This Whole Discussion About Warframe Genders And Their Identity...my 2 Cents.

[Ergo-Proxy]

Considering I'm kind of inclined to think that the Tenno no longer have a base physical body and are now energy beings (thus, what animates a Warframe when they're inside of it), I'm guessing the Warframe's 'genders' only reflect the esthetical design of the original version of that Warframe, in that every other X Warframe is a copy of the original which is why you can have 4 Embers or 2 Rhinos and 2 Mesa in the same group.

 

It's about the same as if someone worn a suit with modeled female breasts or masculine pectoral muscles : they only appear to be that gender no matter who's actually inside the suit.

Phorid the infested boss tells us to "Revoke the frailties of the flesh." This is in game proof that we Tenno have physical bodies made of flesh. The LOTUS is shown to have a physical female body.

So once again. The "energy beings without a body" theory is disputed by these examples.

[EmptyDevil]

Sexual orientation has nothing to do with dating? Sorry, try again.

No one is debating the gender of Tenno to find dates. They are trying to figure out what Tenno and Warframes are for the umpteenth time. So it makes that comment about Warframe not being a dating simulation seem really idiotic. Sorry, try again.

[MagPrime]

No one is debating the gender of Tenno to find dates. They are trying to figure out what Tenno and Warframes are for the umpteenth time. So it makes that comment about Warframe not being a dating simulation seem really idiotic. Sorry, try again.

What I got from the dating sim comment was that the genders really don't matter unless you're trying to get a date.

[Phoenix86]

The Move set for the Transgender frame

 

The Penetrator

 

Pulls out a glowing stick (changes color depending on energy) and you have 6 seconds (no duration mod added) and every enemy you run past in that time will be stabbed.

 

this is the first ability, coming up with ideas for the rest

 

rofl, my sides

[TheErebus.]

Phorid the infested boss tells us to "Revoke the frailties of the flesh." This is in game proof that we Tenno have physical bodies made of flesh. The LOTUS is shown to have a physical female body.

So once again. The "energy beings without a body" theory is disputed by these examples.

Why would you even trust Phorid...He could easily lie to you just as Vor did. 

 

Also, don't bring up Lotus when we have no idea whether she is a biological being or an A.I. There's too many unknowns to have her be the argument. 

[MagPrime]

Why would you even trust Phorid...He could easily lie to you just as Vor did. 

 

Also, don't bring up Lotus when we have no idea whether she is a biological being or an A.I. There's too many unknowns to have her be the argument. 

I don't trust Lotus, Vor, Lephnatis or Phorid.  

 

#yourmove  #whatnow

[TheErebus.]

I don't trust Lotus, Vor, Lephnatis or Phorid.  

 

#yourmove  #whatnow

Noa, you don't even trust yourself.

[MagPrime]

Noa, you don't even trust yourself.

Of course not.  Have you seen the things I've posted?  No one should trust me, especially around chocolate, fire and caffeine. 

[EmptyDevil]

What I got from the dating sim comment was that the genders really don't matter unless you're trying to get a date.

That would make sense if OP was asking for the gender of people who played but OP isn't. I thought it was completely silly to connect sexual orientation/identity of Tenno and Warframes from the fragmented lore to a dating sim. If anything this is just another "What are Tenno/Warframes?" thread.

[MagPrime]

That would make sense if OP was asking for the gender of people who played but OP isn't. I thought it was completely silly to connect sexual orientation/identity of Tenno and Warframes from the fragmented lore to a dating sim. If anything this is just another "What are Tenno/Warframes?" thread.

Oh I agree, not saying I agree with the dating sim thing.  That's just what I got from the comment.

[Ionus]

Why would you even trust Phorid...He could easily lie to you just as Vor did.

I don't really like this argument. Yes, anybody could be "easily lying," but from a writing standpoint it doesn't make sense to mislead the projected audience so outright. Unless we have SUFFICIENT reasoning to believe a character is lying to us(bad guy or not), we cannot rightfully think it is a possibility. It just bodes for bad storytelling.

But I agree with the Lotus part. The character avatar can easily be synthesized. I learned that in Remember Me.

Edited January 13, 2015 by Ionus

[TheErebus.]

I don't really like this argument. Yes, anybody could be "easily lying," but from a writing standpoint it doesn't make sense to mislead the projected audience so outright. Unless we have SUFFICIENT reasoning to believe a character is lying to us, we cannot rightfully think it is a possibility. It just bodes for bad storytelling.

Phorid obviously wants us to give in to the Infestation doesn't he/she/it? He'd most likely say this in order to lower our defenses and allow him to devour us. 

 

And if that doesn't convince you, then how about this.

