#ji arknights

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Happy Chinese New year in advance! Gōng xǐ fā cái, everyone. 

Half of the Sui siblings have now boarded Rhodes Island, and this coming Chinese New Year, the seventh will be joining us! I’m excited to see who it’ll be, so in preparation, I decided to have a closer look at the siblings that we do have on board. Those who have seen me at my worst know that I harbor a deep affection for one ex-Grandmaster of Yumen, so this will also serve as a self-indulgent activity for me.

There’s something fascinating about the way the Feranmut, the genderless gods of Terra often referred to as It or They, upon taking the form of mortals, lean heavily into the physical gender spectrum. One would think that they would want their mortal forms to be closer to their primal ones, with ambiguous gender and an ethereal air about them, but no; They actively choose to fall under the physical gender binary. The way the Sui siblings do this is exceptionally intriguing.

Every aspect of their design is done on purpose, even on a meta level. Which siblings get which powers, what gender the siblings are, how they look in response to all the variables; Upon further inspection, it’s all meticulously chosen to tell not only their personal stories, but also the story of Sui and Yan as a whole. Not all of the siblings’ designs have been revealed. We’re still waiting on the musician sister and the wandering medic brother, so I can’t discuss their physical appearances. However, I’ll still talk about their other aspects, because even the few details we know about them from the other siblings’ archive files, event story mentions, and even in Arknights’ social media promotional material says a lot.

Sexual Dimorphism

The siblings generally share the same design language; dragon-y features, the jacket that gives them that long silhouette, and long hair. While all the siblings share their particular horn shape and their draconic tails with tufts of fur at the end (except for Chongyue and Yu), their design points differ in patterns that I can only attribute to their manifested gender. 

The male Sui siblings usually have gold decorations on their tails; Chongyue has his spikes, Yi has his small gold embeds all along the side, Ji has his little nubs, and Wang has odd gold spatterings all over his tail like patches. They also have their arm markings reaching all the way over to their chest area*, which you can see in Yi’s and Wang’s open collars.

*I’m a bit shaky on this design note, as Chongyue, Ji, and Yu don’t share this trait. I’m willing to attribute Ji and Yu’s lack of chest markings to the fact that they’re meant to be different from their brothers for reasons I’ll elaborate on in other sections of this, but Chongyue’s is something I have a theory on rather than any concrete observations. 

The female Sui siblings have no decoration on their tails and are more slender and ribbon-like compared to the brothers (save for one; Shu). Their markings also generally reach up to their forearm only, compared to the brothers’ full sleeves. 

It should be noted that the oldest sibling (Chongyue) and the youngest sibling (Yu) are the only ones who have a different tail tip unlike the rest of their siblings; rather than being tipped with fur or wisps of hair, Chongyue’s tail is tipped with a sword-like implement, and Yu’s tail is tipped with flame. Because I don’t know where else to put this section, I’ll mention it now; I believe that there are two reasons why this is. Firstly, both of them have given up their powers inherited by Sui. Chongyue has sealed ‘Shuo’ away within a sword, and Yu ‘returned’ his power before he left the Tomb of Sui (at least, according to his Archive File 4). Secondly, they’re the beginning and the end of the sibling line. Of course they’d have a signifier of their status in the sibling list, or so I believe. Either way, this design choice isn’t based on their gender presentation. 

The ones that differ from these set patterns are Yu, Ji, and Shu. 

Yu has his markings only up to his forearms, and his tail has no gold decoration in it whatsoever. 

Ji has the most slender tail of all the siblings, while Shu has a rather thick tail, thicker than Chongyue. 

It’s very interesting that it’s these siblings in specific that differ from the set design patterns, considering the next topic;

Powers and Perception

It’s no lie that many jobs and abstract notions have been assigned a gender throughout history, though said assignments might vary depending on which culture you partake in. Looking at the powers assigned to the Sui siblings then looking at how these were tied into their design is fascinating, and the implications of it within lore even more so. 

