thank you for the huge support on this video!! it means the absolute world to me and hearing your stories warms my heart. you guys are the best!! P.S. IM SORRY ABOUT DRAGON AGE i didn’t wanna repeat myself too much and i thought having both DA and baldur’s gate would seem repetitive but i guess not LOL

“I love women and big big weapons” the most relatable sentence

Random fun fact about Birdo, her name being a “joke” about her deadname with an “-o” suffix (usually for masculine names) is only in the localization. In Japanese, her name is Catherine, but “her friends call her Cathy”

Kung Jin in Mortal Kombat got me so much, his encounter with Raiden where Raiden tells him “they only care about what’s in your heart, not who your heart desires” in regards to the academy. Kung Jin’s apprehension towards it all, it felt real, a young man struggling with his identity and yet he has a god telling him it’s okay to be who you are. That was really moving, they didn’t have to say it outright, just the subtlety of saying “you are you, and you ARE valid” was a lot to take in.

As someone who has been personally victimized by the release of BG3 I just want to say that I have never felt more seen by a piece of media. It deserves every award it’s won, and I know it might sound overhyped, but at least in my experience, it’s absolutely not. It ruined my life, rotted my brain, and I cannot recommend it enough, especially if you're part of the LGBTQIA+ community. This must have been a TON of work, and it was so cool to learn about the very beginnings of representation in video games. Always sat for a Salem video but this was great! 💚

Don't forget Parvati from Outer Worlds! First fleshed out romantic ace representation I've seen in games :) But overall excellent very well done proud of you Moom

Veronica was my first wlw character ever, before I even knew I was gay too. Still love her so much 😭

Whoa... You found some REALLY early ones even I didn't know about. Very nice work!

My first conversation with a trans person was with Krem from Dragon Age Inquisition. It hit when I was still embracing and struggling with the queerphobia I had instilled in me by my family. Krem especially, and also Dorian, played a huge role in helping me understand queerness and eventually accepting it and unlearn the poisonousideas I was raised with. Now I'm just over a year on hrt. And I genuinely think that conversation with Krem was one of the things that helped make my own transition possible.

im doing an essay on the LGBTQ community in the Fallout franchise!! im definitely gonna be citing this video. it was so well researched!

I’m surprised Mass Effect and Dragon Age didn’t appear on this list. Created by BioWare when in its prime featured prominent LGBTQ characters and relationships for the players to involve themselves in. I remember how amazing it was in Mass Effect to see a gender neutral female presenting race with detailed lore and characters allowing the exploration of the subject. Dragons Age Origins followed with introduction of 2 bisexual romantic interests, as well as other queer characters in the story, and even hinted at some polyamorous subjects. Mass Effect 2 followed with more bisexual characters and themes and that was followed by Dragon Age 2 which introduced strictly gay characters as romantic options as well. I remember there was some widespread discontentment from the player base in Mass Effect 3 when strictly gay and lesbian characters were introduced alongside traditionally straight and bisexual romance options. For me, these were game series that really opened my eyes and helped me understand my sexuality, as well as making me feel more accepted for how I felt.

Tony makes me happy and Id love to see more wholesome characters like that.

Fallout is my favorite game series of all time. It’s refreshing to play games where queerness is overt and obvious instead of a collection of random references to set off queer player’s gaydars. Amazing video!!

if you're looking for more queer games (as i always am), Don't Nod's "Tell me Why" is incredible. it has a trans man as one of the protagonists and, although I am a cis woman and don't have first hand experience of transidentity, I found his portrayal amazing. It's also a gorgeous game and right up your alley if you like LiS (like I do, it literally changed my life). Thank you so much for this video, it was so informative and so much fun!

Wow, I knew there was a reason I loved birdo in Mario kart Wii as a kid. This is an incredible and well-researched video with examples I had never heard of before!

