked if I was his girlfriend, where I’d clam up. I’ve laughed, I’ve argued, I’ve smiled, I’ve frowned, all of that at some point because of how even complete strangers have responded to my gender. And even people I know in my family or friends will make comments. “Man you should cut you hair, you look so girly” “oh it’s you, I though some girl had shown up” yata yata.
As someone who has definitely been in those positions, I never read the FE supports as being just a bit so much as anime exaggerations of genuine responses. People get uncomfortable when they got it wrong (like chrom with libra), people will demean you (like Leo with forest), people will be surprised when they realize (like 80% of these supporters)
I’m not saying they have all been handled amazingly, nor am I saying you should like them if you don’t.
I’m also not entirely ignorant to the fact that they use it as comedic relief.
I’m just saying that it’s very much so an experience that people, including myself, have and will go through regardless of wether they are trans or not. I happen to be, but I still have and am affected by those experiences with peoples perception of my gender.
Rosado is just a feminine dude to me, didn't think of anything beyond that. Just a dude who love wearing cute dress. It's neat.
Honestly, when I first saw and heard Rosado, I just groaned. I don't mind feminine identifying men, but fire emblem has a bad tendency to make the way they dress and look the butt of every joke in their convos. But I'm surprisingly shocked by how unaffected most characters act towards Rosado, which is a pleasant change in pace.
Trans lesb here!
I do like Rosado. I actually invested in him in my first playthrough because I like him, even though his personality can seem a little shallow. I actually chose him over Rosemary because I don't like her "I'm perfect and I know it" attitude. And being a wyvern rider is pretty cool.
I think there's also something to be said for the English VA here, since Rosado speaks with a male-but-effeminate-sounding voice. Because of that and his given pronouns in game, I've always seen him as a femboy, and I think that characterization is still pretty cool. I think having more GNC folks in games can only benefit everybody, and I'm willing to wait for a truly trans character in FE instead. Why make a character something they're not when you can celebrate what they are?
Isn't it clear that Rosado is a dude who like to dress cute? Its not that hard. Its funny how he will wear bikinis when you go to the swimwear. Guy is just that confident.
Let's be real, if any character in Engage is an egg it's definitely Alcryst.
Lack of self confidence isnrt limited to a specific gender, and implying so is low key misogynistic, but go off I guess.
@@DaniDoyleI wasn't trying to imply that? I just think it's a cute headcanon
i love that the way he expresses his gender isn't anywhere a punchline to a joke, made a big deal by other characters, or otherwise distracts from his character! he's just someone who enjoys looking cute, and that isn't inherently related to sex, gender, gender expression, or sexual orientation. im just sad that discourse on him, even when positive, frames him in a weird way where the only reason people like him is because "he's a cute femboy!!! look at him hes so adorable" and fetishizes his appearance. he is a really interesting character and i rarely hear things about his actual character rather than his design, such as him being a great artist.
This video was great! Rosado is the character that got me excited to get this game 💖
Hes one of my favorite characters from the game too!
I gave the pact ring to Rosado. No regrets
At least SOMEBODY knows that Rosado is a guy who looks like a girl
I like the points you make in this video, but I still headcanon Rosado as genderqueer because he's not real and it makes me happy :3
The only canon nonbinary characters in FE are Kyza and Limstella, and Limstella isn't even human.
My personal headcanon for Rosado is that he has no gender, and doesn't care how people gender him. Gender matters so little to him that he doesn't need to put a label on it.
I love all different interpretations of Rosado though, cis or trans
[edit: just leaving this edit here to clarify that since making this comment I have come out as a trans woman, my views on the video and the character are unchanged but I thought I'd clarify]
Excellent video thank you for the video. These two characters are very important to me personally and really like how you broke this discourse down in a reapectful manner.
As someone gender nonconforming myself representation can often result in this kind of discourse and it's always saddening when it derails from just a discussion of headcanons into a harmful hate towards these characters that I see myself in. Forrest in particular helped me realize this part of myself.
Rosado's sheer positivity especially in his lapis support brings me near to tears everytime I read it
as a femboy myself, i'm so glad he's such a good representation for feminine men. I've had many trans people (especially on twitter) calling me trans, saying i didn't want to admit it because of internalized transphobia and what not. Breaking gender roles isn't allowed anymore i guess, i hate this "egg convertion theory culture" nonsense
This is what Rosado said in Japanese translated into English that I found.
"The thing is-people born there are generally delicate and androgynous looking. No one in the village judges sex based on looks. There are many boys like me, and a lot of handsome girls. Yes! I didn't realize it back in the village, but here, being cute makes you unique."
