Talk:Shield Knight

Confusing language regarding character's gender

It is my understanding that as a character, Shield Knight may be either female or male depending on the version of Shovel Knight that is played, but that the character is canonically female in the base version of the game (there is DLC that changes the character's gender to male).

The way this article is currently written doesn't make the character's variable gender at all clear, not even mentioning it until partway through the "development" section, and different parts of the article confusingly use different gender pronouns without making it very clear why this is until quite far in. The intro paragraph defaults to "he/him" pronouns despite the fact that the character is female in the "vanilla" version of the game (and for what it's worth, the Shield Knight article on the Shovel Knight fandom wiki uses "she/her" for the character throughout, and refers to the character being female as "canon"). This has also lead to some rather strange sentences such as "Saving Shield Knight, who is possessed by a cursed amulet turning him into the evil Enchantress". In the "body swap" version of the game, the "Enchantress" character is also rendered the male "Enchanter" instead.

There's also a very strange line about the (male) Shield Knight character being a reference to "the common gentleman in jeopardy" trope from 1980s games. The creators specifically refer to wanting Shield Knight as a female character to be a partial subversion of the popular "damsel in distress" trope in games by making her also a knight, I'm not at all familiar with there being a common masculine analogue to this trope in 1980s media in particular, can't find any reference to such a thing, and honestly this line almost reads like a joke or vandalism to me (correct me if I'm wrong).

I suggest that either the variability of the character's gender is made clear in the introduction, or a new section is made about it if that is deemed necessary (because it does appear to be at least somewhat noteworthy), and also that consistent gender pronouns are used throughout (I'd suggest probably female ones considering that is what is used elsewhere online). At the very least, I suggest the two sentences I mention above be edited or removed entirely (unless the latter one can be backed up somehow).

I know this seems like a lot of attention for such a minor article about a fictional character, but apparently this article was nominated for deletion five years ago and kept, so if it has been deemed notable enough to remain on Wikipedia, I think it should be encyclopedic quality, which means clear and consistent language throughout.ASpektor1990 (talk) 22:49, 2 October 2020 (UTC)