DBD Character Sexualities (Suggestions from an LGBTQ+ person)
So BHVR posted an announcement on Twitter (https://twitter.com/DeadByBHVR/status/1271526607828779009) stating they messed up and went back on their word by alluding to multiple characters being heterosexual. They had previously claimed they would leave this up to interpretation, and now they're saying (I assume) they want to make certain characters have non-straight sexual orientations.
Which is great! I'm here to give my suggestions (read: suggestions, you're free to disagree) as a person who is LGBTQ+ and knows many, many other people who are. I think it's important to consult the group you are trying to represent, and if the developers read this that would be wonderful.
Before you, like many twitter users have gone and said, say that it's just a game and the character's preferences don't matter. They do matter, just not to you. If their sexuality don't matter to you, you should have no reason to oppose this. If you're straight, it likely doesn't matter to you because you and those like you are represented in virtually every single piece of media that has a shred of human sexuality in it. It is everywhere, so you don't feel like media, which is a HUGE part of people's lives, ignores your existence. Representation matters to people like me, and what's more, it's just realistic. People are gay, people are asexual. If you grab 50 random people from across the world, odds are you're going to find several people who are not straight. Normalizing the existence of non-heterosexual people in media will make people more used to seeing them in real life and decrease discrimination against them over time. This is essential for us.
I'm not up to speed with the lore I'm afraid, so if I contradict existing lore, just disregard it please. Won't include licensed characters, just assume they're straight because they most likely are.
Let's get to it then!
Dwight: Straight (I know, I know, you'd assume otherwise, which is exactly why I say he should be straight. Dwight isn't what you'd call stereotypically masculine, and people often equate that with homosexuality. This is a harmful assumption because many if not most gay men are indistinguishable from men you'd assume to be straight.) Can hesitantly accept him being bi or gay because I am weak for Dwight/David.
Meg: Straight
Claudette: Asexual/Aromantic (means no interest in anyone whatsoever, suits what I know of her lore)
Jake: Gay or Asexual/Aromantic (He's a rebel, it just makes sense)
Nea: Gay (Butch/non-feminine girls aren't always lesbians either but... This is Nea we're talking about)
Ace: 100% Bisexual (This man has the most radical bisexual energy and this is why I, as a bisexual, main him)
Feng: Straight
David: Gay (Take what I said about Dwight and flip it)
Kate: Straight.... bi-curious?
Adam: Straight
Jeff: Bisexual
Jane: Straight
Yui: Gay
Zarina: Bisexual
(+8 licensed characters who are straight)
I don't think killers will be relevant but lmao why not.
Trapper: Straight
Wraith: Bisexual
HillBilly: Asexual/Aromantic
Nurse: Straight
Hag: Straight
Doctor: Gay
Huntress: Asexual/Aromantic (she is literally mentally a child)
Clown: Straight
Spirit: Straight
Legion: (Frank; straight, Julie; straight, Joey; bisexual, Susie; bisexual) or they're all bisexual except Joey's gay. Queer people flock together like that.
Plague: Asexual/Aromantic (if only because she got no time for that)
Ghostface: Bisexual, he's got that energy
Oni: Asexual/Aromantic (other priorities here as well)
Deathslinger: Straight
I doubt they have romance/sex priorities after being snagged by the Entity but I do like the concept of them still being human behind the trials. Wraith/Nurse canon when?
I don't feel strongly about all of these, but Claudette, Jake, Nea, Ace, David, and Yui I feel are pretty solid.
I hope this was at least interesting and that it won't attract any negativity. Feel free to share your suggestions/opinions/headcanons and ships, would love to see :)
Comments
-
Posting this does worry me bc you always run into hateful people when you mention anything LGBTQ, especially in large communities, I can only trust there are moderators to take care of it, if not just have faith in this community and its maturity.
2 -
David's rift lore mentions his girlfriend so if not straight he'd be bi.
4 -
i have bad history with LGBTQ things. so all i say is that why? the point of the game is that there is a killer and survivors. the killer kills, not find a girlfriend in the match. playing as legion, i don't think of if the meg is single while chasing her. I think "how long should it take to gauge her eyes out"
just saying, hae no problem with the group. but it is kinda dumb in these situations. don't take this as a hate comment.
