Jason Schreier

So, maybe even, I'm not even thinking about the commercial aspect of it, just kind of the artistic aspect of it.

Again, this is the generous theory.

Maybe people just kind of like, if you're male, you're inclined to make something about a male character, and then afterwards you want to try something different.

I would throw out a similar theory to that, I suppose.

First, one game that comes to mind actually is Mina the Hollower, right?

Because is the Shovel Knight canonically male?

I actually realized that maybe the Shovel Knight's gender is not established.

So anyways, that just came to mind.

But my modified version of that theory, or at least something I've noticed with a few of these games, is that I think that's true, Jason.

And also, a lot of times these games launch with a male protagonist, and then it just turns out that in that first game,

there is a secondary character who is a woman who then winds up being the most interesting character in the game.

Like I'm thinking of The Last of Us where Ellie, who was playable in the first Last of Us, there were periods where you played as her, but she was the heart of the game and over the course of the game, I mean, her character was so important and then playing as her was so cool

that then they made an expansion where you played as Ellie.

And then in the sequel, it's like just fully, you know, you're Ellie.

Like, I think that trajectory is also a thing.

I think that's also true of Hollow Knight, where, you know, Hornet is by far the most striking character in Hollow Knight.

You see Hornet move once and you're like, I want to play as her.

And so I think they knew that and they had made that, you know, the goal for the first game for their Kickstarter, right?

So they were kind of aware from the beginning, well, she's really cool and people are going to want to play as her.

I think that sometimes it's just a logical outgrowth of making one of your most interesting and coolest-looking characters a female character, and then you get to make a sequel, so it's like, well, yeah, let's make her the star.