For context, and for those who haven't gotten to that part in Integrated Stages #6, the reason I believe the ‘why’ of the distribution of powers to the siblings is a deliberate choice is because Jie, despite fading away and her consciousness returning to Sui, is still remembered albeit vaguely through her imparted knowledge of calligraphy. 

Calligraphy, though most used by male scholars back in the day, had many women that were credited with the proliferation of the writing despite many attempts to smother the history. The wife of Qiu Hu in the pre-Qin period, created a type of calligraphy script called the Diaochong Zhuan, which could be argued to be the start of more artistic forms of calligraphy, no longer just being scholars using calligraphy for clerical writing. In the Shi Jing (Classic of Poetry) as well, many mentions of women using ink brushes and writing calligraphy are mentioned. Most importantly, in the Hou Han Shu (Book of the Later Han), it was female officials who wrote and recorded the achievements and blunders of the ancient rulers.[1] Quite frankly, it was women who allowed and pioneered the spread of calligraphy, and history rewarded them by erasing them from the narrative. It makes sense that Jie, the Sui sibling who taught the mortals calligraphy, was a woman. 

Martial arts throughout time has always been seen as a masculine activity. In China, martial arts were credited to the Yellow Emperor, a legendary figure who supposedly pioneered many martial arts forms and fought with Chi You, the alleged progenitor of jiao di (which was like, the old form of modern Chinese wrestling).[2] Hence, it makes sense that Shuo took on a masculine form. Alternatively, if we’re to look at it from an in-world perspective, martial arts were perceived as masculine because at the time Shuo took on a masculine form when he created the different martial arts of Yan. However, nowadays and even in the world of Terra, it’s not just men who are participating in martial arts, as we can see in characters like Waai Fu and Jieyun and most importantly, Chongyue’s protege, Qiubai. Along with this, Chongyue himself seeks to propagate the knowledge of martial arts to anyone willing to listen to him, or at least anyone willing to comprehend the many books he’s had written. Perhaps the reason why Chongyue doesn’t follow the established sexual dimorphism of the Sui siblings entirely (lacking the chest markings) is due to this, in the sense that martial arts, while spearheaded by men, was never perceived as entirely masculine.[3]

Poetry was seen as a feminine expression[4], and the most popular form of it was lyric poetry (ci)[5]. In this form, female writers talked about their daily sorrows, their love, or the general social pressure placed upon them as women[6][7], so you’d think it would only be women participating in the practice. Unsurprisingly, some men (notably names like Li Bai and Du Fu) entered the space under female pseudonyms and published their work. Thankfully, poetry is still heavily credited towards the women due to the subject matter most poems covered and the ‘female voice’ present in any writing of this form. This manifests curiously with Ling’s character; she is entirely physically female and has the personality of a traditional poet (living in seclusion and sometimes speaking cryptically), but she is heavy with drink, which is attributed to a more masculine character. 

Nian has a similar situation, although it’s somewhat reversed. Within the five elements (Wuxing), metal was seen as a feminine element, strong in Yin.[8] Metalworking itself was seen as a masculine job, however it was seen as religiously feminine. There are many shrines set up around China (such as in Zunhua, Laiwu, Shandong, Shanxi, etc.) dedicated to the ‘women of the furnace’; Female deities or legends worshipped by artisans for blessings before smelting or during the process.[9] These include people like Li E, a 15-year-old military officer’s daughter who threw herself into the furnace to create iron, the two daughters of Kang Er who threw themselves into the furnace at the news of their father’s death penalty and created iron, or the more famous tale of Ganjiang and Moye[10], who were both artisans but due to repeated failures and mounting pressure from the emperor, were struggling to create the deadliest sword. The story goes that Moye sacrificed herself to the furnace, and from her sacrifice came two legendary swords.[11] Nian has a very headstrong personality, which could be where the physical masculine influence comes in to contrast her feminine presentation. 