There are dialogue changes against the Japanese-to-English translation going on in Japanese video games. They are bad because they lie about what the characters said, and how the work was made.
Representation should have been minor where personality and skill are important in characters where we can relate to them, despite being different from ourselves.
It's very on vogue to hate on the translation team for not making the exact decisions you would have, but translation is a very complicated process, and especially from Japanese to English bot everything is going to have a one to one "correct" translation, as not only do the exact words need to be conveyed, but also the intended cultural meaning.
@@DaniDoyleThe FE Engage translation is really bad, though.
They basically changed Louis' whole character, among other things.
As a trans woman, I say let the man like cute things in peace
Well said! 💕
As someone who identifies as transmasc who learned to express more of my gender identity by embracing femininity it makes me so sad that people try to make it so cut and dry when gender is so much more than just a simple black and white presentation.
I feel like you're missing something in this video when you talk about Rosado as if he is a random person on the street dressing and acting as he does instead of as a fictional character. He's a character made by a massive company, and the decisions made about what the character does, looks like, and acts like are made by a company. The reason why Intelligent Systems doesn't have Rosado say "I'm a trans girl!" is because they've decided either that they as a company don't want that to happen in their game or that the audience buying the game doesn't want him to do that.
The actual answer to "why is Rosado a boy" is not "because he considers himself a boy". The reason why Intelligent Systems has a boy character who looks and acts identically to a girl is because femboys are insanely popular- among both queer people and straight people (and mostly straight people- there are more of them after all). His "boyhood" has less to do with internal gender identity and a lot more to tell the audience "this is a femboy- you like those right?".
And I think if we look at the first, and only, Fire Emblem character that was actually written to explicitly be trans in game, it's kinda obvious what IS thinks about us, and also is at least why I roll my eyes at Rosado. The entire joke around Kyza is that "he thinks he's a girl, but he looks like (and therefore is) a boy". (In the Japanese version- the English version changed this, thank god). IS isn't that cool with trans people. When we're put into the game, it's as a joke. So writing femboy after femboy after femboy makes it pretty obvious- people are perfectly fine with a boy who looks and acts femininely, and they are very much not going to be cool about if that same boy says that he's not a boy and we should really stop calling him one. At heart- it's just a clear sign that my fellow fire emblem fans would probably like me a lot more if I wore a ton more makeup, dressed a bit more cutely, and also told everyone I met "I'm a boy" instead of telling them I'm a girl.
There's definitely a larger conversation to be had about companies (and IS's in specific) approach to queer representation, especially trans representation, and to the ways in which certain marginalized groups are seen as "more palatable" to general audiences than others (see also the number of MLM pairings vs WLW pairings in base 3houses), and by no means am I trying to hail IS as a bastion of progressive values, and you're right, rosado was designed by a corporation, just like the rest of the cast. However, I do still think there is great value in his existence as a binary man proudly breaking gender stereotypes, for the reasons I listed in the video, and wanted to push back against the hate and misgendering I saw, as well as use it as a jumping off point for a large discussion around feminine men.
"The reason why Intelligent Systems doesn't have Rosado say "I'm a trans girl!" is because they've decided either that they as a company don't want that to happen in their game or that the audience buying the game doesn't want him to do that. "
If you had a situation where every part of Intelligent Systems was 100% willing to make every type of lgbtq character, you would still end up with characters like Rosado, including potentially Rosado himself. We would probably have more trans characters by that point- maybe Lucius, maybe Forrest, maybe Rosado- but the thing is, there is a huge overlap between the experiences of transfem, fem nonbinary, and femboy characters. So unless you have things that are very explicit like a character being like "I wish i was a girl", theres often nothing that makes a character only possibly X or Y or Z because we dont see their internal mental processes and so on. The possibility of Rosado being designed as a trans character would be higher if Intelligent Systems was totally on board with that, but theres nothing about the character that makes them seem exclusively transfem.
However, while I dont think your take is 100% on point, its definitely a reasonable perspective that illuminates real dynamics. I also know how painful it can be to feel like other people would like/approve of you more if your gender and/or presentation was different.
Also, if it makes you feel better, Bridget from guilty gear has been super popular since becoming trans- she has absolutely received more celebration than 99%+ of femboy characters. Yeah, theres been a noisy minority complaining, but they really are a drop in the bucket compared to the massive outporing of celebration- it outweighs the celebration that character got before as a femboy, and outweighs Rosado’s popularity by a lot. I think a lot of that is that bridget’s song is an emotionally potent work of art, but yeah. I know that theres a lot of awful transphobic people, but a ton of people really empathize with, respect, and celebrate you being trans.
