Nintendo ‘considering’ non-binary Pokémon after heartfelt plea from young fan
(The Pokémon Company)
Nintendo has replied to a request for non-binary Pokemon, saying it would be “awesome”.
As shared on Twitter by the user Slate, their child wrote a hand written letter to Nintendo to ask them to include non-binary Pokemon.
A response came from Liz Daniels, consumer service representative at Nintendo of America.
“I think that is an awesome idea,” reads the reply. “There are so many varieties of Pokémon, so it would make sense to have a variety of genders as well!
“We want to make sure people of all kinds feel welcomed and comfortable while playing our software. I’ll send your feedback to the appropriate departments to review and thoughtfully consider.”
my kid wrote a letter to nintendo and they wrote back 😭 pic.twitter.com/1fbmN2IRYq
— slate (@PleaseBeGneiss) June 16, 2021
Slate also shared images of the letter as proof against “all you doubters saying a kid didn’t write Nintendo asking for non-binary Pokemon”.
all you doubters saying a kid didn’t write nintendo asking for non-binary pokémon, here’s the letter (obviously we helped them look up the address) pic.twitter.com/3oiqCKw41O
— slate (@PleaseBeGneiss) June 16, 2021
Although the first games in the series had male and female Nidoran, gendered Pokemon were introduced in full in generation two.
From then on, gender became an integral part of the game due to the breeding mechanic to spawn new Pokemon.
However, there are a few monsters that remain genderless, such as Ditto, Staryu, Voltorb and the legendary Mew.
For human characters, though, Pokemon’s first non-binary character was Blanche in Pokemon GO, the leader of Team Mystic.
Initially Nintendo had avoided using any pronouns for Blanche, but a blog post later used the pronouns they/them.
Fans took this as an indication that Blanche is non-binary. They also wear the colours white, blue and pink, which could represent the trans flag, with Blanche meaning white – the non-binary part of the flag.
Whether Nintendo and The Pokemon Company take this feedback on remains to be seen, but we certainly hope their response is an indication of becoming more open to progressive themes.
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