I posted in this Characters forum as opposed to the other one in the hopes that this one might be more conducive to an intelligent discussion.

We all know that Suikoden has its share of effeminate males. It has a whole class of characters we call Narcissists (or Narcists ). There's a good contingent of women who, quite frankly, look like men. My question is, with all this gender-bending, are there any CONFIRMED gay characters in Suikoden? We've all heard theories floated about Gremio, Aldo, Milich, Kasios, etc. Any ideas or info?

why would you wanna know that?

aldo acts 100 percent gay.. at least in my oppinion, gremio is NOT gay...

I have a feeling rina goes both ways..

anyway there arent any confirmed gay characters

...................Gay Characters¿¿¿ Nobody's gay some might act a little fruity then others, a rather funny scene to see is when Geddoe recruits Augustine.




Hey for your viewing http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/146885 view the whole series

It's an interesting subject, and pertinent to the series since there's such a surfeit of yaoi fan materials out there. For those of you who buy Suikoden merchandise, how many times have you seen "that type" of doujinshi about Seed and Culgan? I'm actually surprised the subject hasn't been discussed more thoroughly. I think the subject is interesting for a couple reasons:

1) There have been countless cases of censorship in bringing games out of Japan, ranging from simple "Americanization" of the text to full-blown storyline/theme editing by Nintendo of America. It's plausible that there may be characters who were originally designed as gay characters in the original Japanese version.

2) The first Suikoden came out around 1995/96, a time when you didn't see as much gays in the media. That sort of thing just wasn't really talked about in public. I found it surprising that the game included gender-bending characters like Milich, and the "questionable" relationship that Tir and Gremio had. Nowadays, you see characters in games who are officially homosexual (some characters in Street Fighter come to mind.)

... Aldo for sure, definitley not Gremio. As for milich, I don't think so, but Kasios is definite. No doubt.

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Aldo and Kasios aren't confirmed to be homosexual. The default sexual orientation in fiction is heterosexuality, and they probably like women.

Be very careful with this topic. As topics about gay characters tend to be locked or deleted very easily; they tend to turn into an angry battle of gay rights quickly.

Now that that's said, the topic of gay characters has been talked about a couple times before, for more perspective on previously posted opinions I have copied the only two surviving threads on the subject matter below:

http://www.suikosource.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=3697

http://www.suikosource.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=3759

For gods sake, Cant people be close friend today? Tir and Gremio is proably only like brothers! Damn that gay talk

Surely they are strange but still the only "gays" proably are the strange musicans

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Jeane, The Marilyn Monroe of Suikoden.

If any characters are gay then it is probably these two. Maybe some of the narcassists but it is harder to tell with them, as they act in a way that is stereotypically gay... but in real life we do get camp straight people.

How do you mean the default sexual preference? Do you believe that everyone is born straight but that some choose to be gay?

The default sexual orientation in fiction is heterosexuality.

Let me see if understand what you're saying. If a developer was gay, would all his characters default to being gay unless he made a point of saying they were straight?

I think more likely is characters are non-sexual unless given specific lines that are of a sexual nature. They could be either, or bisexual, but it's irrelevant if neither situation comes up during the course of the adventure.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but, what I believe Jowy is trying to say is that all video game characters are straight until the developer says otherwise since being straight is default preference, so to speak. He's not saying that the developers are gay or that the characters take the same sexual preference as the developers, merely that the characters are straight until the developer says they're not.

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I hope everything is going delicious.

Am I the only person that didn't pick up on Aldo being gay...?

I think that what Jowy is saying is kinda right. Oppenheimer, you're right, characters shouldn't be roped into one sexual preference automatically when we first meet them. Unfortunately, within our culture, a character needs to be presented as "The Gay Character" to be officially gay, otherwise, we assume them to be straight. In other words, it shouldn't be that way, but it is.

By the way, I'm talking from the standpoint of an American, who lives in a country that isn't as socially liberal as some others (Canada, for example.) The stigmas where you come from could be quite different.

I see what you're saying. But, just to throw a monkey wrench in your theory: I think it's more of the person who plays the game can see the characters any way they wish until they are told by the game otherwise. For instance if a gay person was playing Suikoden then I think they might see characters who have no sexual persona as someone fitting their sexual prefrence. Or, even more so, since the silent protagonists are supposed to be "you" then they might see Tir, Riou or Hero4 as a gay person like themselves.