Deadly Premonition 2 patch does not fix transphobic scenes
Deadly Premonition 2 came under fire the moment it was released due to the incredibly bad frame rate, making it near unplayable. But that wasn’t all that had upset players. In Deadly Premonition 2, there are a number of transphobic scenes, including ones that involve deadnaming and misgendering. What makes this even worse is that the protagonist, Francis York, also takes part in misgendering and deadnaming too.
The character in question is that of Lena Dauman. York often refers to her as ‘he’ and uses her deadname as, in Laura Kate Dale’s words, a ‘gotcha’ moment. According to Dale’s thread below, which does include videos of both York and other characters, almost nothing about the transphobic scenes in Deadly Premonition 2 has been changed at all.
The only scene that has seemingly been changed is York revealing that he knows Lena’s deadname. However, that doesn’t stop her from bringing up the name herself regularly, a strange choice considering that she has zero clue that York knows the name she was given as a child.
With just one scene changed, SWERY’s attempt to be more inclusive instead just looks as though it was done to try and convey that York is not a transphobic character. Even so, it’s ultimately a failure as York still continues to misgender and use Lena’s deadname.
What makes this so jarring is that, in comparison to Lev from The Last of Us Part 2, Lena is portrayed as completely unsympathetic by both the game, it’s characters and even the main protagonist. The people who deadname Lev are portrayed as wrong in doing so, whereas the individuals in Deadly Premonition 2 are not, and York, the protagonist of the game, refuses to believe Lena faced hardship.
If you were waiting for SWERY to fix these scenes before purchasing the new Deadly Premonition, we’d advise to wait even longer, or better yet, play a game transgender characters are loved and well-respected. Because this? This ain’t it.
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