#as someone who has now done both: trades is objectively superior to university

[aestherians]

I wish my teachers/fellow students could see I'm a bison/gnoll/Ben10, cause the idea of any of those driving a tractor is objectively hilarious

[kyberled]

Is Braig more comfortable in the company of women or men? His peers, his subordinates or his superiors?

Character building questions! || ALWAYS Accepting

I’m gonna preface this by saying that I don’t really see the Star Wars universe operating on the binary gender system. This isn’t just ‘cause I’m hoping for an agender character (I am, but that’s neither here nor there), but because gender’s weird enough on earth like. I think I read somewhere that honey bees have three genders, clown fish change sexes based on necessity, there’s an entire species of lizard with only one gender, and don’t even get me started on how weird angler fish are), and this is if you only take reproductive capabilities into account, and not identities, and this is just one planet. And I’m expected to believe that, with all the countless species and races, only have male/female. AND I SWEAR THIS ISN’T ME BEING ANNOYED OR UPSET AT YOU!! Just sowing my fields with salt for Disney and Lucasfilm tbh

Anyway, on to the meat of the answer!

I’m not going to pretend sexism isn’t a thing in the Star Wars universe, because it absolutely is. From the female Twi’Lek slave trade, the Republic propaganda posters of feminine droids in the boobs-and-butt pose of comics, the little Twi’Lek civvie who told Aayla she couldn’t be a Jedi because she was a girl (to which she replied that, not only was she a Jedi, but she was also the kid’s cousin and was there to save his life), Oked hitting on Ventress and getting mad when she tries to get him to leave her alone (to which she replied by stabbing him. Literally both of them are icons), the fact that in the same episode someone hires the bounty hunters to (unwittingly) transport a kidnapped girl to become some creepy old guy’s wife, the whole thing with Death Watch literally stole a village’s entire population of women just so they’d have people to cook for them, like. This is an actual problem in the universe, but, at the same time, it doesn’t seem to be as much of a thing in the Jedi, and it makes sense. I mean, can you imagine another Jedi telling Adi or Shaak or Aayla or Luminara (Or Yaddle, rip) that they shouldn’t be on the council because women are too emotional, or that they shouldn’t be Jedi, and should be in the kitchen, instead? If Ahsoka heard that? Man, you wouldn’t even need a medical team. Just a bucket and a squeegee, maybe a damp paper towel. Don’t get me wrong, Jedi are absolute jerks to each other, and I’m pretty sure it stems from pitting them against each other at a young age to see who deserves a master and who’s low-key dubbed a failure at the one thing they were raised for, but, even then, it’s more jabs at someone’s lack of skill - again, probably to make them seem less appealing to any potential mentors. Like when the two padawans mock padawan-Anakin for his lack of self-control, or when Bruck Chun nicknamed Obi-Wan ‘Oafy-Wan’ to highlight his clumsiness. Don’t really see gender being brought up, though. Clothing’s gender-neutral, clans were mixed-gender - and, by extension, lessons would be, as well - big events like gatherings were mixed-gender, padawans and masters could be any combination of genders, and, even disregarding the Councils, there are women in pretty lofty positions, like Jocasta being in charge of what’s arguably the biggest store of information in the galaxy. Now, I’m not saying that there’s Absolutely No Sexism In The Order It’s An Objective Fact, just that I haven’t seen any evidence of it. I’ll also be the first to say that my knowledge of Star Wars is kinda limited. But, yes, all that to say that I don’t see gender really being a deciding factor in whether or not he’s comfortable with a person. To add to this, he’s met plenty of people who he’d perceive as being a threat, or capable of being a threat, if they so chose, regardless of gender - and, if you mean in terms of who he’s attracted to, he’s a lovely mixture of pan/demiro and pan/grey-ace. Basically, everyone has the potential to be attractive to him, so that doesn’t help, either. So, again, gender isn’t a factor in determining how comfortable he is around another person.

As for the second part of your question, I find the line between peers and subordinates and superiors tends to blur with him, since he makes friends in all walks of life - from homeless bounty hunters to clone marshals to Jedi Masters on the High Council to I don’t even know who, at this point - it’s gotten delightfully out of control, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. But, for the sake of this question, I’m going to equate ‘peers’ with equals - since this is being written for MainVerse Braig, it’ll be other Padawans. Now, this largely depends on who it is - after all, Obi-Wan is Brag’s superior, and yet Braig’s more comfortable with him than anyone else. And the clones are technically his subordinates, but you’ve seen how he is with Wolffe and Cody. Even though he technically outranks them as a Jedi, he’s never even thought of pulling rank on them, and they’re more likely to call him ‘Bra’ika’ (’little Braig’, a Mando’a term of endearment) than ‘sir’. As a whole, though, he tends to be more comfortable with subordinates. Sure, he has his friends across the board, but, as a general rule. His subordinates include younger padawans, Initiates, younglings, clones, and probably Temple staff. Among younger Jedi, I imagine Braig’s got a fair bit of clout. Not necessarily because of anything he’s done, personally, but simply because he’s Obi-Wan’s padawan. Canon basically establishes Obi as the Order’s equivalent of a celebrity; All the kids both want him as their mentor and want to be him when they grow up, and even older Jedi use him as an example of a ‘perfect Jedi’. Braig, being his padawan, is sort of a gateway to all things Obi - whenever it’s his turn to be on nursery duty for chores, he’s probably surrounded by littles wanting to hear stories of Space Dad. Add to that the fact that he’s older, more experienced, and higher up in the Order’s hierarchy, he feels more secure around them, and less like he has something to prove - sure, he wants to show he’s a good commander for the troops, but it’s not the end of the world if he’s not the best commander in the Order. When it comes to peers, that is, other padawans around his age (usually only with those he’s not close to, as he doesn’t really have this problem with his friends), he still feels like he has to be better than them - residual behaviour from when they were competing for masters. This is at its worst when he’s thirteen, having come fresh out of Initiate-hood, but dissipates, the older he gets. By the time he’s late fifteen-early sixteen, it’s basically gone completely. He still has moments, especially when he’s actively challenged or otherwise confronted, when he can get a bit bristly in regards to his position in the Order, but, for the most part, he’s grown out of it. As for why he’d be uncomfortable around his superiors - to put it simply, they quite literally control every aspect of his life. They control what training is available to him and when, whether or not he’d be allowed to stay with his mentor and by extension what room he lives in, what activities are available during his leisure time and how much of that time he has, whether or not he stays a padawan, and, if he doesn’t, whether he’d be sent to be a farmer, doctor, or teacher, or whether or not he’s allowed to stay in the Order, and, if not, if he’s to be left on his ow, or sent off to live with a family he never really met. While he doesn’t completely realise how much power they have over him - at least, not consciously - he is aware that they’re In Charge, capitals for emphasis, and he’s been raised to view them as Better Than Him in some way, so, having to remember and act on the proper protocols at all times, while not a problem for him, having grown up with them, it does make reactions feel a bit less personal. As I said, there are exceptions, based on how close he is on a personal level to any particular master, and how strictly said master observes protocol. So, again, he’s most comfortable around Obi-Wan, and to lesser degree some of the other masters. Quinlan Vos is an interesting fusion of someone Braig’s comfortable with, and someone who doesn’t seem too hung up on protocol. Can you imagine bowing and scraping and adding ‘master’ to the end of every sentence with Vos? He’d probably think Braig bashed his head too hard while sparring. 

So, tl;dr, gender doesn’t really matter, and, though there are exceptions, he generally feels most comfortable around those considered his ‘subordinates’.