 

The bleed thanks to the bleed damage mechanic, but this would mean our frames are bleeding. Wouldn't that suggest that we have flesh? So Phorid maybe referring to the suit.

[kilerskull]

I honestly couldnt tell female from male frames because they had terrible names. Nova, how do I know thats a female name? I actually bothered to look at my frames closer to figure it out. I do respect DE for not going the skinny skeleton route or overly exaggerated curves. I dont think it wouldve allowed them anyway because it would take away from their suit theme.

 

I also think all the aliens and imagination in movies and games lead to male/females with limbs and bodies like us or else they would just look weird. I think it is to comfort ourselves and make it more believable, we make them into human figures.

[Ionus]

Phorid obviously wants us to give in to the Infestation doesn't he/she/it? He'd most likely say this in order to lower our defenses and allow him to devour us. 

 

And if that doesn't convince you, then how about this.

 

The bleed thanks to the bleed damage mechanic, but this would mean our frames are bleeding. Wouldn't that suggest that we have flesh? So Phorid maybe referring to the suit.

It *could,* but in references by other bosses such as Lech Kril(inside that warframe is flesh, flesh bleeds, TheErebus bleeds) it seems to gravitate more towards the pilot. There was even mention of For "tearing tenno from their metal womb."

There was also that one Excalibur that was sliced up by Alad, and to me it didn't LOOK like cauterized flesh.

There's also that distinct metal sound when we slide.

[TheErebus.]

It *could,* but in references by other bosses such as Lech Kril(inside that warframe is flesh, flesh bleeds, TheErebus bleeds) it seems to gravitate more towards the pilot. There was even mention of For "tearing tenno from their metal womb."

There was also that one Excalibur that was sliced up by Alad, and to me it didn't LOOK like cauterized flesh.

There's also that distinct metal sound when we slide.

Hm...You have a point.

 

But for the last one: http://warframe.wikia.com/wiki/Excalibur_(Warframe)

Our chassis ( I use chassis because it refers to our exterior) is mostly made up of Ferrite, which is a metal. 

[Morec0]

All I know is that we cannot simply be "wearing" different Warframes like pairs of clothing. When you go and do an Assassination Mission for Sgt. Nef Anyo, the Lotus clearly tells you to "Save your fellow Tenno" which strongly implies they are in fact their own person. The G. Dilemma also strongly implied the same thing about the cache of sleeping Tenno Alad V was after at the time.

 

I do not know if it's fair or not to use the Trailers as a point of argument, but if so, then it's so obvious each Warframe is an individual person.

 

The only thing that makes it seem like Warframes are basically clothing is how we switch between them on our Liset. I want to counter that with perhaps we have individual Tenno who are "sleeping" in Cryopods somewhere in the Liset's storage that is obviously on Hyper-Storage levels until they are needed. 

 

I'm not quite sure how Lotus' statement there or the Gradivus Dilemma contradicts any notion that the Tenno can switch between frames at will. Aye, they can switch between any frames they want, that doesn't mean they still aren't individuals - I don't think it even means they're not corporeal. If the Warframes are connected with the same Void Compression tech that the Liset uses to fit in everything it does then the issue of various individuals fitting into all of the different frames - regardless of gender or not - is resolvable.

 

 

It *could,* but in references by other bosses such as Lech Kril(inside that warframe is flesh, flesh bleeds, TheErebus bleeds) it seems to gravitate more towards the pilot. There was even mention of For "tearing tenno from their metal womb."

There was also that one Excalibur that was sliced up by Alad, and to me it didn't LOOK like cauterized flesh.

There's also that distinct metal sound when we slide.

 

Well, take Dark Sector into consideration - the Infested in that game were more metallic than the ones we see now. My theory - and the theory I think Erebus is working with as well, is that our Warframes are made out of technocyte that is of a strain more connected to ye olden technocyte virus (DS' kind) than what I see as a newer, more weaponized strain (the Infested).

[Wiegraf]

Phorid the infested boss tells us to "Revoke the frailties of the flesh." This is in game proof that we Tenno have physical bodies made of flesh. The LOTUS is shown to have a physical female body.

So once again. The "energy beings without a body" theory is disputed by these examples.

 

Likewise, all Warframes are built from a mix of flesh and steel and the Lotus has been confirmed by [DE]Rebecca in an early livestream that she was an AI. Also, much like your Phorid example, Vor during "Vor's Prize" mentions that Tenno "do not control the 'divine energy', the Tenno are the 'divine energy' - with each Warframe the Tenno owns being a 'glass' through which that 'energy' is focused" (see "Familiar Faces, Mariana, Earth"). Even so, the Lotus hasn't been confirmed to be a Tenno at all and may very well be an outside party that is allied with the Tenno.

 

So either are disputable.

