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Why is Pascal referred to as a "he" ?


DARKB1KE

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Why is Pascal referred to as a "he" ?

 

I mean... it's a female name (edit: at least to me anyways -- Pascale)... the voice is even female/feminine too.... yet everyone in game refers to Pascal as a "he"

So were the game creators gender confused here?  Or is this a translation mistake?

Edited by DARKB1KE
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1 hour ago, DARKB1KE said:

Why is Pascal referred to as a "he" ?

 

I mean... it's a female name (edit: at least to me anyways -- Pascale)... the voice is even female/feminine too.... yet everyone in game refers to Pascal as a "he"

So were the game creators gender confused here?  Or is this a translation mistake?

 

You gave the answer yourself - "Pascal" as a female name is written as Pascale, without the 'e' it becomes a male name. The name is uncommon enough (at least here) that you may not know anyone called like that or at most one person, so that may tilt your view. It took me until meeting a Pascale three years ago to realise that the name has a female variant, just like I didn't realise until some years ago that "Kim" could be used for males as well as females.

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1 hour ago, Satoshi Ookami said:

How is Pascal a... female name?

 

Nope, he's been referred to as 'he' in Japanese version as well.

 

But yea, he is voiced by Aoi Yuuki, the most moe voice of the cast :awesome: 

 

42 minutes ago, BillyHorrible said:

 

You gave the answer yourself - "Pascal" as a female name is written as Pascale, without the 'e' it becomes a male name. The name is uncommon enough (at least here) that you may not know anyone called like that or at most one person, so that may tilt your view. It took me until meeting a Pascale three years ago to realise that the name has a female variant, just like I didn't realise until some years ago that "Kim" could be used for males as well as females.

Pascal in Tales of Graces f doesn't have an e at the end, and she's a girl (great character too)

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Pascal is the name of a famous mathematician, often quoted by theologian for his awful "argument" with the same name, Pascal's wager.

 

In math he is pretty known for Pascal's Triangle.

 

You also got Pascal's Law and a unit named after him.

 

And you even got a programming language named after him.

 

In this case Pascal refers to the last name, because his full name is Blaise Pascal.

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3 hours ago, BillyHorrible said:

 

You gave the answer yourself - "Pascal" as a female name is written as Pascale, without the 'e' it becomes a male name. The name is uncommon enough (at least here) that you may not know anyone called like that or at most one person, so that may tilt your view. It took me until meeting a Pascale three years ago to realise that the name has a female variant, just like I didn't realise until some years ago that "Kim" could be used for males as well as females.

This still doesn't explain the female voice and being called a "he". 

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28 minutes ago, lesk8vaincra said:

 

I don't even understand why you would ask this kind of question...

It is a robot. Why would robot have a gender?

 

Because the robot has a female voice and is being addressed as a "he", you don't find this odd?

I don't know how many games you've played where the females sound like guys and the guys sound like females????

Just figured it would be a topic for discussion, since I've never seen this done before and wondered why.

 

If you knew something about the creator of this game, he likes doing something unique for every single game he does, and often switches things up "just cuz" to shock people's realities.  From this video:

Around 6:30 mark he starts talking about making things interesting. 

 

Another point for Japan just being Japan I guess....

Edited by DARKB1KE
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54 minutes ago, DARKB1KE said:

 

Because the robot has a female voice and is being addressed as a "he", you don't find this odd?

I don't know how many games you've played where the females sound like guys and the guys sound like females????

Just figured it would be a topic for discussion, since I've never seen this done before and wondered why.

 

 

I have never played another game where robots are trying to replicate human's behaviour.

Robots try to be more human, and thus tries to attribute themselves a gender. But they do not know the concept of gender, and what comes with it. 

 

Pascal just has a female voice with a male gender because robots wouldn't know why it is a problem.

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Emil, a young boy, is voiced in both Nier games by the same female actor too.   It's not rare at all, Bart Simpson immediately comes to mind but there's plenty of other examples.   I think the reasons are varied, anything from child labour laws, availability, to creative desire etc...   From Pascal's perspective, or Yoko Taro's, it could simply have been to elicit this very type of response.   I suspect anyone, or most, that played Automata and found themselves invested in the story and themes of the game, probably queried Pascal's gender to one degree or another, and whether it even mattered.   I don't want to get spoilery though, but those type of questions did fit with the themes of the game.   It could simply have been that the voice actor was the best suited to draw sympathy for Pascal, or even something beyond creative procedure and into corporate realms.   I like to think it was the former though, to make the player...question!

 

^I don't mean Emil is voice by the Pascal actor, just that the same female VA played Emil in both games...

 

 

Edited by RedMustang72
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The reason why Pascal's voice is the way it is is to make him appear more sympathetic and to distinguish him from most of the other robots. I'd personally be interested in seeing how his character had been perceived if they hadn't bothered to make him unique from the others but i suppose i'll never know. 