Painting was practiced by both genders[12], but it was the reception from the audience that differed.[13] The standards for success and general acceptance for male painters were much lower than what female painters had to go through; Female painters had to go through a time of schooling under a master who would accept them, then they would also need to paint about things that the general populace cared about, and along with that, endure comments and doubts that male artists would never otherwise.[14] Dusk’s personality is that of a stereotypical painter, in the sense that she’s moody, likes to keep to herself, and would rather talk to someone who understands her paintings rather than just speaking about the techniques she uses. Otherwise, she presents as entirely feminine. 

Knowledge — the pursuit of it, practicing it — was often seen as a masculine expression, at least back then. Scholars were predominantly male for a long time, and they often served in high positions like advisors or researchers or astrologers.[15][16] Wang’s obsession with weiqi is also traditionally masculine. The aristocratic class of Ancient China were required to know the Four Arts of the Chinese Scholar. These were the main academic and artistic talents required of the scholar-gentleman, which was the social class of government officials and, as the name implies, scholars.[17] Known as the qínqíshūhuà, these four arts were qin (playing the guqin), qi (playing weiqi), shu (calligraphy), and hua (painting). The earliest source detailing these four arts was from the Tang dynasty in the Fashu Yaolu (Compendium of Calligraphy) by Zhang Yanyuan in the 9th century.[18] I’ll go further into how weiqi is important to Wang’s story in the next section, but just keep this information in mind. 

Architecture was also an entirely masculine practice, with the first female Chinese architect ever recorded being Liu Huiyin, who was born in 1904 and died in 1955.[19] Even in modern day, architecture (along with engineering) is seen as a predominantly male practice with lots of stories about gender inequality within those spaces.* [20] Yi displays this masculine perspective very prominently in his design, having all the male design point differences of the Sui brothers. 

*I’ll come back to this point in the next topic of discussion. This is something important to note when talking about Yi. 

I’ll mention them here since they haven’t been revealed in their entirety but there’s still an unnamed musician Sui sister whose domain is law, and an unnamed wandering medic Sui brother whose domain is medicine. 

Law in Ancient China was deeply sexist, to put it frankly. The society was built around Confucian principles, which entailed that women be submissive to their husbands, and if unwed, their brothers, and their fathers.[21] Women weren’t allowed to practice law at all; there’s no record of female magistrates at all in historical texts, unlike the other professions I previously mentioned for the other siblings. Music however, was almost entirely feminine. At all social classes, women sang and played instruments. Some families expected women to know how to play at least one instrument as well for status, which you can see echoed in modern day by Asian families expecting their children (usually daughters) to play either the violin or piano.[22] During the early Song period, an establishment called The Court Entertainment Bureau (sometimes known as the Music Bureau) was brought back from the Tang dynasty, and it was part of the inner court which was dominated by the palace women.[23] They would employ male and female musicians to play at important events and festivals, something which threatened the scholars and officials of the outer court.[24] While there was a level of discrimination levied against them by society for being of the entertainer class, they were given an education that wasn’t freely accessed by those of the same social classes as them. While we haven’t seen this unnamed Sui sister yet, I wonder if she’ll follow the pattern of having mostly feminine Sui traits while having some masculine aspects too. 

Medicine was a shared practice between men and women. Though male doctors were more commonly seen due to them having formal education and thus allowing them to further medicinal techniques and cures, herbal remedies and ‘home medicine’ were taught and practiced predominantly by women. There was also a requirement of female doctors for female patients, as propriety and gender norms did not allow the male doctors to touch women which made it difficult to diagnose and cure them properly.[25][26] Midwives were also considered to be doctors, and were incredibly important to all social classes for their knowledge of childbirth. Just like the unnamed sister, we have no clue about the appearance of this unnamed brother, so I am curious to see how they portray him and if he’ll follow the established patterns. 

Now we return to our odd three out; Shu, Ji, and Yu. 

