Board Thread:The Panopticon/@comment-1451563-20180913002703/@comment-5918438-20190112201225

Just to be clear on how the previous thread ended, it was established that we should generally try to use whatever pronouns are given in the narrative, but if a character like Alpha Centauri is "he" in one story, "it" in another, and still yet "she" in a third story, based on arbitrary decisions on part of the characters, we go with singular they, especially when speaking generally. Or indeed if no clear pronouns are given for a character, and it is left ambiguous.

And the reason they/them is the default is simply: that's how English works, or certainly how it has developed. But even real world English aside, especially in a fictional universe with all sorts of different genders, particular species established as having no gender or no fixed gender, etc. And characters like Orr specifically using singular they as a personal pronoun establishes that they/them is absolutely the established singular gender-neutral pronoun in the DWU, so you can’t base an argument on it being somehow "incorrect", because even the Doctor Who universe does not agree.