3 -
Ace is absolutely bisexual! 🙏
2 -
I do understand what you're saying, but look at things this way: to most people, hetero is the norm. It is the default. Everyone is hetero until stated otherwise. When in reality, it's not like that. Homosexuals are no minority. It's not Like 80% are straight and 20% are of another sexuality. Yet that is whar most people think. Because the representation in media is so rare. It's not normalized, and as long as it's not normalized, we absolutely need to represent LGBT identities more. This will not be done with after having LGBT characters in dbd. But it helps. The more media endorses that we humans are not all alike, the sooner the sexualities of characters will be truly No Deal anymore.
Post edited by Rizzo on1 -
yeah, but its nice when your characters are not gay just for the sake of being gay. it's about having a good reason. maybe if they were less annoying about it. then they would not need this. i'm sorry, it's my opinion, thats yours. lets leave it to that.
0 -
That's what I was trying to say. No one should need a good reason to be gay. You just are. And representing that reality is a good thing, as opposed to the everyone is hetero by default brainwash we have going on since ages.
I just wanted to show you my pov tho, i'm not following the social Media stuff so idk about how 'annoying' they are about it.
Anyway, have a good day
1 -
Oni has a son in his lore, I think he kinda straight
1 -
it depends on the person. buzzfeed are a 20 out of 10.
some are meh.
BUT THEY ARE VIDEO GAME CHARACTERS! SOME DEVS JUST WANNA HAVE THERE CHARACTERS THE WAY THEY MAKE THEM!
but most devs nowadays just make them gay or black or whatever to please a larger group. bEcAuSee Fuuck ThE stoRY, Is HE GaY Or nOt?!
0 -
not to mention spirit is his granddaughter
1 -
So many of y'all are getting your panties in a twist about us wanting a few non-straight characters because iT's JuSt a GaMe and you don't bat an eye when the lore gives them partners of the opposite sex. Hypocrites.
Asking for a few gay characters shouldn't be obnoxious, Jesus Christ. Baffling. Imagine being upset that someone wants their existence acknowledged in fiction...
1 -
Oops! We'll say straight then :)
2 -
Ahh, figures. Bi it is, then. Closet gay might still be an alternative, since gay people will often date out of their preference to seem normal and avoid discrimination.
1 -
It's not about fantasy. I understand it's difficult grasp, because as I said (I'm assuming you didn't even read my post) it's about validation, it's about normalizing our existence so that, in the long run, we'll face less discrimination. If every character in every piece of media is straight, we're never going to seem like we exist or SHOULD exist. You can't relate because you are represented to the point of taking it for granted, so please try for a minute to put yourself in our shoes.
The developers already DECIDED FOR THEMSELVES that they want this in their game. I'm just supporting that decision and giving my thoughts about it.
Edit: I see you said you're bisexual, but I'm not surprised. Self-sabotage isn't uncommon, even in the LGBTQ+ community. I understand there are people in our community that are too extreme and do give us a bad name, but I don't think this is it, friend. Asking for people to accept our existence and include it in their media isn't extreme, it's just fair. No one's being forced by gunpoint to be inclusive with their media, we're just asking, we should be allowed to do so without facing even MORE hate, especially not from each other. Wishing you the best.
1 -
I dont even understand some of these. Killers are brain washed by the entity to become killing machines. Devoid of emotions only there to torture the survivors and make them suffer. I doubt any of them would have attraction or any basic human needs for love in their brains. These killers having any sexuality besides asexual makes 0 sense.
0 -
I understand, but the devs already wrote straight characters. They detailed their orientations in the lore. Why then is it bothersome to make a few of them gay too? Why is it okay for them to be labeled straight, but not gay? And I'm sorry you've had a bad history with the community.
1 -
Yeah, that's what I said at the end. But a few of them surely had attractions before being taken by the entity, I just added them for fun.
1 -
Why are some people in here attacking this idea ? I mean it's just a fun idea that this person came up with and people are attacking them for it ? Like what's the problem ? Why are you getting mad at a simple idea to make survivors in the game LGBTQ ? I personally love this idea, it makes the survivors look more interesting and fun to play as !
