So, that William Kidd in the game is a woman/girl, right?

So for the longest time I kept saying to myself that character is obviously not who they say they are...yet, it like totally obvious they are not. I'm only at the part where you get your pirate base, so the the ruse is still in place in the story..as far as I know. If I'm wrong I think the people at Ubisoft better stop writing so damn French because if I'm wrong well they are really messed up at writing characters.

Yes, Kidd Jr. is a woman.

A young boy who has a sultry voice... Let's telegraph this weak plot twist from a mile away.

Every time she said she was going to 'surprise' Edward with something I figured it was going to be where she takes her shirt off or something. Then she didn't even give any warning when it finally happened.

Incidentally, I will give them some credit - she's not a very good-looking woman, which would be the obvious and stereotyped thing to do.

Please tell me this doesn't turn into a love interest... You know what never mind, it just doesn't matter. The game is pretty good as far as I'm concerned. They keep adding in elements that make me say, "Wow, just like Sid Meier's game!"

I really liked her character to be completely honest, and like @veektarius said, she wasn't overly sexualized.

Though, did anyone not immediately know she was a woman the second you first heard her voice?

I thought she was a woman at first then when they didn't mention anything about it I kind of just accepted her as a dude. Also her face still looks super masculine to me, but I guess that's what they were going for.

Are you crazy - that bit where you had to carry her out of the jail... I spent hours on that bit. I took her to the pub, a couple of hay bail, to the beach. I had to do most of the talking and.. you know, the heavy work, but the she had treasures below that needed no diving bell, my friend.

I fucking love Captain Kidd (or Mary Read, if you will). One of my favourite characters in the series.

I couldn't decide if the player was really supposed to be 'tricked' by it or not? I didn't think she was a boy at any point, so I just took it as a bit of dumb fun which the player was supposed to be in on. They weren't really subtle enough for it to seem like it was definitely intended as a twist, but they weren't blatant enough about it for it to seem like dramatic irony. Odd.

Most people probably didn't know about Mary Read before playing the game (I certainly didn't), but the idea was maybe to let those who did know about her guess who she was before the game actually reveals it. That would be a cool "aha!" moment.

That's my point. I wasn't tricked so in my mind Conner wasn't tricked, so why go on with the ruse. She should say, "I'm William Kidd, Jr", and he needs to laugh. Then later he pulls her aside and says, "You're just a wee girl. Nobody with eyes is fooled girl; but, if you like, I'll keep your secret [laugh]."

I hate when games pretend the player is dumb, but I really hate it when my character must go through the motions of being shocked by a stupid ploy. They could have tried at least to butch her up more, but my guess is they want it both ways they want her feminine but they want us to believe she is a boy for the first 1/5 of the game. (Their big problem is they have this weird "dandy" Jack Sparrow concept of what pirates looked like and how they dressed. Its true, fashionable men's wear in the 18th century was more embroidered/woven, more silky, and more colorful...but there is a limit.)

I immediately thought Kidd was a woman when she came into the play, but they actually convinced me for a while that Kidd was in fact a young man with a slightly effeminate voice. I guess i spoiled it for myself by looking at this thread, given I haven't reached any kind of reveal of it in the game yet. Like I said before, I assumed it from the beginning, so I'm not really surprised.

Not since Naoto has a character's ambiguous gender been so unambiguous.

@hadoken101 said:

I feel like that was just never going to work well in English, because it's not like, an archetype in English media the way it seems to be in Japanese media (anime specifically?). I can't tell you how many anime I've seen with the androgynous character that could be either way. Naoto is a little different in that they're trying to give you a hard sell on Naoto being a boy, but still. Outside of like, Shakespearean theatre, I don't think a lot of contemporary English-language actors have all that much experience finding a pitch for their voice that makes it unclear what their gender is. Even in Shakespeare, the audience is usually in on the character's actual gender.

Or was Naoto's gender meant to be super obvious in Japanese as well?

Nope, wasn't fooled not even for a second. In fact, as soon as Kidd started talking and walking I was like thats a fucking woman. The walking was the biggest giveaway outside of the voice.

I liked the character though. Kidd was charming.

@bisonhero: Naoto's original voice actress was Paku Romi who has a pretty unique voice, I think. She voices both boys and girls.

Edit: YouTube video embedding doesn't work right now? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj82RwQySfM