In Ancient China, agriculture and textiles went hand in hand. Due to the rise of Confucian principles, where farming was initially seen as a duty of both genders (especially if one’s status in life was as a commoner), farming became an expression of ‘moral worth’ for the men of all social classes, and men were expected to tend to and progress the farm further. Meanwhile, to show their worth in society, women were expected to do the weaving.[27] During the Han dynasty however, there was a rise in women’s contributions to the farming sector due to the popularization of the pit-farming method. Textiles began to also be produced by the Ancient Chinese, citing it to be an ‘agricultural product’ rather than an art as we see it today.[28] Soon, the Silk Road was set up, and silks were produced specifically to be sold. Since men were expected to work and do their duties, the women were left to tend to the farm. As the years went on, there was also a period of time where there was mass propaganda of women farmers, depicting women working happily in the field and growing crops.[29] Due to this, we can see Shu and Ji have the tails of their opposite gender, and Ji is missing the chest markings of his other brothers. Their domains of power were never entirely just one gender, and were even the opposite of what they physically present as. 

Ancient China has a long and I mean LONG history when it comes to food and cooking. The legend of Shennong had him cultivating the Five Grains[30], the oldest noodles were found in the Lajia site in Qinghai made of foxtail and broomcorn millet,[31] they had baijiu, they invented methods of food preservation; History of Chinese food went all the way back to the Bronze Age. Over time, according to historical records (most seen in statues) as cooking became more and more sophisticated, it fell to the women of Ancient China to manage the kitchen.[32] It would be expected of them to cook food and to host lavish meals for the family and most importantly their husbands. Of course, ‘professional’ cooking where meals would be served to the nobility were jobs given to male cooks as per the patriarchal roles of the time, such as people like Peng Keng or Yin Yi.[33] During the Song dynasty however, female cooks started being professionally recognized, most notably Liu Niangzi as the first.[34] Despite this, and especially under Confucian principles, cooking was seen as a woman’s job. For this reason, I believe that Yu not having most of the physical traits his brothers exhibit (no gold decorations on the tail, no chest markings, tapered tail more similar to Nian’s) and the way he’s designed to present more androgynous not only in his youthful appearance but also his voice (Every single one of his voice actors are women and his voice type ranges from young boy to almost feminine) is absolutely a purposeful choice.

Presentation and Plot

While none of the event stories about the Sui siblings focus on their gender troubles or self-identity issues (except for Yu to an extent, but even then his story is focused on who he wants to be separate from the collective ‘Sui’ rather than anything else), that doesn’t mean that their presented gender or at least how people perceive the abstract gender of the powers they have dominion over doesn’t affect their stories. 

Jie is the most prominent example of this to me. As stated previously, despite women being the ones to make calligraphy more accessible to the general public and away from the rigid scholarly usage of it, most of their contributions and their writings were smothered by the patriarchal society they moved in. This is mirrored in Jie’s life and death; She gave the people of Yan the knowledge of calligraphy, and when her consciousness returned to the Bestial Sui, her memory now only exists vaguely as the calligraphy still being used by the Yanese people to modern day. Even most of the other Sui siblings have a hard time remembering her, like how Yu can only remember her having the same tastes as Wang. 

Yi’s story and role are also affected by what he presents as. The tale of a younger brother taking advantage of the hard work of an elder sister is a tale well-worn in Chinese society, as to this day, in most families, sons are favored over daughters.[35] Following Jie’s death, Yi not only hoarded all of her relics and memories, but also turned her garden into a display of the treasures he’s collected over the years. He refuses to dedicate the Garden of Grotesqueries solely to her, despite her giving him the idea to construct it to begin with, and also refuses to allow her remaining work to be publicized despite most of the other Sui siblings (at least the elder ones) reminding him that Jie loved humans and thus would want them to have her work.[36]* He claims to love her and to understand her the most out of all the siblings despite these inherently selfish decisions. 

