Thoughts and challenges in writing

[bjornwilde]

This is mostly me thinking out loud and trying to get a few things down for potentially playing Izana. Spoilers for Knights of Sidonia are likely, so I'm including a cut. As well, my rambling will focus on the culture presented in the anime (i.e. a fictional Japanese culture) and speculations on writing a transgendered gender neutral character. If I screw up and offend in this, I apologize now. (Sorry, gender neutral is a better term for the character than transgender).

OK, first up the culture.

Do I present her name as Izana Shinatose, as in the English dub, or Shinatose Izana as in the original anime and manga? Going with the more traditional form of putting the family name first has potential to cause confusion in characters not used to Japanese culture, which could be amusing to play with. Izana strikes me as being polite enough not to correct people mistakingly calling them Shinatose. I base this on one character in the anime insisting on calling them Mr. Izana; though the person in question was trying to get the affections of the male lead and saw Izana as a threat, thus using Mr. in order to reduce the threat.

The next thing to consider is how much of Japanese culture do I emulate? The anime is set 2,000 year from now, in a space ship that hasn't been on Earth, or other culture, for a 1,000 years. Cultural shift is bound to have happened, so I think I will pick a few things (such as honorifics or body language) and follow how the characters in the anime act otherwise. For instance, there is not a lot of bowing, even to superior officers.

The anime also doesn't show any hint of religion. Not once does a character mention god or gods, not even as curses when scared or fighting. There is one scene where Izana and Nagate (the male lead) are shown paying respects in something that looks an awful lot like a temple, but there are no idols or a shine in evidence, and there are funeral traditions. This is leading me to think the culture honors their dead/ancestors but doesn't believe in god(s).

Next up, writing someone transgender gender neutral or a third gender.

This is proving more challenging than I thought. I have to keep rereading and rewriting things, as "she" keeps slipping in. I blame the fact Izana develops breasts after falling in love with Nagate in the later manga books. They and them just seem awkward to me, as I tend to think of the pronouns as plural. I know this is not the case and it is just me fighting the habit. I do wish English has gender neutral terms.

I am nervous about the future of writing romance for Izana. It's nothing I have planned, but something I feel I owe the character to consider. I think I am just going to keep my ear open for Izana and if they tell me they are attracted to another character, then will I be sure to see if Izana feels a homosexual attration for them or a hetero attraction, and adjust things accordingly. It's the only way I can think of honestly working with the potential she has to emulate male or female sexual characteristics and not make her heteronormative, as the anime and manga do. I mean, why have a third gender if you are just going to make them female?

Comments

[genarti]

Question/food for thought, because I honestly don't know canon at all. How does Izana see themselves? As transgender, as a different gender (or agender or something else) they're carving out space and terms for themselves, as a third gender that's as broadly accepted in their society as male and female, as something else?

I mean, for RP purposes, that's part of the question (and the answer) right there, I think: how does the character see themselves? To me, that matters first. How they expect others to see and react to them matters second. How the wider society and other characters actually do react and see them matters in terms of plot, but otherwise it really only matters what the character's POV of it is.

I have to say that the question of "does Izana feel gay for them or hetero for them?" really throws me. I mean, I'd assume that Izana feels like Izana, and also is attracted to the person...? It's possible that they would start to feel or to present more often or more strongly as masculine or feminine in response to the person or context they were spending time with, sure. But that wouldn't actually make it a male/male or female/female or male/female relationship unless Izana actually started identifying as male or female. Their orientation would remain whatever it is (I assume bisexual or pansexual based on this, but I could be wrong), and so would their gender, you know?

You may be using canon terms, in which case it may be fair to assume those are the terms Izana might think in too, but all the same I wanted to point out that it jolts me coming from the narrative.

[bjornwilde]

These are great questions! And thank you for them. = ]

In canon, all that is stated is that Izana is a third gender and that they can mate with male or female, once Izana choses. To quote her, "You're probably wondering which one I am, huh? Male or female. I'm neither. You probably don't know, having lived underground, but there's a third gender now. We can successfully procreate with both men and women. Our body adapts when we choose our partner."

I've seen no evidence of any prejudice in Izana's society for this third gender. In fact the only hostility Izana gets is from a woman who is attracted to the main male character, who's Izana's best friend) and who mistakes Izana's closeness for competition. This proves founded later in canon, but at the time the main male and Izana are just friends.

I'll be honest, my poorly worded question of Izna "feeling gay or hetero" has more to do with my wanting to give Izana more agency over their sex and choices. In the canon Izana becomes more female (developing breasts, etc.) because they develop feelings for a male. I was hoping to not be so binary in play, i.e. Izana can only become more like the opposite sex of the other person, but to allow Izana to have what could be considered homosexual attractions as well. Given Izana's gender neutrality however, that makes terms challenging to say the least.

Your questions bring very good things to consider. Again thank you.

ETA: The more I think about this, the more I think it would be best to not define it now and just see if it happens. When/if it does, to then let the character voice how they adapt to the relationship, as well as communicating with the other mun.

[bjornwilde]

[Replying to my comment in case you were not interested in a dialogue.]

It occurs to me that I may be falling into the cis male trap of "must ID the gender" and even mixing gender and sex, despite trying not to. Grrrr at self.

I think I'm going to rewatch with an eye out for how Izana expresses themself. I know they wear a uniform that is much like the women's, at another time they wear a one piece swim suit that covers their chest and another time they wear a short kimono, which I thought was for boys but my Google search if being confused by modern and Western uses. I think.

[genarti]

I was and am interested in a dialogue! Just also, uh, busy and distractable.

This is really interesting! It sounds like some of the potential issue comes from canon having that "our body adapts" thing, which is both very cool and sort of a pitfall for people to go "oh, okay, you turn female then, right?" (possibly including the writers, depending on how it's handled.)

I think under the circumstances, yeah, I personally would leave questions of future romance until they started looking like something that might happen and see what had developed organically then. It's worth the thought experiment, IMO, to figure out where your boundaries are of what you don't want to play and to catch yourself on assumptions like this, but a lot of it's going to depend on the character dynamics as they unfold. I've never had much success with planning things out way ahead, other than in a "if I ever get the chance to do something with [thing] that'd be cool."

The other thing I think from what you've described of canon is that it may be a good idea to try to keep Izana's gender very separate from their body's sex characteristics. Like, Izana is a third-gender they whatever their genitals are doing for reproductive purposes or even recreational sexual purposes, right? It doesn't sound like their self-image changes. So the difference between self-image and the perceptions of people coming from different social contexts may be really interesting to play around with, but I as a mun would want to come down narratively on the side of their self-image. If that makes sense.

As for the fashion, ha, yeah, I'm not sure either what some of those nuances signal to the Japanese viewer! And in the fictional far future, uh, who knows.

[bjornwilde]

Yay! I didn't want to assume and was already insecure seeing as I have no experience with non-binary gendered folks; aside from what I've read on Tumblr.

I think these challenges are part of what appeals to be about this character. That and piloting mechas and fighting space kaiju. ; p

I definitely do plan on maintaining gender neutral pronouns, even if I go canon's route of them developing obvious breasts. I'm also tempted to have it that any shift in sexual characteristics is not permanent and they can shift about, given the proper attraction and time. I'm thinking any shifts are a slow burn, taking weeks. I might have a thing for shape shifters.

[genarti]

Piloting mechas and fighting space kaiju are ABSOLUTELY excellent things in a canon. :D

That makes sense to me! As someone who doesn't know canon, etc. But it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense that a shift would be genuinely permanent once done -- what happens if they fall in love with somebody else later? -- whether Izana's body changes often or only very rarely.