[jonathanc]

So, I was reading this pretty awesome blog post about women in Shadowrun, when I caught mention of Hard Exit, specifically Hard Exit being female. Now, I haven't read War! so perhaps I'm a bit late on this, but I'd always pictured Hard Exit as a guy with a crew cut, because that's how he was described in some fiction that I'd read a while ago (IIRC, it was SR4 or something....extraction run, I think s/he was trying to get the target to the roof for aerial evac).

Am I crazy/misremembering the fiction, or was that some kind of typo?

[FastJack]

Hard Exit is most definitely female.

[jonathanc]

Hard Exit is most definitely female.

I'm not arguing that; I'm mostly trying to see if I can find anyone else who remembers the fiction I'm thinking of, and why Hard Exit was described as a guy (or can just tell me that I'm full of it and am remembering the story wrong). It was one of the earlier SR4 books, I'm sure....if it wasn't the core book, then probably Runner Havens? I don't have my books on me because I'm at work...

[CanRay]

She's all woman!  And what a woman!

[jonathanc]

She's all woman!  And what a woman!

Does she have a writeup somewhere? I have Street Legends, but not the supplemental, and I skipped War, Vice, and Espionage.

[Critias]

Hard Exit is female, and her creator always pictured her as such.  She posted for some time prior to the fiction piece in question, where another writer basically screwed up her gender.  You can see Pistons tease her about the gender-swap in later Shadowtalk (essentially the SR writer crew poking fun at one another for a slip-up).

There was some talk about including a bunch of gender-swap bioware in her Street Legends: Supplemental write up, but we basically decided it was best to just pretend the mistake didn't really happen, instead of playing it up and continuing to talk about it.  So it was quietly swept under the rug, James (whose blog you're reading) wrote her whole SL:S profile kind of pretending it didn't happen (despite a little tongue-in-cheek reference to that teasing she got from Pistons).  There is mention of her using disguises, but no outright "yeah, she's got dangly bits and has to shave" joke or anything. 

Personally, I've always dug her.  If she weren't a chick, I tend to imagine she'd be the sort of character Cole Hauser would play (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0369513/)...but that she did grow up in Lone Star's corporate culture, and deal with racism by having some Latino blood and growing up in Texas, and then she kicked ass all the way through the CAS military police, etc, etc...all just makes it a little more badass, that she was also dealing with sexism the whole time, too (in those heavily macho organizations).

[CanRay]

It's Plan 9 that changes genders every now and then.

[jonathanc]

Thanks, Crit. I'm glad to hear it was a typo in the fiction, and not me going senile.


I've noticed occasional things like that in the fiction, but it makes sense considering the number of authors writing the characters. Riser, for example, seems like a bit of a softie in Anatomy of a Shadowrun (he feels bad for using a kid on his team, but admits that he needs her skills), but in Street Legends he goes to bat for Haze, saying that his behavior is par for the course and he shouldn't be criticized for it.

[Critias]

Yeah, just part of what happens when so many writers are sharing so few characters, spread across so many products.  It's tough to strike a balance between having a core group of characters that readers can recognize from book to book, and having so few of them that everything gets tangled up and we start to step on each others' feet.

I know I tend to over-use Thorn in my own Shadowtalk, but that's in large part because I feel safe using him (and also in part because I tend to write about things that are right up his alley). 

[jonathanc]

I wouldn't worry about it too much - Riser could be an old friend of Haze, and was letting his feelings cloud his view of the situation. Shadowtalker consistency is actually quite favorable compared to, say, your average Marvel/DC comics character (is Batman a barely-constrained lunatic, or a principled man trying to put his pain to good use? depends on the writer this month).

[Bruce]

I would agree that overall, most SR canon characters tend to remain 'in character' more than corporate owned-comic book characters, with a different writer every few months.

Riser wouldn't be the first person with inconsistent/incompatible views who didn't realize the discrepancy.  In Anatomy, he's dealing with what HE's doing; with Street Legends, he's standing by someone who's being attacked.  It might be interesting to confront him with that inconsistency...although I'd want to be either a VERY good friend or across a continent...

[jonathanc]

Apropos of nothing, part of me really wants to see Pistons give Haze what he has coming.

[Patrick Goodman]

You're not the only one. There are many interesting discussions that go on sometimes among the freelancers; this is one of them.

[Angelone]

I kinda find Pistons to be out of line in her whole crusade against Haze. She's almost Clockwork-like in her hatred for him. Let's go over what he did; Tempo (So what?), allegedly raped someone (Okay that's bad if he actually did it. He has no recollection and might have been set up.), and he was in the area when Fatima died (He didn't kill her he was just there at the time. What shadowrunners can't be on opposing sides?)

So Haze has done drugs, plenty of others on Jackpoint have as well but he got singled out for it, maybe raped someone, and was on the opposing side of another shadowrunner who died. Seriously what's the big deal? I get that Fatima was Pistons friend, but are you telling me that she hasn't lost anyone in all the time she's been around? Yeah it sucks and it hurts but damn move on. 

Edit- I'm not trying to marginalize rape it's a horrible thing and I've seen what it does to people. I was trying to point out that there is no hard evidence Haze did it. The only concrete thing he did was use Tempo which is for some reason "worse" than BTLs.

[jonathanc]

She gives a few extra reasons in Street Legends, most of which center around the seduction/alleged mind control of a dwarf who ended up killing herself. There's definitely a tinge of "mage paranoia" in her crusade against him, but in her defense, he's kind of a douche. Granted, he was a bit more of a chastened douche in Ghost Cartels than he was in Street Legends (where he was ultra-defensive), but I have no tears for Haze. He seems emblematic of every time I've had a jerk in my group who was playing a mage.