3 -
To go "he's in the closet" when they say he has a girlfriend just to make him be gay is like if they mentioned Meg having girlfriend but say "she was just expirementing" to have her be straight.
1 -
That's fair! People do that! I know people who identify as straight and have experimented. It happens, just as gay people pretend to be straight to avoid hate (and in less progressive countries, avoid being imprisoned and/or murdered). I'm all for it.
1 -
It's fine if they want to allude to more varied sexualities for their characters. But I think allusion is as far it should go.
Yes, we have some context for these characters through their backstories (sometimes expanded upon in The Collection), but remember that all of that was BEFORE they were taken by the Entity. We still can use these details to build estimates of the personality and attitudes that we'd expect for some of these characters, but ultimately who they were beforehand no longer matters.
These characters are relatively blank slates with a few implied personality traits for players to project themselves into. Dwight is not Dwight when you play him, Dwight is you. He's defined as a "Reluctant Leader", but really he's whoever his player is. He can be a sneaky-sneak avoiding capture, or a bold daredevil following the killer around. The Trapper can be a relentless threat, a "friendly" competitor, or absent-minded (a la Samination's animated take on him). They can really be whoever you want them to be (including sexuality), which is an element of inclusivity I fear would be lost upon assigning hard labels to these characters.
Besides, I like to think that the Entity's Realms are the rough equivalent of a multiverse (hence why there can be multiples of one survivor in a trial or many versions of one map). There's no reason why the Dwight that's described through his provided lore has to define every Dwight in the game. There could be a popular Dwight, a gay Dwight, or even a bada** Dwight mixed in among the nervous ones, but no one could know the difference except the person playing him who made that decision. BHVR has given us their take on the character, but every player is still free to apply their own narrative and establish the character as they prefer.
0 -
You're not wrong! That is indeed an issue and it's one I addressed with Dwight. Nea could very well be straight too and I'm not one to assume she isn't just because of her fashion sense or personality. Many lesbians are tomboys like her (many more are straight, yes!) and I just felt, in his case, it suited her. I wouldn't oppose her being straight because as you implied, fashion sense isn't a foolproof indicator of sexuality. (I'm sorry you've been judged! It's understandable you'd feel that way.)
1 -
Valid opinion, but with the lore expansion in general, it's a moot point. The devs are already going against this idea you have, making a few characters gay in their canonical origin isn't the issue. For example, a David main who is gay 'is' no longer David in this sense because the devs have already given him a past girlfriend in his lore.
BHVR stated this themselves, they wanted to leave sexualities up to the player, and that was fine, but then they went against that and stated several characters to be straight, so your idea just can't work anymore, whether or not any characters will be confirmed LGBTQ+.
1 -
Nea is a teen? 😂 I would've pegged her *at least* at 25 based on her face, haha
But in that case, yeah, at that age you're most likely still figuring things out.
2 -
Plot twist: Ace isn't just his name. :P
2 -
you forgot to put sapiosexual and I feel like we need more representation :(
0 -
You know what I support this idea
1 -
I assume this is a joke, but I did knowingly stick to the most basic sexualities. Babysteps, you know.
Sapiosexual can be a subcategory of any of the basic ones depending on your gender preference, otherwise a subcategory of pansexual if gender doesn't matter.
1 -
Jake: Gay or Asexual/Aromantic (He's a rebel, it just makes sense)
As a straight male Asian, I feel like the pigeonholing of the only Asian male survivor as obviously gay/asexual is offensive and not only is anti-inclusive but further perpetuates negative stereotypes of Asian males.
1 -
I really hope we get a trans survivor in the future because we exist too
1 -
Tbh I really hope they make David King bisexual just because I see so many people unironically say he can’t be into dudes due to the fact he’s super masculine. It would be a nice way to challenge gay stereotypes 👍
1 -
@JackHarper141 I'd really appreciate if survivor and killers sexual preferences were not any kind of focus in this game. While you may have some kind of cultured intent in your idea, I don't appreciate being reminded that
Freddy Kruger: 100% pedophile
is a thing.
