Are you still wondering about the controversy surrounding Fire Emblem Fates character Soleil? You will want to read this, as a fan has finally made a full translation and context of the support conversation that clears up many misconceptions about the content.
This translation comes from Adam Evanko, a video game producer in Japan. Adam cites his familiarity with the Japanese language and culture, and, of course, his work in Japanese video games. In this sense, he is best equipped to interpret this material.
Adam made a YouTube video that runs down all of the support conversations, and this includes Soleil’s prior conversations with her parents, and the player character’s marriage proposal to Soleil which you can do after the scene. I’ve prepared a summary below but you can watch the full video above.
The video starts with scenes between Soleil and her parents. These conversations establish that Soleil has a personality quirk that makes her nervously attracted to girls. It’s something she has no control over, as she even feels this way towards her mother. Adam makes it clear that this is contextually non sexual.
In the support conversations, the player and Soleil are in the middle of training, and it comes to light that Soleil’s propensity in front of girls is giving her panic attacks. The player gives her magic in the form of a drink that makes her see guys as cute girls. The player character (in this context male) then roleplays being a girl with Soleil to help her overcome these panic attacks. Soleil comments that the player character is not her type, even when he looks like a girl to him.
If the player proposes to Soleil, she will eventually reveal that the day they had a support conversation, she secretly realized she was attracted to him, and did not know it until that moment.
Aside from explaining that Soleil’s personality quirk is contextually non sexual, Adam points out that Soleil continues to be attracted to women after the support conversation. The training was intended to help her overcome the panic attacks that follow her attraction. Soleil also never really follows through with the assumed conclusion that she is sexually attracted to women.
Adam also agrees that putting something in someone’s drink is not OK in real life, but in this context, this was more like a party trick. Adam also did not confirm that Soleil is the female bisexual character a female player character can romance, instead stating that it does not matter.
TheMarySue requested comment from Nintendo of America prior to this translation being published, and Nintendo shared this statement:
Localization decisions for this game will be made when it comes to the U.S. in 2016. We have nothing to confirm at this time.
I know this explanation won’t satisfy everyone, or answer all questions, but it’s worth taking the time to understand everything in this support conversation, including the context, before making judgements on it.
With this in mind, I encourage you to share your thoughts in the comments below, and also to share this video and post to inform as many people as possible.
