#but LDKFJDLKFJDLFK idk man Belial can do whatever he wants

[icharchivist]

i think that Lucio and Shalem and Beelzebub and all of the primals are all trans because their concept of gender just isn't the same as mortals (also while i'm not huge on the "babygirl" thing because it just makes me slightly uncomfortable the way i've seen some people use it (especially because i'm transmasc myself) Belial is one of the few characters where it never feels weird to me seeing it for him, like yeah that's correct. i think he'd call himself that if he knew about it he says shit like "come to daddy" he just. says shit.)

i only think Lucilius is cis because i don't like him and i'm petty (and it's funny to me to joke that he's cis because he's an imperfect clone of Lucio who is trans)

Yeah actually, that's fair.

tbh when it comes to gender personally i'm kinda like... agender i think? Like in general i feel like gender is the most neutral thing in the world, and anything i can see being described as a gendered experience always puzzles me a little because i don't see it - but i figure it's the same way i feel about sexuality and romance to start with, as an AroAce. Just because i don't specifically understand how people see it doesn't mean it's not there, but i'm definitely not a pro to talk about it at all and generally it's why i just roll with whatever canon gives me unless there's strong possible themes i can get out of it.

With that in mind therefore i just don't really think too hard about it -- but when it comes especially to non-humans, unless they have big reasons to care about it, i wouldn't expect them to have strong reasons to uphold the gender binary.

For primals, since they are made by people with purpose, i feel like they're probably in situations where they're assigned clear gender at creation, generally on the binary, that therefore probably means they might approach it the way humans do. Astrals meanwhile should have the exact same reasoning as mortals in the gbf verse in term of how they feel about gender. Gender is mostly a social construct after all and Astral and Skydweller's societies are mostly based around our own customs, for better and for worse.

Some group, like the Fairies, have shown to exist outside of those social norm (with Morgan being canonically nonbinary) so it's its own thing as it is.

But then we look at the Creations Gods -- The Dragons who are all canonically nonbinary, exist because they're concept to start with, so they don't exactly have a binary gender to start with.

By our IRL definition they're trans because we live in a world that values binary (regardless of how true it is) where their identity doesn't fit the social norms we're used to. But in GBF, it's like..... They're born genderless. They are their assigned gender at birth. They just eventually have fun and present with their gender differently due to Skydwellers' customs.

Meanwhile we have Lucio textually saying that the Gender Binary is fake and that it's actually more natural to change genders anytime, and that dictomies are fake to start with. By all account that confirms that Lucio is, in essence, nonbinary -- even if he presents as a guy most of the time with he/him pronoms. And Shalem therefore is in the same bag. They're trans because Skydwellers society can't take this starting point into account as a proper starting point into a gender discovery because it doesn't fit the binary they are accustomed with. But ultimately more than being Trans it's really just that The Speakers exist outside of the Binary to start with-- which by our definition is trans, but i wonder how much it applies in universe yaknow?

And it's where Lucilius and Beelzebub's possible trans readings are, imo, their own can of worm, and i think it's kinda why i dance around the topic when it comes out because are we establishing them as trans by their lived experiences as Astrals, or in comparaison to their relationship to their nonbinary originals? Do we take Bubs' gender presentation being different from Shalem's to be literally "from someone presenting as a woman to someone presenting as a man", or do we take into account Shalem's nonbinarity, or even Beelzebub's as well? Many people will have different reading on that. Some people may even take offense with implying that Bubs has to be trans because of the way he is different from his nonbinary original.

And personally this is just why i'm a bit out of my depth when it comes to trans HCs, not specifically because i don't really see them, but mostly because like -- why stop there? Especially in relation to characters who are not humans to start with. The Trans reading can go further because the logic of Gender in Granblue isn't even the one of our general IRL society. And personally i like the Gender Logic of Granblue a lot more.

(and it's not to say that it means our IRL binary is a good logic, idk how to word it properly. RL's genders are infinite, there are countless of lived experiences that i could never properly imagine, that comes with the infinite nature of human life. It's just that when it comes to compare Fantasy logic, it will also live in with some of its own rules that can be incompatible with reality, while also accounting on how the fantasy might be limited by the limited view of the writers depending on how they feel about gender to start with; Though Granblue at least seems to be at least a bit above the curve when it comes to this type of reflexion.)

But mostly as someone who, like i said, don't like.... also don't have a passionate connection to the topic, i feel like i'm overstepping if i start to discuss what angles can be explored on that level. I feel like I have too many blindspot and i value much more what others people might connect with on that regard.

So i stick more to academic level of "here's thematically how it can work if you need a bone to chew".

Ultimately my own approach is that i don't want to shut down any possible Trans reading (so sorry if i'm going to shake my head in disapproval at the Lucilius dig in the ask), because everyone will have their own reason to resonate with a character and find a detail that i personally could overlook that would make them think "this is my experience with gender, with life, with my identity", and to me those are always more valuable than whatever i can start to talk about when i ramble.

But yeah ultimately the tldr is basically i think all of the Creations Beings in Granblue are originally Nonbinary/Genderless/Agender of some type to start with, which alligns them with Trans readings in general to start with -- and then once we start to dig into Astrals, Skydwellers, Primals, there will be even more discussion about how this transness can translate on various levels.

i kinda ended up rambling, and ultimately the take away is don't take my own take on gender too seriously because i don't think i have the most interesting overview on all of this. But at least if people are going to come in my ask box to ask about it i hope i can throw some bones to chew on this topic!