 

---

 

Nevertheless, given that Tenno can change Warframes at will means that gender identity is basically only esthetical in choice. Perhaps a Tenno can favor one gender over the other from a preference standpoint but given they just can go to the 'other side' on a whim means that 'gender' no longer really applies to them.

 

It only applies if you disregard the fourth wall and have each Tenno's existence tied to the gender of the player controlling the character on screen.

Edited January 13, 2015 by Wiegraf

[(PSN)Folkeye]

Without reading too much of the thread. I think it's a simple design case of something we as humans (the players) can relate to easily. Be it identifying with a male or female in terms of ourselves, or just looking at the shape of the opposite sex. It's 'normal'. If the Tenno aren't gendered, well... I'd rather not know. Leave that up to my imagination who is in the suit and what grade of funky they look like. Since the shape of the shell is based on masculine and feminine we'll easily just say 'he' or 'she'. If the Tenno cares or not, well, up to them.

 

Or even the Tenno have some semblance of themselves as individuals and it gives them a way to represent themselves.

 

If it ever went down to the absolutely simplest level possible. There's a male or female/human shaped Tenno wearing that suit and we'll still never know who is inside. Just the gender of the individual.

[Blakrana]

Sexual orientation has nothing to do with dating? Sorry, try again.

 

For people who identify as asexual, on average Sexual Orientation isn't actually a factor at all in dating. Romantic Orientation is what takes over instead. Heteroromantics are 'Straight' like a Heterosexual, they just don't want to get in said partner's undergarments, as a really simple example. It's a lot more complicated than that, and this is not the place to have that discussion.

 

Now, yes, the greater part of humans are sexual, asexuals being 1% or so of the population of the world. Regardless, better to just point out what contradicts a premise.

 

Why? Because knowledge and awareness makes life better for everyone, bit by bit.

 

I apologise for veering a touch off topic, as always.

I also think all the aliens and imagination in movies and games lead to male/females with limbs and bodies like us or else they would just look weird. I think it is to comfort ourselves and make it more believable, we make them into human figures.

 

This is the basic nature of the human condition. Without a real context for a non-humanoid intelligence, anything we want to consider 'similar' will be like us.

 

So, humans make things 'like themselves but not quite'. If you want genuine alien stuff, well...Alien, and Species 8472 of Star Trek: Voyager. At the end of the day, it's not so much believability, but the simple problem that humans...suck at caring about non-humans. Granted, our treatment of humanoid aliens is pretty poor in films, but nonetheless we treat the distinctly non human worse.

 

Humans are, in the end, arrogant. The Orokin, being a human empire, made the Tenno Warframes of a human form. I'm not going to address 'the true nature', as I've got a thread on one 'what if' angle already. And right now, that's not really relevant.

 

At the end of the day, the Warframes are crafted by the Orokin to serve their ego. Tenno being their Saviors and their Warrior Gods...they're going to make them look like Humans. After all, the majority of gods in the history of humanity have been humanoid, with a few non-human bits added on. Just look at the Egyptian Pantheon for starters.

 

So...like I said earlier, it's just for the sake of 'human comfort' that I suspect the Warframes are...sexed at all. I mean...it's just ornamentation at the end of the day, considering a Warframe is crafted out of...stuff, rather than 'born'. Although yes, the standards of machine and life form may be utterly different to our own...

 

Either way, we've all got our theories. I'm just arguing on 'simple' Anthropocentrism in this case.

[Cynaris]

Update 16

 

New Warframe: Wursita Conch

[(PSN)Folkeye]

Update 16

 

New Warframe: Wursita Conch

 

And you think Nekros terrifies his enemies.....

[(XBOX)MAXsandwich]

It's pretty obvious that there are biological male and female Tenno... they just choose not to reproduce biologicaly because then the female frames would quit goin out to do exterminate missions and just hang around Excaliburs liset all day waiying for him to get home from a hard day of defending cryo-pods, so they can bombard him with naggin, gossip about the other fem frames and project their own unhappy feelings onto him, because it's obviously HIS fault that SHE'S unhappy.

Nope, Excal likes to come home, drink a beer and stare off out into space and enjoy the serenity.

 

[(XBOX)The Lylmik]

Considering that the Warframes certainly have gender, I have always thought the Tenno as such are more like energy based beings. They may have origins in being carbon based but have been mutated evolved into energy based life forms and then inhabiting a female Warframe gives them female appearance and male Warframes give them male appearance. The beings themselves most likely have gone beyond specific gender and can choose to be one or other or both depending on their personal preference :)

That would explain how same Tenno can jump from Excalibur frame into Banshee and visually there change gender but still remain same Tenno.

Though am still waiting for an official Lore to give us a more comprehensive answer to that :)