Nintendo Shoots Down Rumour Splatoon 3's Shiver Is Non-Binary

thegamer.com:

All the signs were there. It really seemed like one of Splatoon's newest characters, Shiver, was revealed to be non-binary during a recent Nintendo Direct. That has now been confirmed not to be the case, and apparently, Shiver actually identifies as female.

The reveal comes courtesy of confirmation from a higher-up at Nintendo via The Verge. Senior vice president of development and publishing Nate Bihldorff confirmed Shiver will indeed identify as female in Splatoon 3 and is not non-binary. Even though the character was not identified as she or her during the latest trailer, they are the pronouns used when referring to the character in the game.

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The lack of she/her or he/him pronouns used during the recent Splatoon 3 Direct was one of many clues fans picked up on that led them to believe the series was about to get its first non-binary character. Splatoon 3's color scheme is largely black, white, purple, and yellow, the four colors that make up the non-binary flag. Pure coincidence it would seem unless Nintendo plans on adding non-binary characters to Splatoon 3 in the future which is entirely possible.

The last piece of evidence that had many Splatoon fans convinced Shiver was non-binary came via the language her Deep Cut team uses. “We're not supposed to be anything.” A statement shrouded in mystery somewhat now Nintendo has confirmed Shiver identifies as female. That confirmation means Nintendo's non-binary character count has not been doubled and remains at just one. Xenoblade Chronicles 3's Juniper.

While Shiver being non-binary would have been a big step forward for the series and Nintendo as a whole when it comes to inclusivity,