To the creators: Tachyon, My Favorite Lesbian Heroine

General GTG Sentinel Comics Lore
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Hi everyone! I'm very new to Sentinels, having spotted it while volunteering for a booth at GaymerX a couple weeks ago. I met the creators (hi guys! Remember me? My wife and I were at a table next to you all weekend!) and though I meant to sit and play with them, I never did. We did pick up a copy of Enhanced Edition, and got it signed by two of them! Since then I've become hooked, and I've already got all three expansions and am barely holding back from buying several of the mini-expansions.

Anyway, to the point. A couple nights ago, my wife found Freedom Four Annual #1 and we read it. Now I must say, I already loved Tachyon. She's cool, she's upbeat, she's smart, and she's blonde, all my favorite things in a heroine. And then I found out she is not only a lesbian, but in a happy marriage to another woman.

I actually had to stop and re-read the line where she mentions her wife for the first time, to make sure I didn't just see what I wanted to. But sure enough, there it was. I read the rest of it eagerly to see if the writers would fall into the stupid zone, but they never did. I was a little bit floored, honestly.

I've seen other threads discussing this on your forums, and amongst the comments someone accused Tachyon of being a "token lesbian". Bullsmack. She is nothing of the sort. As a married lesbian, I wanted to let you guys know she is AWESOME.

The best thing you did was to simply treat it casually. Legacy didn't even break stride when she said it. And as the comic went on, it was never played for fan service or shock. We saw Dana once, when Tachyon kissed her before going off to work. You actually placed a scene in a bedroom, with two openly lesbian women, in a relationship, with one of them  getting dressed and the other in bed. And there was no nudity. No carefully placed camera angles. You simply showed two people in a loving relationship, and did not treat it as special in any way. And that is BRILLIANT.

One of the reasons I point to The Doctor Who revival as a way to do gay characters right is because this is treated casually. In the episode "Midnight" a woman is talking to the Doctor and casually mentions her lover, who is spoken of with feminine pronouns. And nothing is made of it. At all. You caught that feeling here.

So first, thanks for making a great, fun game. It's immensely entertaining. But more than that, thank you for Tachyon. I cannot point to a single heroine in all of comics who has such a wonderful and positive lesbian relationship, even though we've only glimpsed it in those few panels while some of these heroines (looking at you, Wonder Woman) have been around longer than my mom and not done that.

Tachyon really is my favorite lesbian heroine.

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I also enjoyed the handling of that story by the creators.  Well done.

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I'm also quite fond of how they handle Tachyon's sexuality.  It's no more or less important than any other character's sexuality in Sentinels.  It reminds me of how tastefully Wiccan and Hulkling were handled in Young Avengers, or Striker in Avenger's Academy.  Heck, even surly John Colby in Chew (not a superhero comic, granted, but still brilliantly executed).

It's even more awesome that <G gets this right while DC is still either half-succeeding (What's that?  New 52's Alan Scott Green Lantern's gay lover died, leaving him a chaste superhero that never has to be intimate with another man on panel?  Edgy.  Good comic, but come on!) or completely failing ("Uh, DUDE, don't you realize I'm GAY!?", says DC's Bunker to a character he's never discussed sexuality with ((Implying the character in question should've known because he "looks gay.")))

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Yeah, I'm pleased with Tachyon as well - I guess the message is, some people are gay and it's not a big deal. And that's a great attitude.

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I think it's a similar thing with...that bloke whose name I can't remember but he's one of the Meta-Human ship captains in GSF. His fiancée is mentioned as being male, but it doesn't matter in terms of the situation that he is - his (the fiancée's) name begins with M but I can't remember what it is - the ship is called <his name>'s Folly, named by the captain after the fiancée basically said "It's me or the ship", so the captain said "Okay. I choose the ship. Bye.". Something like that, anyway. It's all on the GSF Kickstarter ;).

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Almaric of the Marot's Folly.  His fiancée was Marot.  It's quite a humorous backstory.

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That was it - thanks :). I remembered the basics of the story but not any of the names.

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(Random nitpick) Marot was his fiancé, not his fiancée.

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I second everything the OP said.  It's so rare to see a realistic, fair-minded view on the LGBT community in comics (and in games), and to see the GtG guys treat Tachyon as a person and hero first, without fixation on her sexuality, was both refreshing and welcome.

I'm a bisexual man, and I served as advisor for the the GSA at my last school.  Seeing the discrimination, the casual hate, and the off-color commentary directed at the school's LGBT community was disenheartening, despite a supportive staff and admin.  Having positive role models that show acceptance and tolerance really means a lot, especially in an arena like gaming, which doesn't have a great reputation in LGBT matters.

Thanks again, guys!

 

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Token gay man chiming in. :-P

Tachyon's relationship was what took me from playing and enjoying the game to actually caring about the world and the people in it. I couldn't believe, at first, that it could be handled so perfectly.

Then you get closer and see that it's not just Tachyon's relationship that's handled well. Haka could easily be a racist character, but he's not. Any given female could be a ridiculous sexy pose character just there to sell sexuality, but they're not.

Christopher knows what he's doing here, and he thinks these things through carefully.

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And not just Christopher - all three of the guys are great at keeping things real.

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Any given female could be a ridiculous sexy pose character just there to sell sexuality, but they're not.

The Characters are attractive, but not overly sexualized.  That is super cool.  I have a thing for Tachyon myself, something about really smart women in positions of authority, but there really isn't the Eye Candy factor going on like most comics and games.  I've got a five year old Daughter, and she loves playing games.  It'll be great to have games like SotM for her to play as she gets older.

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Yeah, it's very refreshing to see the female heroes/villains just doing their thing, without unneccessary sexy poses, gratuitous boob shots, or whatever. Sure, they're attractive, and often wearing tight and/or revealing costumes, but they aren't objectified and they're in no way "second-class citizens" compared with their male counterparts. It's almost like gender doesn't matter! ;)

I guess to me it seems like we have a fairly varied set of characters and there's no big deal with any of it. And that's awesome.

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Yep - this is what it comes down to. They're people, and that's what matters.

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I would like to point out Fanatic as a prime example of 'no gratuitous sexualization'. Normally, given any female comic book hero (or, hell, any female in a video game, etc), the more powerful they are, the better the armor they have on, the less they actually wear. This, in contrast to males, where they get mroe and more covered up and bad-ass. Angels, in particular, will always feature a huuuuuge window in their armor for their breasts, and a short skirt to show off other parts. Bleh.

 

Fanatic, on the other hand, is a bad-ass in every sense of the word. And for once, her armor makes sense- no holes here! Full on protection!

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On the other hand, Fanatic's armor does have breasts (particularly the Reedemer version) which is unnecessary and  dangerous.

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Here is Christopher opinion on Tachy:

http://boardgamegeek.com/article/10290639#10290639

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TC back to say I still love Tachyon (so does my wife) and this link is EXACTLY  what prompted me to make this post. :slight_smile:

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Also, if I'm not mistaken, does her armor not have a back? I can understand if it does not, what with Fanatic's wings and such, but did Templar armor not have a back? Part of that whole "No need for armor since you never show the enemy your back" thing?

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Perhaps she simply left the back off.  This isn't D&D; the armor probably doesn't have magic powers that cease to operate if you fail to wear part of it.

(In other news, your avatar is awesome.  What's it of?)