Hi quick question if you don't mind. Does the novel use gender-neutral pronouns for Agent Chogae? Or do they use he/him despite kse's initial confusion regarding Chogae's gender?
Gender neutral. We don't know their gender. At all.
Actually while I'm at it - here's some notes on GSGW characters and their genders.
First of all, there is basically no information value to be found from the he/she choices of MTL, because it's making it up from thin air.
If you see gendered pronouns in kr-eng MTL, 99% of the time it is the translator randomly assigning the gender. In the case of GSGW, it is 100%.
Practically every character gets referred to by narration in gender neutral way, even those who have their gender revealed by narration.
This is not difficult to do in Korean. It's even the natural way of writing things. Gendered pronouns were not even a thing in Korean until it was introduced from translating foreign books.
Anyway. GSGW characters and their genders in text.
For example, Eun Haje was introduced as a 'woman'. Despite this, for weeks (until her illustration was revealed) a lot of people confused her as a man because if you missed that initial intro, her gender is otherwise not hinted at. Korean doesn't have a strongly gendered speech pattern like for example Japanese does, and Eun Haje speaks in a casual, rough kind of way that led people to nickname her as Ahjeossi (old man), plus the name is gender neutral.
Another example is Jin Nasol, who flat out was not gendered at all from intro. However, due to the whole nail thing, and her speech pattern etc, people generally saw her as a woman. This was confirmed with the illustration.
Kang Yihak is another character many people assumed to be male until she got a proper intro in Death Alley arc revealing her as female.
Most of the one-arc minor characters are not gendered at all in text. This includes :
- The Red Mascot
- The kids from Looky Mart
- Ladybug and other employees from resort arc
etc etc.
Basically unless they are introduced as a woman or a man, they are generally not gendered in text.
spoiler for end of part 2 below cut.
