16 replies to this topic

[truepurple]

Let's go over Kou's aspects.

 

Has no need for food, only his host needs to eat, but doesn't really feel the hunger directly much. 

 

Has no sex drive to speak of, no mention of him feeling his hosts sexual desires. Of course that makes sense since including sex between creatures, or desire for such, would probably be way too weird for most people. But regardless of the reason the author choose it this way, its clear that this is the result.

 

Is immortal as far as we know (both unaging and unkillable). So has no need for security. Since it's monsters zhe possesses aside from the cat and dog, zhe has no worry about host death at all.

 

Zir(his/her) sole drives seem to be that of stimulation and more importantly, companionship.

 

So zhe could only be-

As zhe is, generous to a fault because zhe has no reason not to be.

Or zhe could have been someone psychotic, deriving pleasure from manipulation/pain etc. AKA evil.

Or zhe could simply not care about anything and just sat there for ever, and then we wouldn't have a story.

 

So why would it make any sense at all for Kou to hold any kind of grudge against the captain or the team for killing zir first host? If zhe had such a grudge, that would have been weird.  Thanks to zir first host dying, he got to get out and try other stuff.

 

Also, they don't make it nearly as clear in the comic as they do the novel, but those guys thought Kou was a likely scam of some sort. Sentient/nonaggressive monsters are simply unthinkable in this world. So it makes sense that they would figure it to be a trick.  Besides, these are mercenaries living from pay check to pay check, so if they felt they had to kill someones pet to get by financially, well  so be it. So it wasn't very good of them, but hardly comparable to that horrible brigand thug using the women as living shields that he originally kidnapped and was doing and going to do all sorts of horrible things to, plus other villagers robbed and killed and so on.

 

Also, I like MC who are super nice and generous, fun to read, as long as they aren't dumb about it.

Edited by truepurple, 22 October 2016 - 08:01 AM.

[-世界死神- chaos_animagic]

Pretty sure Kou is a male since he's referred by "He" since the beginning of the series.

 

Tho, does the Raw specially says "He"?

[truepurple]

I don't believe any of the asian languages have gendered pronouns. Also, gender for a entity that exists entirely as as spirit and borrowed bodies, is very irrelevant and a bit off topic.

Or put another way, even if Kou was male in a previous life. Not male now. Not any gender now. Again though, not the topic I brought up, which hasn't even been touched by anyone else.

Edited by truepurple, 21 September 2016 - 02:20 PM.

[Kisato]

The raw uses a pronoun that can be used for both genders but its predominantly male. So it would be correct to say he in this case.

[truepurple]

Regardless, Kou currently has no gender

[PieceOfSchmittGames]

I don't believe any of the asian languages have gendered pronouns. Also, gender for a entity that exists entirely as as spirit and borrowed bodies, is very irrelevant and a bit off topic.

Or put another way, even if Kou was male in a previous life. Not male now. Not any gender now. Again though, not the topic I brought up, which hasn't even been touched by anyone else.

 

Asian languages imply gender based on context. 

 

In 99% of languages, things are assumed as male if not given a gender otherwise.

 

There's also the fact that he's very generous to humans throughout the entirety of the series, and is also considerably emotional, so that *could* imply that Kou is a female.

 

But all of the above are just implications, and we really won't know unless Akane tells us directly.

[truepurple]

We do know, no gender, since a disembodied spirit.

[truepurple]

Kou as a disembodied spirit, has no gender, period. Gender is what your physical body has for reproduction. Assigning a gender to a disembodied spirit is something a transsexual SJW would do.

[Abdurahman Aje]

From Kou's action as the Bat it's obvious he'll place human life above monster but the forgiving part is interesting .Maybe when he rescued the adventurers kou saw that they weren't so bad and decided to let it go since Kou isn't particularly attached to his monster hosts.

[sylvacoer]

I'd add that the first thing Kou experienced in a body was an attack - by a monster. And then kindness - from a human. Clearly, memories were triggered (indicating Kou was likely human at some point), but even going with the "mass consciousness splinter" idea, something like that would likely influence Kou's path toward kindness toward humans with a rather more ambivalent attitude towards beasts and monsters.

 

There's also the old cogito ergo sum - "I think therefore I am." Kou can read thoughts/emotions, and it's really those from humans that affect it(him). It's taken extreme situations (I think only once - with the horned bear) for a beast/monster to "think" or "remember" in a way that touches Kou's empathy, which again predisposes it(him) towards humans, but also indicates Kou was or is human in some fashion.
 

[truepurple]

Well they have already shown us Kou belongs to the "reincarnated into another world" trope, minus the reincarnation, sort of.  Or maybe zhe was alive when zhe first got reincarnated by then got killed and/or transformed into what zhe is now. So yeah, certain Kou was human and also from modern japan/earth. And probably originally male, because that's most MC, but not male now.

 

Also, from chapter 16 of the LN
 

Anyway, Gaviik, who had once again recognized Kou as that demon dog, said the one thing that had to be said as the representative of the party.

“Well, sorry for that.”

