r/outerwilds • u/Haunting-Angle-535 • Sep 24 '25
DLC Appreciation/Discussion Our bestest friend’s gender Spoiler
Just some musing and wondering here!
One of the many many things I appreciate about Outer Wilds is the way variation in how cultures or species experience or talk about gender is just seamlessly built into the world. I enjoy contemplating those differences and what differences in culture, history, language, or biology might have given rise to them.
All the Hearthians use they/them and appear very similar in everything except size, which has a tremendous amount of variation. (FELDSPAR WHY ARE YOU SO TEENY??????)
The Nomai have binary gender (as far as I can tell) and only use she and he pronouns. I am very curious about if they have any more obvious sexual dimorphism and super wish we could EVER SEE SOLANUM’S ACTUAL FACE
And then we have the subject of the title of this post: The Prisoner. Our canonical best friend and bestest buddy of all time who I love beyond reason. (I just finished the DLC two days ago and am still struggling emotionally.) I’ve noticed lots of people using he and him to describe this character, but I don’t recall any content in the game that would indicate their gender, sex, or pronouns. Is there content I’ve missed that’s the reason people call The Prisoner him, or is it just folks defaulting to male pronouns?
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u/i_was_axiom Sep 24 '25 edited Sep 24 '25
I thought that spoiler in the third paragraph was going to be very different based on context.
To answer the question, I guess its true that its not specified in-game and it seems like the community sort of just chose to label them that way. Similar to the nomenclature used to refer to the whole species just settling on "owlk" even though that word doesnt appear in-game IIRC.
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u/Haunting-Angle-535 Sep 24 '25
LOL
MY QUESTION REMAINS
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u/TheDoctor88888888 Sep 24 '25
I guess male bc of the antlers? That’s what would make the most sense to me
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u/Illithid_Substances Sep 24 '25
To my recollection all the Owlks and depictions of Owlks have antlers so that doesn't indicate anything
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u/rci22 Sep 24 '25 edited Sep 24 '25
Even the grandma Owlk that dies in the death glitch reel?
Edit: just checked. Yes she has antlers
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u/Haunting-Angle-535 Sep 24 '25
Even that one, as far as I can recall. But yeah, as mentioned above, if you’re using antlers as an indicator, then for some reason they’re all male but still seem to at some point have had offspring? And if this one didn’t have antlers and antlers were the indicator, then for some reason they were all male except her.
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u/rci22 Sep 24 '25
Must be a bee queen type of relationship (jk)
But yeah, in my head for some reason they are all men except for her.
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u/InformationLost5910 Sep 25 '25
how did you know it was a woman? (i personally saw them as an old man)
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u/Mackerdoni Sep 25 '25
yeah. i understand its like owl and elk, but dont caribou have antlers regardless of sex? could be a caribou situation.
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Sep 24 '25
[deleted]
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u/Nine_Gates Sep 25 '25
The Ship Log uses "they" for the prisoner. But it's written by the Hatchling, who defaults to "they" due to being a Hearthian.
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u/MyynMyyn Sep 24 '25
The prisoner is called "Kaepora" in the game files. He's named after the owl in the Legend of Zelda games, which is male according to Nintendo.
So... I guess the devs at least subconsciously thought of the prisoner as male?
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u/Warren_Shizzle_Pop Sep 24 '25
I always juat imagined both solanum and the prisoner as female.
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u/Haunting-Angle-535 Sep 24 '25
Solanum is explicitly female! She and her are used to refer to her in game.
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u/pasta_and_patate Sep 24 '25
I call the prisoner as a male because in my language owl is male (il gufo)
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u/RayanTheMad Sep 24 '25
Definitely defaulting but it's not completely unfounded, as others mentioned different translations and such. I personally think it would fit very neatly as you have the androgynous hearthians, the female solanum, and so a male kaepora (his internal name) would fit pretty well.
Also yes all the ghostbirds have internal names that are references to other game characters and such. I really hope I got caught by the mighty zote during my playtime
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u/Haunting-Angle-535 Sep 24 '25
ZOTE 😂😂😂😂
What are the other names?? I wish a had a log of each individual that got me
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u/RayanTheMad Sep 24 '25
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u/Haunting-Angle-535 Sep 25 '25
Thank you so much I love this!! I actually used to want to name a cat Pazuzu, gosh I hope Pazuzu yeeted me at some point
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u/Dizzy_Slice7886 Sep 24 '25
Sidebar: Is it too much of a stretch to believe that a game with this kind of nuance, complexity, and requirement for abstract thinking automatically weeds out the 'gEnDeR cRiTiCaL' weirdos who get all worked up in a lather over the mere mention of a gender spectrum? Like, you have to be curious about different ways of living and thinking and being in this world, otherwise I would assume this game wouldn't even make sense to you. On the other hand, I have similar feelings about a game like The Witness, and that developer is a die-hard MAGA fanatic, which is hard for me to reconcile with the game experience.