My favourite queer game (that's not Night in the Woods) is Tell Me Why, a game from the Life is Strange devs about adult twins Tyler and Alyson revisiting their hometown and retracing their troubled childhood together. It is the first ever video game with a canonically trans protagonist in Tyler (which is pretty depressing considering it was only released in 2020 but i digress). I view it as a spiritual sequel to the anthology of Life is Strange, it is a little more introspective and a little less dramatic than the other games but they are holding hands in my head, yk? It is one of the few video games (other than Night in the Woods) to make me cry fr Also people can say what they like about Life is Strange I may or may not agree, they are flawed games, but they were a godsend to queers in the 2010s

this was such an incredibly well done video and a privilege to watch!!💘 it definitely makes me want to check out some of the titles you mentioned that i haven’t played yet

INCREDIBLE YOU ARE INCREDIBLE

Finally! Someone had the guts to really tackle the subject of the best abba song (you're so right) also thanks for having the courage to make and post this video ❤

im also huge about fallout and esp its queer representation so i wanted to add two notes rq - tim cain, the creator of fallout 1 is himself a gay man whos talked about his experience being queer in the games industry a handful of times on his youtube, esp during his time working on fallout 1 and 2 - dala is technically the first genderqueer character in fallout but i believe she only says so in a single line of dialog if you attack her. fallout 76 has two nonbinary characters both of which were written by nonbinary people so thats pretty neat imo

My favourite franchise is the Borderlands! They have sooo many lgbt characters to the point where their old writer, Anthony Burch, claimed the only straight person is the main villain of Borderlands 2. Athena and Janey are lesbians that find each other in presequel. Axton had a glitch where he would flirt with other players despite the gender, and the team decided to make him canonically bisexual in the dlc! Hammerlock and his husband have a whole DLC in BL3 dedicated to their wedding! And Lorelei transitions into Lor from BL3 to New Tales from the Borderlands. Its full of diversity, even if not all the games are hits.

As and old queer fart who grew up in the 8-16 bit era and loves videogames I wanna thank you for this video. That last bit got me teary eyed. Also some of us had to read manuals because games weren't localized for our sh*thole countries so if you were very lucky maaaaaaybe the booklet had been translated 😅 Also, like Tim Rogers said, they smelled nice

Ok good, u mentioned Hades. You get to live :)

FIRE EMBLEM MENTION HELL YEAH I'm surprised you didn't mention Ike when you brought up FE Path of Radiance- i haven't played Ike's games so take this all with a grain of salt (or maybe even just the whole salt shaker), but i heard he only has two paired endings, and they're both with men (Soren and Ranulf). Ike x Soren is a fairly popular ship. there's a scene where Ike can hug Soren, who is often very bitter and dislikes anyone going near him. anyone other than Ike that is; and their appearance in Fire Emblem Engage (where there are set explicitly romantic S supports that either player character can romance, while the rest are left ambiguous or purely platonic) sees Soren say to Ike that his place is at his side, which i think is very sweet. i wish i could elaborate more, but again, i haven't played Path of Radiance or Radiant Dawn.

you mentioning life is strange makes me HAVE to shout out that studios other game 'tell me why' which has a trans man protagonist (and he also canonically likes men!)

Dragon Quest 11, features a super amazing queer character of Slyvando!!

Not sure why this video got me so emotional but I'm so happy to see lgbt people in games and our community grow/thrive.

Oh hell yeah 👍💖 This really warmed my heart. Thanks! The Magypsies from MOTHER 3 were so queer and lovely, "honey." Almost forgot, Boyfriend Dungeon. Another great indie title. Lol and while I'm here I might as well mention Identity, a "non-linear, horror/mystery visual novel with a plot based around the premise of self-rediscovery," with some not-for-YT content. For the scalies.

Just came here to comment about Veronica being in the center of the thumbnail, thank you for putting her there she’s one of my favorite FNV characters and the best companion imo.

I know elder scrolls have been in there. With many of the characters being bi or pan. Even one being a pan intersex god who charges form, from female to male to androgynous looking. And in elder scrolls online has a story about a woman looking for her brother who ran off to hide in this acting place where everyone is behind a mask. You have to find her brother, but it ends up the woman who was helping you look for her brother was her brother/ now sister, then comes out to her sister to being a woman now. I like this story because she is hilding behind a mask to be herself. There's lots more in elder scrolls.

5:01 perfectly embodies "be gay do crime"

A great game in terms of casual representation is Cult of The Lamb. Almost every character is genderless and you can marry whoever you want. And one of the bosses is casually referred to by they/them pronouns while the other bosses used gendered ones.