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*I didn't elaborate on this in the video, but I felt like I should mention it here; another point of him essentially overwriting Jie's influence on the Garden can be further seen in the way the Garden is named in CN. In CN, what got translated into 'Garden of Grotesqueries' basically meant [Jie('s) Garden]. This is even more egregious then, considering he's filled the garden with his treasures rather than anything of Jie (items of Jie which he does have and he instead stashes away in a 'shrine')

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While these aren’t event stories, I think a lot about the Sui’s Daily Slices: Mundane Mortal Life official manga when it comes to how Nian and Dusk are affected by their gender presentation. It isn’t directly blamed on their gender why they get the treatment they do, but it’s interesting to me that Nian, despite being a popular movie director as a Sui sibling, when she’s just a regular mortal in this What If? world she’s merely a prop-maker. She’s scolded heavily compared to her coworkers for putting her own spin and interpretations in the jobs she’s given. 

Meanwhile, Dusk’s first appearance in the manga has her being criticized by what seems to be an exhibition owner, saying that her paintings lack technique and the topics of her painting being too outdated and ‘cliche’, then turning around to a male artist and happily buying his work. It’s also implied that the two of them are broke and overworked. While these are regular troubles faced by people working in these fields, it’s difficult to argue that they’re not having an even more difficult time because of the prevalent discrimination, quiet as it is. 

Here A People Sows showed that Shu and Ji’s story was very much like the way agriculture and textiles developed over the course of Chinese history: they were once inseparable twins that worked together until textiles became a source of commerce through the Silk Road. Shu and Ji lived together with Shennong in what would become Dahuang until Ji left, met a merchant, and became an impressive businessman himself while Shu was left tending to the rice fields and the people of Dahuang. Putting that aside though, Shu’s personality comes off very maternal, so much so that despite her not being the eldest sister, she reigns the sisters in and scolds them when they get rowdy. She came off very much like a stereotypical Asian mother (those that get what I mean get it) during Here A People Sows towards Zuo Le as well.

Comparing and contrasting them appearance-wise and to their siblings is an interesting practice too. Shu, despite seeming like she’s showing a lot of skin, is actually incredibly covered up unlike her sisters. She’s wearing a full tank-top with a necklace accessory to cover her cleavage, full pants with at least two layers under the outer one, and the classic Sui jacket. Meanwhile Ji, despite looking incredibly covered up, is showing a lot of skin— his shirt isn’t even a shirt, it’s just like the necklace accessory Shu wears wherein it’s square panels covering his torso. The only thing not making that obvious is the Sui jacket he wears, which actually doesn’t seem to be a full jacket at all; It’s a panel draping from his neck then detached sleeves— you can see his sideboob and the mole he has right on the top of his breast, along with the window exposing the curve of his waist. Both of them share the fashion language of each other, like the twins they are. Compared to the other siblings though, they don’t follow the established gendered fashion uniform at all which is fascinating.  

Chongyue’s presentation is more of an inward thing; the way he keeps away from his siblings, letting them live out their days and find themselves on their own and simply hoping the best for them is definitely a more commonly masculine way of treating family, but he nags and fusses over all his younger siblings when they’re in the same vicinity which is commonly seen as a feminine trait. He even nags the Doctor to take more care of their health. Truthfully, I feel as though gender doesn’t really exist as a concept to Chongyue, at least not one he practices. He doesn’t discriminate as to what students he teaches, as long as they’re willing to learn, he’ll teach them the ways of martial arts. Case in point, he took in Qiubai, someone who initially planned to kill him, and now she’s his protege. It could be simply because he’s the first to break away from the bestial Sui and thus he’s so old that he doesn’t see a need to differentiate physical attributes anymore, but it could also be that he consciously focuses on one’s intent and desires rather than what they are outwardly because he knows that such notions don’t really apply to him, even if he’s living as a simple ‘mortal’ now. 

Wang presents himself and acts in a way I can only attribute to a prideful scholar. He allows himself to be misunderstood, he takes the harshest methods, and he holds this level of ego where while it may be earned, he believes himself capable of bending the Heavens and moving mountains and in the end, succeeding in his goals. Despite all this, he has a deep love for his siblings, even if he himself doesn’t admit or recognize it as love. He wants to help his siblings become fully human and separate from their identity as ‘Sui’, and every day he mourns Jie’s passing and blames himself (and the Sui Regulators) for it. As mentioned in the previous section, Wang’s obsession with weiqi isn’t just a fun little quirk. Wang’s story somewhat echoes the legend of the origins of weiqi. The legend goes that Emperor Yao, one of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, had an unruly son, Danzhu, and needed a way to discipline and teach him at the same time. While thinking, he created the game Yi, which would then go on to be named Weiqi, which he said would teach Danzhu discipline, concentration, and balance.[37] While Wang ended up becoming obsessed with weiqi after the Grand Tutor, it was through learning weiqi that he came to begin his plan of the survival of they siblings. Truly, he is the second eldest brother of the siblings. 