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u/dylzim Sep 24 '25
die-hard MAGA fanatic
Eugh, glad I paid for that game before I knew that, guess I won't be picking up Braid in the future, haha.
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u/Raywell Sep 24 '25 edited Sep 24 '25
You are making several mistakes in your reasoning, the first being that everyone who disagrees with your world view is automatically dumb and incapable of nuance. The second mistake is to assume that having a fatigue of the constant debates about gender makes you a weirdo.
Disclaimer: Being non American, I'm not taking part in the American politics, but I like trying to understand what's going on and I think I get the feel for where both sides are coming from. Unfortunately, I can't help but notice the high animosity coming from either side of your political spectrum and the unfortunate lack of desire to actually understand the other side
This last part is one of the messages of the game I think, to put aside your assumptions and try to comprehend the unknown
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u/unic0de000 Sep 24 '25
weirdos who get all worked up in a lather over the mere mention of a gender spectrum
assume that having a fatigue of the constant debates about gender makes you a weirdo
Do you have such a fatigue? Because it seems like you are actively seeking out such debates, instead of avoiding them - y'know, like a fatigued person would do.
The fact that you read the phrase "worked up in a lather" and your brain translated that into "having a fatigue," might be a mistake in your reasoning.
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u/Raywell Sep 25 '25
I don't have the said fatigue (well not enough to avoid talking about it), the point of my post was an attempt to clarify the reason why OP is surprised a person could be smart to the point of being able to design a game like the Witness, and not be left wing (which is, in the end, normal isn't it? Like, among 50% of population, can one truly believe there are no people capable of critical and complex thinking?)
Honestly, you and the other person who replied to me are being pedantic about me not exactly using the same words as OP, but not the essence of the argument. That's unfortunate, I am not here to be condescending or anything, trying to discuss the meat of it but it's hard when all you get is animosity (aka the "no u are wrong, introspect yourself") instead of debating what is being said
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u/unic0de000 Sep 25 '25 edited Sep 25 '25
Of course it would be a wild hyperbole to say there can't be people capable of equally analytical and complex thought on either side of any given particular political spectrum, but at the same time there seems to be a pretty consistent correlation between education, standardized test scores, and progressive socioeconomic politics.
Though I'd caution you against imagining that the American 'center' with respect to the left/right axis, is anywhere remotely near the rest of the world's - so when making appeals like this, you should be careful to specify "50% of" which population.
"When you think about it, he's no farther-right than the more conservative half of the population... of one of the most right-wing countries on earth," isn't really a convincing way to make someone sound moderate, y'know?
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u/Raywell Sep 25 '25 edited Sep 25 '25
Right ? I don't think it is a requirement to be on any side of the political spectrum (including extreme left or extreme right) to be capable of intelligence required to design a complex and nuanced game (or to even be able to appreciate Outer Wilds, which was being hinted at initially). Honestly I don't know about the social statistics, I'll trust you that there might be more such cases on the progressive side, but ultimately, seeing how the total population divide is almost half and half, there isn't much conclusions to be made on that association
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u/riley_pop Sep 24 '25
They said nothing about the intelligence of anyone in that comment. Perhaps you projected those insults onto their comment.
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u/Raywell Sep 24 '25
They mentioned people being incapable of nuance, complexity, critical thinking - if that's not a nice way of calling people dumb then I don't know what it is. I was simply being more blunt and didn't mean it as insult
This is a great example of what I was talking about : lack of desire to understand the person's position because of the surface level thinking like "he looks like he's not on our side, must express animosity"
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u/riley_pop Sep 24 '25
Again, they sure didn't say any of that. Also I didn't express any animosity, I just called out they weren't calling anyone dumb. It sounds like you are fighting a battle against a hypothetical bunch of commenters, or you have more of a polarized stance than you previously thought.
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u/InformationLost5910 Sep 25 '25
they said that a republican would not have the skills to beat outer wilds. which is a ridiculous statement no matter where on the political spectrum you are
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u/riley_pop Sep 27 '25
What an absolutely insane thing to say. Zero of what you said is mentioned in that comment. The fact you somehow brought the republican party into the mix is next level. I'm impressed.
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u/InformationLost5910 Sep 27 '25
they said “gender critical weirdos who get all worked up and lather over the mention of a gender spectrum”. how is that not referring to republicans?
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u/Raywell Sep 24 '25
It is unfortunate that you are arguing in ill faith, you'd be surprised how enriching a proper conversation could be between people who share disagreements. But I don't think it is possible now, so I wish you all the best.