I also think Rosado(who come across to me as a nonbinary man, although perhaps i am biased because that is close to what i am) has some very nice quotes about gender:
"I was born in a village near the Lake of Mystery. Some people call it the village of the fair folk. It's a place of wonder. Beauty beyond the silly expectations that come with stuff like gender. Everyone accepts everyone there. However you see and present yourself, you're beautiful"
"That was my normal, growing up. It was a big shock when I left - seeing how different I was. But I realized I love being different. And I want everyone to know being different is amazing."
"Your differences are what make you unique. What make you... you. In a way, being apart from my home village has made me even more confident in who I am."
I find the talk about Rosado slightly infuriating because it very much does mirror the talks a real life friend of mine has had to endure. He's a guy, he's said that he considers himself slightly gender fluid but still wants to be called "he" (though does not mind if people who are unsure use gender neutral pronouns) and he often likes to dress in more feminine clothes. He's also got a pretty thin frame and looks quite feminine. And so many people assume that he's trans, on "both sides", so some people who are trans wants to "help him realize who he is" and get angry when he rejects their help, and people who are anti-trans attacks him for "being trans".
i perceive Rosado as intersex such a person could be comfortable identifying as male but aspects of their personality would be undeniably female. sort of like a hybrid gender
I started loving rosado as soon as i saw his clothes in sonmiel lol
Hard agree on the calling other people eggs. The transvestigation is coming from inside the house. I basically only make egg accusations as a joke nowadays, and only to/about close friends in private spaces. I think trans people oftentimes make those sorts of judgements about random cis people when they themselves just came out (if I did it, you can too). It's strangely subservient to the gender binary to think you can just pick out who's trans like that.
I think Rosado is a femboy, and that can be agreed on without actually assuming if he's trans or his. I am, too. 🥰
Thanks for making this video, I thought it was very informative and in a safe way. Shamefully I have to admit that I haven't really done enough to try to understand the trans community and so I probably still have a lot of ignorance around the culture.
I will say that I had a similar sentiment during FE:3H and also I think it came up with Genshin Impact. I don't know if this is due to my ignorance or if this parallels what you're talking about in this video. Basically it revolves around fan art and shipping. Taking hetero characters and making them homo for the purposes of fanfic, fanart, or headcanon. So for example Dimitri and Felix in FE:3H, while I don't know if we necessarily have a sexual orientation for Felix, Dimitri is canon hetero. Dimitri isn't a romance option for Male Byleth and has had romantic interest in Edelgard in the past.
To your point, I don't take it overly seriously because they are fictional characters. Though it always struck me as kind of hypocritical for a community that 1 of their core values I believe is that you have sovereignty around your identity (gender or otherwise) and sexual preferences to be taking that away from fictional characters for I guess indulgent fantasies. Also, I would add that in addition to these being just fictional characters, the people doing it are probably overwhelmingly younger and less mature individuals too. I think that makes it more forgivable as I know when I was younger I did dumber things generally speaking.
Am I way off base here or is this in line with what you're talking about in your video?
It's funny (and also not funny) to see that people are getting upset about a character's desing and in the supports they tell you that he comes from a land where everything is considered beautifull. It's like teaching a lesson and your students doesn't understand it lol
Come to think of it, reminds me of Eula Lawrence in Genshin Impact, her family had slaves and she is against her family, but people hate her because she is a Lawrence
You have some really good content, Dani!
