[SPOILERS] Navirou's story is mildly LGBT coded and I love it
Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2023 4:38 am
To be honest, when I first saw him I wasn't expecting very much. Rather, my initial response to him was "i want to punt his head like a foot ball" because I was still angry over Legends 3 
Instead of being a legitimate pest/creep like a lot of mascots tend to be, where they're awful on purpose to make the MC look cooler, Navirou carves a very special niche. He's still goofy, overconfident (always bites off more than he can chew), and his ego's the size of his head... but he still winds up being a pretty fun and charming character.
I could talk more about his backstory and some of the things he'd accomplished there, but instead I wanted to touch on what happens in the Koapni village arc of the game. It's ignited by him encountering Pansy again in the previous arc, a felyne love interest who'd rescued him a while ago after he'd washed up on Koapni's shores and lost his memory...
She's presented as a pretty nice character, and she is. She's basically the idealized love interest, and wants nothing more than to be in a committed relationship with him. Her design's pretty cute too. However, around when when they reunite, Navirou starts getting visibly a little nervous and uncomfortable, and he gets clingier than usual with you. Everyone in the story remarks on how good she is and ponders why Navirou hasn't chosen to get together with her...
She comes off mild, then stronger, but right around when Navirou would be asked to settle down and have a family with her, she's kidnapped in a rather stereotypical fashion by a Yian Garuga. You and Navirou go to rescue her, and head back together to the village so he can finally answer her.
He works up the courage to tell her... No! His arc has him defy society's expectations of him and be his own person with the people he chooses, rather than the one people expect from him. It was a very liberating moment for him, and one that struck home for me as well. It's a situation a lot of us are familiar with, I'm sure most of us get hounded about when they're gonna get grandchildren, but in the context of Japan especially, it's an even stronger statement there. Often, even if you're gay, you are still expected to go and have a family, carrying out a traditional lifestyle for public facing life. It's the normal over there!
I'm proud of you, Navirou. Happy pride month.
Instead of being a legitimate pest/creep like a lot of mascots tend to be, where they're awful on purpose to make the MC look cooler, Navirou carves a very special niche. He's still goofy, overconfident (always bites off more than he can chew), and his ego's the size of his head... but he still winds up being a pretty fun and charming character.
I could talk more about his backstory and some of the things he'd accomplished there, but instead I wanted to touch on what happens in the Koapni village arc of the game. It's ignited by him encountering Pansy again in the previous arc, a felyne love interest who'd rescued him a while ago after he'd washed up on Koapni's shores and lost his memory...
She's presented as a pretty nice character, and she is. She's basically the idealized love interest, and wants nothing more than to be in a committed relationship with him. Her design's pretty cute too. However, around when when they reunite, Navirou starts getting visibly a little nervous and uncomfortable, and he gets clingier than usual with you. Everyone in the story remarks on how good she is and ponders why Navirou hasn't chosen to get together with her...
She comes off mild, then stronger, but right around when Navirou would be asked to settle down and have a family with her, she's kidnapped in a rather stereotypical fashion by a Yian Garuga. You and Navirou go to rescue her, and head back together to the village so he can finally answer her.
He works up the courage to tell her... No! His arc has him defy society's expectations of him and be his own person with the people he chooses, rather than the one people expect from him. It was a very liberating moment for him, and one that struck home for me as well. It's a situation a lot of us are familiar with, I'm sure most of us get hounded about when they're gonna get grandchildren, but in the context of Japan especially, it's an even stronger statement there. Often, even if you're gay, you are still expected to go and have a family, carrying out a traditional lifestyle for public facing life. It's the normal over there!
I'm proud of you, Navirou. Happy pride month.