Either way, don't read anything special into it, they weren't trying to say anything about gender with him.

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12 hours ago, RedMustang72 said:

Emil, a young boy, is voiced in both Nier games by the same female actor too.   It's not rare at all, Bart Simpson immediately comes to mind but there's plenty of other examples.   I think the reasons are varied, anything from child labour laws, availability, to creative desire etc...   From Pascal's perspective, or Yoko Taro's, it could simply have been to elicit this very type of response.   I suspect anyone, or most, that played Automata and found themselves invested in the story and themes of the game, probably queried Pascal's gender to one degree or another, and whether it even mattered.   I don't want to get spoilery though, but those type of questions did fit with the themes of the game.   It could simply have been that the voice actor was the best suited to draw sympathy for Pascal, or even something beyond creative procedure and into corporate realms.   I like to think it was the former though, to make the player...question!

 

^I don't mean Emil is voice by the Pascal actor, just that the same female VA played Emil in both games...

 

 

That's a great response.  In your example though, Bart would have the voice of a female.  That's what I'm saying is rare, having the voice not match the character. 

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1 hour ago, DARKB1KE said:

That's a great response.  In your example though, Bart would have the voice of a female.  That's what I'm saying is rare, having the voice not match the character. 

The voice matches Pascal rather well. He's a soft, caring, motherly person. A pacifist who wants to protect all he can. The soft, feminine voice fits him perfectly. 

 

It seems like your issue is that you can't get over that someone with a feminine voice is being referred to as a man. Pascal is a robot, human concepts of gender wouldn't matter to him. Machines probably weren't designed to see themselves as people anyway, only assigning themselves genders to further mimic humans (this is supported by certain bots taking their roles as males or females to the point of caricature. They're clearly just assigning themselves genders because they feel like it, like for the trio of machines that act as a family unit.) meaning that ultimately they're probably only doing it just because. 

 

Pascal is a man because he wants to be seen as a man. It's not weird, and theres no real discussion to be had about it. 

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To me it seemed like they wanted to choose a very soft and sweet sounding voice for Pascal in both languages. He's meant to be a very kind and gentle figure that represents peace and understanding. The voice is immediately disarming once you hear him speak and works as a signal to the player that he's different from the other machines you've been fighting so far. I think it works fairly well as a way to show that Pascal is harmless. He simply wants to move away from war and help guide other machines towards his way of life if they're willing. He's not strong, not controlling, and not demanding. Being voiced by a female is one of the most effective ways to get that across to a player.

 

Slight spoilers here if you haven't gotten through route A yet or played the original Nier.

Spoiler

Besides that, the machines understanding of gender is very imperfect. They're still trying to learn and the majority of the things they mimic seem flawed in many ways. Machines have no inherent sex or gender, they just go based on what they know about humans. The truth is that this is something they elected to choose themselves. That means Pascal might not even understand that his voice is feminine or he feels it doesn't matter. No other characters seem to question his voice or gender in the game either.

 

This isn't the first time Yoko Taro has brought gender themes into his stories. Kaine's character in the original Nier was an intersex woman who was treated poorly by the villagers she grew up with because of her condition. It effected the way she dressed and acted towards the other characters. Overall she was handled incredibly well and I think that the machines are too.

 

 

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10 minutes ago, yellowwindow7 said:

( even though i haven'the played this game.... yet ) but judging from my knowledge on this game 2B and the other fighters aren't human it's not a he or she, they should be called an "it / it's"

Suffice to say referring to someone/something as an "it" is very degrading. I know you said you haven't played it but one of the biggest themes of Automata is whether or not the concept of humanity can extend past our physical forms. To refer to them as an "it" just because they arent "technically human" would be to say that these characters CANNOT be referred to as living beings simply due to their physical forms. 

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15 hours ago, DARKB1KE said:

That's a great response.  In your example though, Bart would have the voice of a female.  That's what I'm saying is rare, having the voice not match the character. 

Thanks, and yeah, that's true, but I think I covered that with the post.   I think it was intentional.  As others have stated too, eliciting sympathy for the character, but, and contrary 'possibly' to what @zeda12123 said, I do think it was to further discussion, or internal dialogue, about our very nature and how we process the world around us.   There's absolutely nothing wrong with finding it odd or unusual, ideally we should never assert a norm and dismiss discussion.   I could just as easily ask why so many on this thread and likely beyond, think that it was necessary for Pascal to have this voice in order to elicit sympathy, myself included, as opposed to a gruff aged voice or purely by his actions?   I'm certainly not making out that Pascal's female voice is the defining moment of Automata, it was simply another instance where Yoko Taro caught us off guard, even fleetingly, but I'm sure most had that moment.    I do agree with @zeda12123 though, the voice did in fact match the character, just not the perceived gender.  Nothing wrong with inquiry, I was curious about the motivations too, especially within the grander themes of the game.

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