Glad you think so! :)
I do like the feminine characters and I’m glad rosado isn’t reduced to the “YOURE A BOY?” trope but it’s really disappointing that fire emblem as a whole has such an issue with any inclusivity at all. Nearly every character has finite gender roles and a lot of women are over sexualized. I think the only masculine woman i know of in this game is Sully and It’s very saddening to only see feminine male characters who are all canonically straight and who’s femininity is typically treated as a gag, while not seeing any masculine women nor lesbians. Gay people are truly treated as a joke in fire emblem and I truly do not think they have gotten any better over the years. I think Niles is a good bisexual character but having the lgbt man be the character who chooses to make people uncomfortable with what’s basically sexual harassment is certainly a choice. I personally like Niles but again it was certainly a choice they made. The only actual gay character in the entire series to my knowledge is Leon, who downright displays his love for Valbar. It’s just incredibly disappointing how fire emblem physically refuses to create gay or lesbian characters and all the feminine men are straight. You can truly only use the story of staying true to yourself and doing what you like and being who you are so many times with the same trope of character before it gets a little upsetting. It would also work much better if, for once, these characters were gay or trans so that they have a true struggle but I don’t think they would do that nor do I believe they would be able to portray that story correctly. It’s just a very safe and disappointing choice to make another feminine straight male character who has the same motivation of being who you are no matter who says otherwise. I’d also wish people would not call these characters femboys because it implies homosexuality when these characters are never and assumingely will never be homosexual or bisexual and it’s a misuse that makes me personally uncomfortable. I think rosado is a cool character but the stark lack of any inclusivity on any region in these games piss me off and seeing yet another feminine straight male character makes me disappointed because I want to see more characters like me in these games and I want other people to see characters like them as well. I think over the years fire emblem has gotten kind of better at portraying non white characters but there is truly so few of them, especially black characters that you could hardly say they’ve gotten any better
Quick thing before I give my point on rosado, I am a cis, heterosexual man, so take my opinions with a grain of salt.
Honestly, Rosado being a cis man into feminine things is alot cooler than if he were a trans man into feminine things. Not because I’m transphobic, trans people are fucking rad, but because the archetypical “man into feminine things is gay/trans” is such a tired sterotype that it’s a bit boring to me. It feels limiting that a trans character has to fit in a specific outline, why can’t they be a trans man and that’s that? I personally have never been into hypermasculine hobbies(with the exception of maybe video games, but even then my sisters are also gamers and I don’t really consider gaming a hyper masculine hobby). Cars, sports, going to the gym and the general idea of masculine “coolness” have never appealed to me, yet I’ve always felt comfortable with who I am. I feel saying a character who’s into feminine things is kidna reinforcing that dumb stereotype. A straight man wearing dresses is equally as valid as a gay man who wears dresses and I think the fact that rosado’s gender and sexuality being the primary discussion point is missing the forest for the trees. The point I see with him is that regardless of whatever labels he ascribes himself to, he’s comfortable with who he is and everyone accepts him for that. There’s no “wait you’re a man!!” Or anything of the sort, everyone’s kinda chill like that, and I think the message we can take is that it’s ultimately fine to identify in whatever way you want. Of course you’re still allowed to ascribe your own headcannon, to whoever you want, I’m just saying my own piece here. Either way, rad ass video
TLDR: The fact he’s a cis man who’s comfortable with being into cute things is super cool in my opinion and I think the discussion primarily being around his sexuality and gender is ultimately missing the point.
To be fair, we don't know if he is Cis or Trans, so he easily could be either (as is the case with most characters). But either way I'm a fan of feminine men getting more screentime.
Love this discussion, but also divine dragon Buttface really did make me laugh
Buttface is the canon name
I was taken aback when I first heard Rosado's voice, thought "oh, that's interesting", then moved on with my life. I think people obsess too much about representation. It's fine to want representation, but it's rude to the developers to be all mad because they didn't create a character that fits in your very specific neat little box. Characters are meant to serve a story after all.
Representation is important and it is still valid to be upset by lack of representation, that was not the point of this video.
@@DaniDoyle I think it's valid to be upset, I did not intend to imply it wasn't. What I meant was expressing anger in an unhealthy way towards the developers of a game or the creator of a story is not warranted. At the end of the day it is their story and they have full rights to create any kind of character they want. You can feel upset or disappointed for not feeling represented, that is also your right, but it was their story to tell and getting angry as I've seen people be solves nothing.
10:19 the most relatable moment of all
Honestly I just think that rosado partly because of the history the series has with characters like forrest, just makes a bad impression, when I first saw him as an enemy and read over his personal skill being a debuff to men around him I just groaned and thought "oh boy its this joke again" which makes me uncomfortable in a similar way to drag specifically as a performance does, where it feels like femininity is being used as a joke and a costume. I won't go too far into that because that's a huge tangetn with a massive can of worms, but looking more into rosado's character, I do like him, he's neat, I wish there was also an actual trans woman there that contrast could help a lot (similar to grnablue fantasy having two trans women, one who literally remakes her body entirely to be feminine and one who loves herself as she is as butch as possible yet still confidently a woman, sorta like the opposite of trans masc rosado headcannons) but for what he IS, I like him, outside of his personal skill I hate that its dumb and stupid and an unfunny joke that gives bad first impressions and evokes forrest more than he needs to.