Ling’s story is interesting to think about when looked at the lens of gender; she used to be a military strategist serving Yumen alongside Chongyue before leaving and finishing her task, then going off to live on her own until she heard of Wang’s plan, then she joined Rhodes Island to aid the plan of reuniting the siblings. She’s also a poet that can only write when she’s drinking, and she’s incredibly heavy with drink. The roles she’s held are in fact very feminine; As mentioned previously, poetry was a feminine practice, so much so that men who wanted to partake had to use female pseudonyms to have a chance. One would think being a strategist or having any military contribution would also be seen as a masculine activity, and while socially it was, Ancient China still had many well-known female strategists. The most popular being Wu Zetian, China’s only female emperor, but there were also figures like Fu Hao, who was a priestess, a queen, and a general all at once under the rule of the king Wu Ding[38], and the Ming dynasty general Qin Liangyu who defended the dynasty against the Manchus of the Qing dynasty[39]. While it wasn’t primarily a woman’s field like poetry was, there were still recognized women there. 

Personally, looking at cooking from a gendered perspective is difficult as I’ve grown up knowing everyone should know how to cook with no exceptions. I hold a lot of bias against beliefs and cultures that say women should be the ones tending the kitchen, as I cannot imagine for the life of me how people who practice these views could live independently. Ancient China held this belief though, further enforced by the patriarchal views brought about by Confucian teachings. Even now, modern China is still influenced by these Confucian teachings (hence a previous statement where I mentioned sons are still favored over daughters), so I find it incredibly interesting that the youngest Sui sibling is not only physically androgynous, but also presents himself as male. This doesn’t affect his story as far as I can tell— his struggles are mainly based around wanting to stay as himself, as ‘Yu’, and wanting to be together with his siblings and be his own individual at the same time. He’s the sibling that stayed behind in the Tomb of Sui the longest, figuring out what to make of himself and how he should go about becoming his own person. According to his Archive File 4, he’s returned his powers to Sui and went on to run Savors at Yu’s, serving food to those who might need it. While I don’t see how his gender presentation affects his story in-world, I can see how it perhaps influenced the devs while writing it. 

There have been many stories where the main goal of the lead is to ‘find themself’ through hard work or by seeing the world, even Hallmark movies have it as the base motivator before it devolves into a cheesy romance story. There are many Chinese media where the lead grows up wanting to become a chef either because they tasted a dish that changed their life or they grew up around people who cooked food for others, and goes through hardships (plot shenanigans) to achieve their goals like Cupid’s Kitchen, Chef Hua, Go Ahead, or even the various short Chinese dramas you can find scattered around Youtube. These stories often have female main characters and always end up with them being successful and opening up their own restaurants and if the writers feel like it, with a lover of some kind.

All this to say that Yu’s personal story isn’t new, this is something that’s been done for a while now, so it’s very interesting that they gave him this kind of storyline. Of course, his story isn’t a carbon copy. The most interesting difference is what happens once Yu has his restaurant; he doesn’t seek to expand it and he doesn’t choose to upcharge his prices. He simply wants to provide a comfortable space for his siblings and other guests to eat at. He doesn’t keep track of people’s debts properly, he lets people pay what they want or not at all, and the restaurant’s usually constantly running short on cash so much so that their rent payment to Ji comes in meals rather than actual money. Yu’s motivations for making food are much closer to how Ancient Chinese society viewed domestic cooking.

