Gender in Pokemon games has always been an important part of gameplay, and especially so for those trainers who look forward to having their critters breed for different purposes. Most trainers use breeding in order to have the offspring of two Pokemon be stronger than their parents, and this is useful for building Pokemon teams with little friends who can take on the hardest of enemies. On the other hand, the purpose of the breeding process can simply be the so-called "shiny hunting," which entails having two Pokemon mate to get as many eggs as possible and then hatching them in the hope of finding a rare shiny Pokemon.

This can be achieved with most Pokemon, but there are some species of critters that don't have a specified gender, including almost the entirety of Legendary Pokemon apart from Latios and Latias, being male and female respectively. More often than not, these Pokemon cannot breed and could be defined as agender Pokemon by the criteria of the LGBTQ+ community, but were never officially labeled as such. With this in mind, it's easy to see how the story of a kid who sent Nintendo a letter asking for non-binary critters in Pokemon games in the future was warmly welcomed by many people online, and Nintendo itself.

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Nintendo on Non-Binary Pokemon and How They Could be Portrayed

In fact, Nintendo sent a letter back to the kid of Twitter user "slate" praising the youngster for their wholesome idea, while also stating that it makes a lot of sense for Pokemon games to have a variety of genders too. Some people thought that this was already in the games because of genderless Pokemon, but again, there's a difference between agender (someone not self-identifying as having a specific gender) and non-binary (someone not fitting into the categories of "male" or "female").

For Pokemon games, this could be huge and also pave the way for even more representation of other gender identities. Not only would this make the series more welcoming for others, but also make sense when looking at specific species of animals from the real world.

There are some animal species that don't have clear gender boundaries, and species like the clownfish or the garter snake could be used as a source of inspiration by Nintendo and the Pokemon Company. Something like this could lead to non-binary Pokemon having characteristics that are not clearly those of a male specimen or a female specimen, for example, or even have a gender that is neither male nor female. On a deeper level, this could simply translate into something that is mentioned in the Pokedex entry for such critters, and/or these Pokemon could have a different societal structure that doesn't involve the binary view of gender.

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Non-binary Pokemon could be creatures who don't fit into any of the two genders that the series normally uses, or rather, Pokemon who don't necessarily express their gender identity as that of male or female critters. This could have a branching impact on how breeding works in the series too, offering players an experience that is more inclusive. Including these Pokemon could also mean that more trainer gender identities will become available in the future, even if the protagonists are usually quite young, and that would be a great message of acceptance for players of all ages.

Whether this is something that Nintendo will actually do in the future generations of Pokemon games, maybe even starting with Gen 9, remains to be seen. Considering Nintendo's aforementioned letter, though, there is hope that Pokemon games will become even more inclusive in the future.

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl will be released on November 19, 2021, for Switch.

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