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Eh... I don't know how much that reals, rather than operates as the spherical-cow frictionless-plane comparison. To whatever extent that platonic ideal might be possible in a kinda world, we're often not making media about those.
Like, as an example plucked from nowhere, if Rimworld was going to implement trans characters, it'd actually have a pretty significant impact on play!
Trans_humanist_ characters used to suffer a -4 mood until body modded, which wasn't a huge deal but could make low-tech runs or early play a lot more fragile. After the Ideology update made transhumanism require a handful of precepts that maxed out around -16 mood if pawns couldn't get their desired therapies, which was often enough to tantrum spiral a base.
That's probably not exactly where you'd want to aim for, but as someone without that great an understanding of the game's balance, I could see something like a -2 or -4 for cis or trans characters wearing clothes that don't match their gender identity or don't match their ideology's expected wear for their gender identity, -6 for a trans character not receiving gender therapy, and some +2-+6 range for having resolved that. And there's be other mechanical impacts like ability to be pregnant/impregnate another pawn, or some of the lower-tech-tier gender therapies could have medical ramifications (cfe real-world transmen being advised to have hysterectomies if they stay on testosterone long), which could be mitigated with some of the higher-tech research levels and eventually archanotech just being the magic gender pill. ((Yes, there are problems with this modeling, not least of all that. Tbf, the problems with Rimworld's original romance system were far from limited to just sexual orientation.))
Okay, so Rimworld's a little bit of a cheat, because colony sims generally require you have a lot of relatively deep information about all of your characters, and even pawns opposed to your faction you want to have a lot of detail because you might try to
kidnap and brainwashrecruit them.What about CRPGs, which Bioware is at least aping towards? There's some controversy over when, if ever, trans people should disclose to romantic partners, and that's a fun question on its own. And despite some recent confusion about what "bear" means in the gay community, chances are pretty good you're not going to have every character in a game be romancable. But a lot of the constraints above apply. People surprised by an external disaster might have complications getting access to even common medications. Privacy can be limited in a lot of ways, especially at lower-incomes or going further back in history
And, conversely, other constraints might not. In a more trans-friendly environment -- indeed, in many trans-heavy spaces today -- a lot of trans people will make off-the-cuff jokes about parents applying expectations, because they don't necessarily mean full disclosure but even if someone picks up on the hints it's not going to be that big a deal.
Have you seen Brand New Animal? It's not a great series -- the central mystery feels a little rushed, despite or perhaps because of a good few early episodes being a little filler-like -- but the way it handles a lot of these problems is interesting.
Trans stuff is not the only read, and many others are brought forward for individual episodes. Sometimes much more explicit and very specific ones: there's a full episode that's partly about Michiru learning her powers, but also about the then-whites-only-league Black Sox scandal, which is hilariously specific). But it's a very plausible read for the broader story, and it points to the sort of design space that's possible.
A little bit of that is because of the trappings -- graduating high school, suddenly feeling massively different from everyone around you, going to a festival where you can be finally yourself in public, gradually going from denial to recognition, and then trying to figure out how (and if) you actually fit into this new community or what extent you could be comfortable going back to your previous one are all very common across LG and B and T communities -- but they're not actually about taking estrogen or crushing on another girl (as much as shippers might go nuts over a few scenes).
In this case, the plot is about something, but it's not necessarily about any one thing. That's not true representation in the strict sense, but it leaves it possible for a work to have applicability for environments or people the authors may never have been familiar with; better yet, you can have reason for people from a wide variety of cultures and backgrounds to feel sympathy to your metaphor.
((Star Trek's Let That Be Your Last Battlefield touches on this a little bit, if probably more intentionally for deniability: Lokai and Bele butt heads the most over slavery and revolution, but Bele is also the chief officer of the Commission on Political Traitors, which makes a lot more sense in entirely different contexts than racial politics.))
That said, it's usually easier with an understanding, and often a pretty deep understanding, of what sort of broad sensations that feel relevant and common for the represented group.
Of course, this vagueness or openness has its costs. FLCL's main gimmick is "NO", the power to summon robots and energy creatures, described in-universe as tension between the right and left hemispheres of the brain but actually about interpersonal tension and self-concealed interests, and no matter how explicitly the media makes it some one will misread it. Or for a more concrete example, over on Tumblr StormingTheIvory loved My Little Pony for a lot of its applicability for trans-related stuff despite not actually featuring any trans character because she found resonance with Big Macintosh... until the show put him in a dress as a punchline.
Regarding FLCL: I can’t tell which parts of the linked comments you’re saying are wrong. I really did think the robots were fueled by something like sexual tension.
When I watched the show, it was a pirated, bitcrushed mess, which made it even more incomprehensible. But I was also coming off an Eva rewatch, which has its own obvious messaging, especially regarding predatory/broken authority figures. So I may be missing a lot.
From prokopetz:
The climactic moment of last episode of FLCL proper -- the very next sentence from Naota's mouth after he takes the power of the Pirate King, defeats (more accurately 'effortlessly obliterates') the evil robots, and confronts Haruko -- is to explicitly to pull his attack and to tell Haruko "I love you".
It's not a healthy love in any way, or a reciprocated one, or one compatible with The Pirate King's powers (while not out at the time, FLCL Progressive would eventually spend two and a half hours working its way up to joke that Atomysk cock-blocks Haruko; you can wince at the pun). Haruko turns Naota down the very next two sentences: he is, after all, just a kid. But the very point of the story depends on Naota loving Haruko enough that her rejection is unpleasant and something he's been unwilling to risk. The 'NO' metaphor is all of that something awful can and indeed likely will happen when you try, whether for a game or to seek romance. A different NO activation, when Naota confronts Mamimi knowing that she does not love him, does not just cause Mamimi to reject him, but it nearly causes the end of the world!
But Naota learns to do it anyway, because it was only festering otherwise, and because it was important to do on its own (hence the satellite weapon episode, even as Naota tried and failed there).
((And this is still a work-in-progress even as the story ends: I think prokopetz overstates how well Naota is responding to Ninamori in the closing scene.))
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