B-B-but trans people were invented in 2015! And no need to shove gayness into modern games, trololol I'm joking. Trans gamer and game dev here. Thanks for making this. We have *always* been here 🖤

Really great work! This came together so well!

bwaghh i love ur queer experience related video essays so muchh they never fail to brighten up my day and make me feel heard less alone in the world :)

Awesome info as always! Congrats on your first sponsor!!! 🎉

My favourites: Baldurs Gate 3, Dragon Age (all), Mass Effect (all), Fallout/Skyrim, and Life is Strange. It’s sad how so many games only include LGBTQIA+ themes as optional content. I think Dragon Age Inquisition was one of the rare mainstream exceptions like with Dorian and Sera where they are gay as a matter of fact, and it’s acknowledged. I’m still proud it earned GOTY.

As an honorable mention for modern gayme history, I would like to nominate the Chinese game company Hoyoverse for its dedication to queer representation in spite of the censorship. Hoyoverse has made lesbian relationships canon in the past- and yes, I am talking about Bronya and Seele- which actually got them in trouble with the Chinese government for, well, being gay. Not to mention the more recent Rondo Across Countless Kalpas animation made for Hoyo's Honkai: Star Rail, which might be the gayest thing I've ever seen, probably because it showcases a tango between two women. Tango! And do I even need to bring up the queercoding in Genshin Impact? There's actually a whole series made by a creator named E that dives deep into the queer undertones of Genshin, which might be one of the best video essay series' I've seen in my life. E talks about queer history as well as common cultural signifiers that someone is, in their words, a big ol' fruit loop. The series also includes analysis of gender in the game, as well as the importance of queer representation. If you haven't guessed it already, I am a huge fan of Hoyoverse for doing their best to represent our community while under censorship. There may not be any direct mentions or confirmations of characters being queer in their games anymore, but they're definitely still trying to hint at queer people just existing within Hoyo's games. I really admire that.

Xenoblade has several queer characters that I enjoy a lot. There’s Juniper, a non-binary soldier in the Agnian army, Ashera a commander in the Kevesi army who is heavily implanted to have romantic feelings for one of your party members Eunie who is also a girl. There is a side quest where at the end of it, Eunie and Ashera promise to give their lives to each other at the end of their life cycles.

The Ike x Soren erassure, theyre the best gay couple in Fire Emblem 🥲 It's not explictly said anywhere but their supports are definitely more than friends. If Soren was a girl everyone would read their FE10 A support ending as romantic. And Ike's romantic chemistry with Elincia (his only straight pairing) was added by the translation team not the original writers. I'm also might be biased because Ike was definitely my first gay media crush before I even realized I was bi

WOOO COSMIC WHEEL SISTERHOOOOD. That game is so dope and also very queer. I'm very glad to have been subscribed to you!!

I live for videos like this. Thank you so much for making it, it means a lot

FIRST SPONSORSHIP AHHHH IM SO PROUD!! loving the video so far!

I am so beyond proud of you ❤ this is absolutely amazing and I learned so much!!!! ilysm 🥰

Really well made videos. Ur channel is really underrated

This was a great watch. Thank you for doing this important historical research!

i love your videos sm, this one’s for sure going in my comfort video playlist. also i’m def gonna try and play some of those early games u mentioned!!

🎊 Tony Earthbound mentioned 🎉

Thank you for the video! It's beautiful! I always loved the characters from the Dragon Age series and even the Witcher with Ciri. Thank you again! ❤ I am interested in the Fandom Forward but wonder if that's more just for people in the US as I'm in the UK. Still I'll check it out 😊

i am so proud to grow up in an age where more games and the media has rep for queer people and anyone ever, it's beautiful and sometimes i worry about the state of which laws will be passed to constrict my ability to live as not only a transgender teen, but also queer, but i know i can rest and play games and scroll through parts of media where i feel accepted and safe in my own body.

Yes The Winner Takes It All is in fact the best Abba song, thank your the representation

Fire Emblem Fates also allowed the player avatar (Male or Female) to marry Niles or Rhajat in a same-sex relationship! Soleil's supports not allowing her to marry the female avatar was disappointing but I still really like the inclusion for gay relationships in fe and i basically did every gay option for fe: 3 houses ❤❤

Might I recommend 'Haven' a beautiful game about two lovers alone in the universe and the game let' you choose their genders at the beginning.