Interestingly enough, Yu also has many references to Confucian proverbs in regards to cooking in his voice lines and his Operator Record. His Operator Record could be interpreted through the lens of the proverb “子食於有喪者之側，未嘗飽也。” (Be considerate of guests (especially those who are suffering)) where he, as the host, serves the people of Baizao food and listens to their woes. Meanwhile, some of his voicelines reference Confucian proverbs such as “不得其醬，不食” (Pursue harmony between food elements) and “不時，不食” (When not in season, do not eat). 

As a fun fact, the line Yu quotes in his Talk after Promotion 1 line ("A nobleman stays clear of the kitchen.") is a real saying often misattributed to Confucius. This is a line from another philosopher, Mencius, and this is in fact a shortened form of what the real quote was. Mencius stated;

“君子之于禽兽也，见其生，不忍见其死；闻其声，不忍食其肉。是以君子远庖厨也”

Which when translated means; For a gentleman holds (empathy and compassion) toward animals: Having seen an animal alive, he can't bear to watch it die; having heard its cries, he can't bear to eat its meat. Therefore, a gentleman stays away from the slaughterhouse and kitchen.[40][41]

We don’t know much about the unnamed siblings yet aside from the fact that the musician sister seems incredibly jolly and that she was heavily involved in creating Yan’s legal system that’s used up to modern time, and that the wandering medic brother wanders like he’s half-dead, hates when he can’t help others, and burdens himself with many matters that his other siblings worry and have to constantly remind him that he’ll still have them in the end. I’m excited to see if their stories will also be affected by their gender presentation, though we can already see hints of it with the few information we know about the musician sister.

Interpretation

As a disclaimer, I doubt we’ll ever get an event story that focuses on the effects of the gender identity of whichever Sui sibling. It’ll always be a subtext thing, like the way Yu’s story is or the way Shu and Ji’s designs are conceived. 

That aside, seeing how gender identity is tackled from the writers’ desk to the in-world happenings when it comes to the Sui siblings is fascinating once you see the patterns. As stated at the start, every part of their designs and their personalities are purposeful. Understanding how they present their identity is crucial to understanding their character, how they interact with others, and even their motivations. 

It’s fascinating how the writers decided to use the proxies of Sui of all things to portray these themes. The Feranmut as a whole within the lore of Arknights have been considered to be ‘gods’, genderless and ancient. Sui Itself is described as bestial, and the pronoun ‘It’ is used when referring to the bestial Sui. Meanwhile, Its proxies present themselves as not only their own people, but also their own identities that are built upon the experiences they’ve had. No doubt these forms were chosen after a long while of interacting with the human world, after walking the ways of man and speaking with people close to the earth. These immortal beings learned what it’s like to be human, and have thus chosen forms that reflect their learnings while also being closer to the mortals. 

Moving past just the sphere of the Sui siblings, the way Arknights treats gender as an element in its worldbuilding is so easy to overlook. You’ll notice it first with the Sarkaz, more specifically the Teekaz, how their oldest lords and kings are titled that way not because of gender but due to age and power.

For the Damatzi cluster, they don’t even have a gender at all and for the Banshee, they’re a female-only society, which is why the existence of Logos was such a baffling mystery and why he’s regarded in a mysterious light. There’s also the Confessarii, who are the same souls reincarnating over and over in different bodies and genders, so much so that the soul inside the bodies don’t even consider the form they take anymore.

Then you notice the Seaborn, who are labelled as We Many, considered primitive and the basest of lifeforms despite being so prolific and such a threat. Their most evolved form of being is having a name and a gender in the form of Martus, in the form of Deepcolor, and in the form of Mizuki.

Even with the more ‘human’ races, you’ll notice that some of the gendered terms normally used in our world don’t match the character; Vina is called a King, the Duke of Caster is called a duke rather than a duchess, these things despite the traditional terms being used for other characters like the Twin Empresses of Leithania. 

In Arknights, gender is a symbol of humanity. A Feranmut is genderless, a Seaborn is genderless, an Ageless can treat gender as a suggestion. Meanwhile, a Beast Lord is gendered, a human has gender.