>>58291369The female, partly as the Fenghuang which it's based off is seen as female, partly because they changed the gender of the movie star that became the box legend for Silver, despite the writer of said star imagining it as his R63 avatar, specifically because Ho-Oh already existed and Game Freak had already decided it was going to be a girl (lots of soft curves and flowing lines in its art, historical feminine design notes). That Teraleak and the games support this too just honestly provides a lovely acid test on the fandom - those who pay attention to what choices Game Freak make and those that ignore reality to write whjatever panders to their biases best.