This is a great video, but how could you forget Dragon Age and Star Wars the Old Republic? Both were ground breaking games. Dragon age Origins had 2 queer characters all the way back in 2009, DA 2 had four queer people and Dragon Age Inquisition was famous for it's queer representation, especially with Dorian who received a lot of acclaim. SWTOR was huge for having queer characters in an mmo so that was huge as well.

you did such an amazing job on this video and i am so proud of you baby2 ❤❤❤ love you besite ‼🗣

I really enjoyed this video, thank you so much for making it! Your voice is so nice to listen to. I did however have some issues with the audio as the hiss on some of the 's'-sounds was quite harsh. I'm pretty sure I'm rather sensitive to that type of stuff, though I'm not sure if that's because of my neurodivergence or because I'm hearing impaired (probably both, hearing is a weird thing) If you want to try and fix this I would suggest you play around with your microphone placement, as putting more distance between you and the mic can help alleviate effects like popping or hissing sounds. If that's not an option I can reccommend trying out a "De-Esser", which is a piece of software that aims to reduce harsh 's'-noises in voice recordings. Depending on what software you use this might already be available to you, though there are many free options. Most audio (and also video) editing software allows for the use of VST plugins, which are audio editing tools that integrate directly into the software you're already using. I hope this helps and I'm really looking forward to see how your content evolves!

Nice video, didn't know some of these characters!

Thank you for making this video

My little lesbian Heart skipped severel beats with all the gay storylines in Dragon Age and Mass Effect. Love the Bioware Releationships. Shepard and Liara so beautiful. ❤ And my heart belongs for ever the bisexual Pirate Isabella in Dragon Age 2.

Such a fantastic video essay!! ❤

The horizon games especially the second one is one of my favorite games ever. And I think it’s somewhat underrated in terms of “wokeness” I guess. And I get why you didn’t mention it ,but I just wanted to mention it here because I think it’s great queer rep and powerful women rep lol. For example the main character Aloy is queer and falls in love. And without spoiling anything the other main character is also queer and her girlfriend is the kind of the villain . It’s really complicated and hard to explain without spoiling anything but the representation feels really “casual” in a good way and I love that kind of rep. It’s diverse as well (although I’m white so I’m not the best judge). Aloy also has this lovely redness to her face which I feel I kinda rare in games,her outfits also never really show cleavage. And there is also a lot of queer characters in side quests and stuff like that which is always lovely to see.

Shout out to the lesbian landladies and that one gay cop in The Longest Journey (1999). The game is probably one of many smaller titles in the 1990s that started introducing queer characters in background roles, but it's huge in my heart. ❤

At times this video made me tear up a bit. Thank you for this amazing vid. The dad investigating his gay son's murder was pretty heartbreaking

Adding to the pile of games, I think the first one I played where there were obvious queer characters was borderlands. I don't remember much of the first game but in the second I remember Axton (a playable character btw) being bi and Hammerlock being gay (who has a wedding in a bl3 dlc) and they were like explicit about it but without it feeling pandering. I know in the world of borderlands there's a lot more queer characters but I don't want to make this long lol anyway is a fun game and has some cool characters would recommend

I always make my new Vegas characters bisexual because of the 10% damage bonus

why did toni's letter kinda make me wanna cry...

I volunteer to be your stardew valley expert if you ever make another of these!

Love the video. Although a bit sad that you mentioned Coffee Talk and not VA11 Hall-A

This was SO GOOD Salem! I absolutely loved it ❤

league of legends has a character called taliyah that is not canonically trans in the lore, but the creator/designer intended for her to be trans and iirc its hinted at in some game dialogue

This video was amazing. Love the ABBA love too hahaha

Cyberpunk 2077 is a good one too. Character creation is quite customisable in terms of gender, there's queer relationship options, and also a well portrayed trans woman as an NPC. The latters truck even has a trans flag on the back, which players can obtain.

17:07 Sims 2 did not have same-sex marriage, only Joined Union. Sims 3 was first in the series to have same-sex marriage. Still, as mentioned, Sims games were very progressive for its time regarding same-sex relationships and Sims 4 added to that with trans representation, again, as mentioned, though there's still more to be done, especially regarding non-binary Sims. But I am surprised you did not mention Jade Empire. This 2005 game was one of the first (if not outright first) RPG games that allowed same-sex romantic relationship with the player character. It was not easy to get them, especially for male character, but the option was there and at the time, it was very progressive.