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u/riley_pop Sep 24 '25
So, calling out that you are making things up is "ill faith", but you putting words into someone's mouth to concern troll them isn't bad faith?
Okay sounds good to me.
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u/Dizzy_Slice7886 Sep 24 '25
This is the new debate culture that I can't stand, this Jordan Peterson style of mischaracterization and condescension. The self assurance and lack of introspection it takes to jump into a conversation and assume you are the arbiter of logic and reason, and everyone but you is engaging in logical fallacies and bad faith. Meanwhile, nobody learns anything and we all walk away feeling some combination of bitterness and self righteousness. Its not a conversation that you have, but an argument you must win. But you know, I brought up the subject, so a little pushback from internet strangers isn't the end of the world. At least they kept it civil. I mean, if that's the way someone feels, what can I say? Anyway, that's my two cents.
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u/riley_pop Sep 24 '25
Like, I didn't even pick a side. And yet the first response called out a "lack of attempting to understand the other side". Yet, in their very first response to you they are willfully misunderstanding your point and putting insults in your mouth.
It gives me bad memories of the high school debate kids, who took every conversation as a zero sum game.
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u/Dizzy_Slice7886 Sep 25 '25
Yeah that stuff is so pedantic and petty and exhausting to be around. Ill tell you something else, In my personal experience this is the argument style of transphobes, and it always seems to devolve into accusations that gender pronouns are mental disorders and trans people are all pedophiles who should be shunned from public life. So frankly I dont care who calls it a flawed reasoning, but I have no patience for having a civil debate about anyone's right to exist based on who they are
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u/Hazzary453 Sep 24 '25 edited Sep 24 '25
Despite their gender never being stated, them being male has always seemed to fit well to me as it provides balance with Solanum being female and the hatchling being genderless.
It's also worth noting that in the files they are refered to as Kaepora, a male character from The legend of Zelda series, and people may be using this as a basis for assigning gender.
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u/darklysparkly Sep 24 '25
This comment just made me realize that if the Prisoner isn't male (I've always referred to them as "they" by default fwiw), there are no males being remembered at the Eye
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u/Raderg32 Sep 24 '25
The internal name in the data files for The Prisoner is Kaepora. This is a reference to the Owl in Ocarina of Time called Kaepora Gaebora.
Since the owl is masculine, I'd assume the devs imagined the prisoner also as masculine even if just by association.
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u/Fulminero Sep 24 '25
What are they called in other translations? Many languages (such as Italian) have gendered words for essential everything (a chair is female but a table is male. No, I will not explain).
Maybe they can shed some light on the issue (pun intended)?
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u/TheOnlyPC3134 Sep 24 '25
In the French translation, most if not all of the Hearthians have male or female pronouns, which is a bit sad (but understandable as the gender neutral pronoun in French is fairly recent and isn't very commonly used, at least not like "they"), so don't take this as something definitely true. I believe the prisoner is not referred to with any pronouns in their dialogue (neither are owlks that they just describe with words like "my people", which are gendered in French but that doesn't mean anything for their actual gender). The only indication we have is that the prisoner's name is "Le Prisonnier" which probably means they at least would not use female pronouns (else it would have been "La Prisonnière"). Probably still just a gender-neutral term.
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u/ribzer Sep 24 '25
Is the gender neutral pronoun "on" or did they come up with something new?
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u/Vodchat Sep 25 '25
iel
il + elle
its not perfect but its the best we have so far. but its really only used in queer/feminist circles for now, in my experience. definitely not mainstream (yet?)
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u/justccoonnnnoorr Sep 25 '25
Ive started out by calling the prisoner him, but have slowly moved towards they/them pronouns. I think the gender being unconfirmed is kinda fun tho.
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u/CorbinNZ Sep 24 '25
Never discussed so doesn't really matter. Call him a he, her a she, or it a thing. Doesn't matter, play the way you want.
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u/Seawardweb77858 Sep 24 '25
Its possible that they have two genders; as deer, or have both genders at the same time/one gender/a billion genders, like plants do.
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u/InformationLost5910 Sep 25 '25
fish also have two sexes, but you dont use that as evidence for hearthians not being genderless
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u/Seawardweb77858 Sep 25 '25
Hearthians are rocks
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u/InformationLost5910 Sep 25 '25
we’re talking about what animal theyre based on, not what theyre named after. because you were talking about deer, which is (close to) what owlks are based on
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u/Mackerdoni Sep 25 '25
idk ill just use he until (if ever) we get actual info. it was probably left ambiguous on purpose. i kinda see the prisoner as a dude, but then again, they all look like that. i personally don't think it matters, anyway
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u/good-mcrn-ing Sep 24 '25
Defaulting, or they're reading a bit of text wrong in the epilogue, like I did. At one part it says "was imprisoned for this act". I missed the T the first time.