Not to mention how contentious political cultures are these days, it's better to leave room for your imagination than to spark up unnecessary controversies that could easily result in player exodus en masse.
1 -
The only validation you're gonna get in this game is what you make of it. If identity politics are what you get out of a horror game, clearly I am playing the wrong video game.
Its way too convenient that OP left out Freddy Kruger and it's way too convenient that the Devs employ the right kind of marketing.
My sexual preferences were never relevant in Minecraft. How do they help me in a HORROR video game if it isn't ######### or violence?
1 -
look, i have no need and i really should stop but i want to get one last point out there about this. and youll try to counter it with OH BUT I COULD SAY THE SAME BUT THE OTHER WAY!!! and yes, you can. but please save your breath.
IT'S A GAME. you can just think in your mind that whatever you play as is gay or bi or straight ok? ok. but it's a damn game man, and a multiplayer action horror game that focuses on tense and thrilling moments. not love fests, (i would say the other one but i'm not a pr*ck so i wont) you know what would make people progress more in life to except gays and straights? even though most of this world does. Stop forcing it, just play your cards smoothly and just be chill. look at overwatch, normal people do not give a single f*ck when tracer was released gay. like man... it's just sad. remember pack-man? or the other old games? maybe something like halo or doom? man, it's just like it was so simple and now we deal with this?
look, this really is just me venting some anger because carona and being locked up. but i am very serious about this. just take a different approach to this, PLEASE! don't make games do that. it's just so annoying to keep having people do this. look don't take this to seriously, ignore me hang me or whatever. or send me an angry emoji. or if you hate me and yourself that much, then right a harry potter size book to prove i'm wrong.
1 -
My moms have a son and they're gay ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
0 -
Just listing evidence as to why he probs ain't ace. Atleast then.
0 -
I'm not against people of different sexualities. I only have some problems when putting this in games/movies etc:
1) You can't get it right for everyone. If you add one LGBTQ character who is... let's say gay. Then there will be players wo say: "There needs to be a lesbian one now. Else you are sexist!" and so on an on. There will be always people who want their sexuality considered regardless if there are only 10 people with this or not.
2) If it is done bad, it get's annoying. Think of "The Last of Us 2". Sadly this is often the case, because it "needs" to be in this game/movie.
3) Sadly: The more LGBTQ people are "demanding" to be considered everywhere, the more other people get annoyed and won't listen anymore. And you clearly do not want this.
I would be completely fine with 1-2 killers and 1-2 survivors who are LGBTQ, but not more. Else it would be too much.
Or leave it as it is now: if you imagine character X is gay, than be it like that for you. This would be best for everyone. No one gets offended or forgotten.
2 -
Yeah. Sadly.
0 -
As someone who has met a lot of LGBT people, and is Q (questioning) themself, I think it's safe to say that I want them to keep sexuality out of lore completely, unless it is NECESSARY to their story. Head canons are very liked and should be able to be kept in this community.
That being said, LGBT people are and will always be a minority.
So, out of all the characters, I narrowed it down to a few that I think could be LGBT (only survivor) realistically, because in reality not a lot of people will be LGBT.
Dwight- A dev themself said they like DwightxDavid, so he should probably be bi, at least.
David- Bi. ^
Kate- Probably straight, but some of her outfits suggest otherwise.
Meg- Lesbian.
Nea- Bi
Ace- If he's not straight, he's gay. Not in between.
Those are the ones I narrowed down for MY head canons. As I said, I hope they keep sexuality out of lore unless it is needed to explain more.
<3
0 -
For me Ace is gay. Period. And maybe Zarina is lesbian in my head Canon. I'm still unsure.
0 -
Yeah. Jake is mine ;) (So he's straight, in my HC. Out of the two rebels, Nea is the more likely to be LGBT. By the way she dresses and stuff. Jake and Claudette are also a ship I'm pretty sure to the devs *their matching outfits*)
0 -
I agree. 100%
0 -
I don't think Nea is LGBTQ only because she dresses like a tomboy. I dress myself like one too, because it's more comfortable and practical and I'm straight.
1 -
I think this is not necessary for a lovecraftian/slasher horror game. You can have your headcanons, but it should not be enforced for people who just don't care.
1