To be completely honest, I do not like Rosado. Personally I just find him really irritating to listen to and I do not enjoy most of his conversations with the cast. HOWEVER, I will say it is nice to have another feminine male in Fire Emblem where their whole schtick is "wait, you're a man?" and I do not think that hating him for not being trans is a good thing in the slightest.
i got lapis' support with rosado and had to stop for a minute after i played it, it was very shocking to see a game, or media, so open about the gender spectrum and having a character that literally represents opposing gender norms.
People want so bad to put him in a category Jesus Christ leave my nigga Rosado alone . Play the game and relax why do people have to look so deep into it .Just seen my first cutscene of him on my play through and I love his energy 🔥🔥🔥
I think it's pretty clear you didn't watch the video haha, because that's basically in line with what I said
My first thought of Rosado was… Can I marry him with my M!Aquafresh.
Based!
there is a 90s japanese rock band X.the leader is yoshiki. kinda like Rosdo. no one knows his sexual orientation, people call him a him. i am very sure nintendo doesn't care of diversity (that much). rosado is a good character, and not particularly strange. for 1000 years, japan holds culture of homosexuality. reading history books of Nobunaga Oda is interesting.
I'm honestly unsure what you mean by "japan holds culture of homosexuality"
@@DaniDoyle Same-sex love is noticed in Japan for a long time, but it is never a cultural thing since same-sex marriage is taboo-at least from what I have read.
Nothing wrong with a guy in cute clothes
"Although it is still a predominantly white franchise unfortunately."
So uh... the games are sort made by Japanese people in Japan. You act like white is the "standard" for some reason which it isn't. This is just how anime-style characters are drawn over there.
The games are released to a global audience which includes plenty of darker skinned people, the fact that they are made in Japan does not change this
@@DaniDoyle it kind of does. You said the franchise is prominently white but that objectively is not true. To imply that the artists draw prominently white characters because they like white people more for some reason would be silly because the artists aren't even white themselves. They're not going out of their way to draw white characters, they're just drawing characters the way people been drawing them in Japan for years. The vast majority of the time when someone says a Japanese character is white they're not, they're Asian for obvious reasons. People just see the skin color and assume.
If you go to a African country and look at their art most of it will be of African people. If you go to an Asian country and look at their art most of it will be of Asian people. If you go to a European country and look at their art most of it will be of, yes, European people. That is not a bad thing. Yelling at a country that their art needs to represent the people in your country just because you happen to have access to it too isn't helpful.
Imagine getting this mad about someone pointing out the lack of diversity. Stay mad and keep writing paragraphs I won't read 😘
@@DaniDoyle I'm not mad though? I thought we were just having a discussion where we so happened to have different opinions. I thought it was a potentially interesting discussion. Why are you assuming things about me? I haven't once insulted you, nor do I desire to. Why can't a civil conversation be had on this topic without one assuming the worst of the other?
Can someone explain the controversy regarding danved / devdan? He's weird, sure, but I don't know what racist things he has
As fire emblems first black man, the fact they made Devdan a slave who speaks like a caveman, has a creepy obsession with kids, and is shown to be much lower intelligence than the rest of the cast feels at least subconsciously racist. His character design is also reminiscent of blackface/minstril shows that were common in the United States and Japan.
@@DaniDoyle oh, got it. Thanks!
np :)
I haven’t played the game yet but I’m looking forward to meeting Rosado. Interesting video and I think I agree. I’m just glad to have more femboys in games.
Same
i agree a lot with the video
and totally different topic but don't spend money in donations, they get expensive quick and don't give that much benefit
I have a question
In the video, something said is that if someone wants to headcanon Rosado as trans, a valid point to that is that his hair has the colors of the trans flag
I don't know if it was said seriously or as a joke, but I have seen a lot of people use that as an absolute argument for why he and other characters whit that color combination in desing are trans
Is there any special reason for that or is just people taking headcanons a bit to far?
I imagine it's because those are the trans flag colors
@@DaniDoyle I knew that colors are part of the flag.
Maybe I wasn't clear with the question. My bad. Let me try again.
Why do some people consider having the colors of the trans flag in your color scheme as a prove that a character is trans?
I don't think you paid attention to my video because I didn't say that anything explicitly said Rosado was trans
@@DaniDoyle I'm not saying that you said Rosado is trans. You were very clear on your video.
I just don't understant the believe of "character uses colors that match trans flag = character is trans" that some people have (not saying that you have it), and hoped that maybe you could explain it to me.
Again, sorry if I'm not being clear enough.
It sounds like you should ask them instead of asking me just because I'm a trans person doesn't mean that I know the thoughts and motivations of every other trans person out there.