Kou wholeheartedly accepted captain Gaviik’s apology. From the beginning Kou didn’t think of himself as a victim because he was killed by adventurers who specialize in killing monsters, he had possessed one after all.

 

Seems totally solid reasoning to me.

Edited by truepurple, 29 March 2017 - 02:30 AM.

[Satu87]

Sorry to ask, but what is a "zhe" ? Neither translation or the english dictionary showed me what that word means. Did you misspell "the"? Oh and this "Zir" sounds more like a german pronouncing "sir" (at least I somehow pronounce it like that).

Otherwise I think it doesn't really matter if Kou is a he, she or it, and we should just stay with the author here and the predominantly male or just refer to the protagonist as Kou unless told something else in the LN or by the author.

 

Well back at the topic before this gender nonsense since it doesn't matter in the LN and is of no importance to the story so far.

 

I think Kou is mostly forgiving because he can see the reasoning behind the actions. Gaviik didn't kill Kou in the dog form because out of fun but because it was his mission/commission given to him by someone who has a higher standing.

Than I can think of that Kou just cares more about beings who are capable of higher cognition like human, beastman, elves, and so on.

Also Kou knows entirely that it would be weird to care for a being born out of malice or being corrupted by it and leans more toword beings who are not full of malice like the horned bear or the advanture party from Gaviik.

[truepurple]

Zhe (she/he and zir (him/his/her) are gender neutral pronouns, for both a author whos gender is unknown, and Kou. Z because it sounds close to both the h and sh sound.

 

It indeed would be weird if Kou cared even a tiny bit about zir monster wolf host. Considering the wolfs killed Kous host before then and zhe used that host to kill the other wolves from what I recall, jumping from wolf to wolf and battling the others. Kou also did say the monster wolves were especially easy to possess having absolutely no will of their own, just the desire to attack from the mass consciousness or something (fear of leaving and a few other basic instincts perhaps)

 

And again, zhe might still be down there if they hadn't killed Kou's first host, which is a reason for Kou to be grateful.

Edited by truepurple, 04 May 2017 - 05:29 PM.

[truepurple]

"It" is for objects and "they" is for plural. You might think those work equally well for gender neutral, but others disagree. Nothing to do with SJW, zir and zhe something I figured out for myself. It must come as a natural evolution of the language if they decided on that same thing independently. I initially used xir and xhe, but realized how closer z was for the sounds of sh and s, and it's easier to say. Though X is nice for it looking like a crossed out space.

 

And Kou's new body has gender in a way not much different than manikins do, as in not. It may even have the genitalia shaped in it, but that wouldn't be any functioning sexual organ.  Fine, Kou was male, but not anymore. Just like zhe was human, but not anymore, even with zir fake boy body to inhabit. BTW, females can and do play video games and watch anime, including mech ones. Actually, the term "human" applies to Kou more than any previously had gender does. One can have a human mind, one can't have a gender mind, no such thing, Gender is what your body's sexual organs are, period.(and only an idiot or ignoramus would call that position, SJW)

 

Remember when this topic wasn't about gender and SJW accusations?

Edited by truepurple, 20 May 2017 - 02:38 PM.

[Kisato]

Let me call back to what I said earlier.

 

The raws use ボク, or Boku in romaji.

Boku is a masculine pronoun. Thus implying he. If he, the author was aiming for a gender neutral pronoun, he would have used 私, or Watashi. While Watashi is a bit more feminine, it can be used by both males and females, especially in a more formal setting.

 

Let's also not forget the cultural differences in media and culture. While the gender neutral and agender movement is fairly strong in the western world, it is nearly non-existent in the eastern world where this manga originates from.

 

On the topic of they being plural...
Here's a very informative Tom Scott video on the subject.

Spoiler

 

Now despite my intentions of not offending anyone, I feel it necessary to add a disclaimer saying say before anyone berating me by taking sides. 

[truepurple]

Damn, I wrote up a bunch and accidentally triggered a page change other than posting and lost it all. I will summarize:

 

There are reasons to use gender neutral pronouns other than "they".  Words should not pull multiple close meaning duties, and "they" is vague enough without it also meaning this.

 

I have explained the meaning of two words, even if I just invented them on my own, accept and move on. It's easy to remember, and I am not attempting to force anyone to change what they write; unlike Pax who acts just like a SJW, trying to force his views on others. If all of you want to call Kou a "they" or a "he", go to town!

 

My views are that genitalia define our gender, period. Feel free to disagree, just not posting your disagreements here please. Especially not half assed super flawed logic/vague disagreements. 

 

This topic is not about pronouns, and it's not about Kous gender identification. It's about why it makes sense that Kou is so nice and forgiving, the subject is in bleeding title! If you desire so much to discuss this other shit, please make a new thread to do so and stop polluting this one, I may or may not participate depending on how well thought out the position is, though.

Edited by truepurple, 27 May 2017 - 11:40 PM.

[KidCongo]

Keep it civil, fellow potatoes. That means no insults, and I include calling other people SJW's and special snowflakes in that.