Being able to romance female characters in simulation games played a big part in me realizing my queerness. It truly makes me so happy that, with the strides that games like stardew and the sims have been making in representation, more young queer people will be able to explore their identities in (although fictional) free of judgement environments ❤ Also, loved this video so so much!

i gotta ramble about disco elysium teehee, its a rpg about a murder case and i loove how they handled its queer characters! its got a pretty wide cast of gay and lesbain characters, and none of them are defined by their queerness whatsoever, while it may have impacted their character and personality (as the world of disco elysium is pretty homophobic, like our own world) its just kind of background facts about them yknow? Kim, who is like the second most important character in the whole game is a gay man, the main protagonist is bi(??? ) and a couple other characters i could list off like rene, ruby 'the smoker on the balcony' ect, and theyre all just treated like normal people in the world of elysium!! idk i could talk about it more but just like sooo many spoilers, i just needed to get my hyperfixation out of my system haha okkk now time for my own experiences with media thats representative of my own identities, im nonbinary and aroace, and this sounds kinda stupid, but by far the most positive and influencial queer characters for me figuring myself out were those genderless silent indie protagonists lmao, but like being able to just exist in a world were the protagonist existed outside of gender and the default was they/them and it was never brought up or questioned meant so much to me when i was younger, deltarune and hollow knight was super encouraging for me! Also a lesser known game called Everhood, which is sorta a rpg rhythm game mix was also really important to me! In the canon of the game every character lost the meaning of gender, and everyone goes by they/them, regardless of presentation or expression! At the point where i first played it i had only just figured out that i was agender and was very much conforming to my agab, so it was just kinda rlly comforting to see that like, it doesnt matter what i look like i could still be me :) I havent personally seen any aroace rep in games (or like, much of anything) so if someone somehow managed to read this fucking essay of a comment and has a recommendation lemme know!! (or if anyone wants to talk about disco elysium with me cough cough and dies)

Thank you so much for this incredibly educational and comforting video featuring some absolutely fab games! 😍 It’s a hard time to be queer right now- but your words of kindness and hope about a better future for us really touched me 🥹💕

Anyone remember Gayblade? I think that was in one of the gaming documentaries I've seen on Netflix and I was was hoping I would be given a refresher. Great video, and I'll probably check out Baldur's Gate sometime

Veronica stans rise UP! Truly the best New Vegas companion.

I loved the video! I was surprised you didn't go into a little more detail about which champions are queer. Maybe it was for time constraints - plus the clips you had on screen nailed it ;) But did you know that while there are canonically gay and lesbian champions, the community is aware of character(s) who are intended to be read as transgender and are masked for one reason or another. The part of the community I'm familiar with is very supportive of these identities but other sections can be very... ugly.

LOVED this video so much!!!

Where's Splatoon? That's one of the gayest game series ever made.

Nice video! I really enjoy learning about the queer history of video games and it was amazing video. You did not sound sick to me. Also, do you have a link to your sources? I would like to learn more about the subject. Edit: neither mind, I found the sources in your description.

Thank you for making this video!! One of my personal favorite examples is Gracie from Animal Crossing, who is male in some countries' version and female in other. Genderfluid icon

What I also think is worth mentioning is how in Pokemon Scarlet and Violett the player gets the choice to create a trans child protagonist which I also see as a big milestone since trans representation for children is often a taboo in society broken by a big publisher like Nintendo

I really appreciate this video! As much as a lot of the right would want people to think, there really isn't enough discussion and representation of queer identities in the space of video games.

this was a wonderful video!!💕 i love learning about queer history, its so lovely to see how far we've come in regards to representation and acceptance (though of course there is much to achieve). i hope to see many more videos of you!

This is like my 4th time watching this video, and it still makes me tear up

I’m sad you mentioned Life is Strange but not Night in the Woods. It does basically everything LIS does but WAY better, and has tons of queer rep (including at least 3 characters of the main cast of 4, one of them being the protagonist).

Story of Eastern Wonderland

Please make a video about Fallout's queer rep. The show just coming out would be great timing!

The gayming content we deserve 😭❤

This video deeply spoke to me as an omnisexual non-binary person. Thank you

You forgor Mother 3

Amazing essay, and I love to see the first examples! Thanks for this! I'd argue, though, that Ayla (from Chrono Trigger) is the first playable bisexual character. The localization buried her sexuality, but she flirts with both Crono and Lucca in the original Japanese text. She also explicitly says she likes boys or girls and that the difference doesn't matter. The English localization turned this into "respect boys and girls", sadly

TONYYYYY 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️

History of the 41% in gaming, great for mental health.

wonderful video but i think you should have added guilty gear

Artificer from rainworld is very lesbian coded

TONYYYYY 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

What about Elder Scrolls?