One of the first companions players meet inThe Outer Worldsis a mechanic named Parvati Holcomb. Like most companions, she gets her own personal quest that the player can help with, which involves them havingromantic feelings for a woman named Junlei. The beginning of this companion quest, “Drinking Sapphire Wine,” has the player speak with Parvati over some drinks at the Groundbreaker’s Lost Hope tavern, at which point she talks about her feelings and how she has been treated as a “cold” person in the past. Here, it is revealed that she is asexual (also known as ace).
While the word “asexual” is not dropped in the quest, Parvati’s description of herself and how she feels captured the sentiments of many asexual fans. It was then revealed that Parvati is canonically asexual byThe Outer Worlds’narrative designer Kate Dollarhyde. Dollarhyde herself is asexual, and put her personal experiences with the orientation into writing Parvati.
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This is a big deal in terms of representation on a number of levels, as many people still do not even know what asexuality means. Despite many being misinformed or ignorant about the orientation, asexuality has been appearing in more media with portrayals such Todd fromBojack Horsemanand Florence fromSex Education. Media portrayal of asexuality have been a double-edged sword at times, as damaging stereotypes have come into play throughout history with asexual-coded villains, infantilization, and representation being shown only innon-human characters. With such a history of misunderstanding, Parvati’s character brought a long-needed positive portrayal.
What Parvati Reveals About Asexuality and Its Misconceptions
As more media platforms begin telling asexual stories, one hopes Parvati will be at the top of the list for character inspiration.Parvati is a characterwritten by an asexual person with first-hand experience, and it really shows when the players interact with Parvati at The Lost Hope during her companion quest.
As Parvati opens up to the playerabout her feelings for Junlei she says, “I’m not much interesting in physical stuff. Leastways not like other folk seem to care. It’s not that I can’t? I just don’t care for it.” In the discussion, she also mentions that this made people think of her as “cold,” despite her being one of the most empathetic characters in the game. For many asexual gamers, this description hit with a rare instance of relatability. Some on Reddit even mentioned that the discussion brought them to tears.
AsThe Outer Worldsis an RPG, the choices on how to react to Parvatiwere also well-done in terms of respecting her. There were no options to be acephobic, in fact there were options to tell her the player also felt the same way. The fact that her quest is based on romance tackles one of the greatest misconceptions about asexual people: that they do not feel romantic attraction. Asexuality means one does not feel sexual attraction, but there are many other kinds of attraction that lead asexual people to date, marry, and so on.
One of the most damaging stereotypes in media is for villains to have no interest in love and physical contact, and that often plays into writing them as aromantic and/or asexual.Parvati’s representationis the opposite, being one of the warmest companion on the ship who always wants to help others. She is also not ignorant to the feelings of others, often sometimes has astute observations that only an empathetic person could sense.
Outside of Parvati, asexual representation in television is limited, and finding ace characters can be like finding a needle in a haystack. Even when available, the representation could be disappointing or even damaging at worst. More people know about Todd Howard ofBojack Horsemanthan Parvati, and while many asexual people like Todd there are a good many disappointed that he mostly existed as comic relief (while other characters were taken seriously). There is also the infamousHouseepisode “Better Half,” which claimed asexuality is not an orientation, but something that can be cured. Unfortunately, the poor representation in media is reflective of what asexual people deal with in reality from strangers on the internet or their own family. When asexual gamers sayParvati’s personal questgot their eyes cloudy, it’s hard to blame them.
Hopefully, Parvati’s character is the beginning of a renaissance of positive ace representation. She was not only a win for asexual gamers, but for video games in general. Video games are not always taken seriously as art that’s worth critical analysis. However, Parvati shows that video games may be ahead of other media in terms of represenation, social awareness, and character depth.
The Outer Worldsis available now on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
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