#i always think about how in any other narrative fakir would learn to be brave and learn to be a fighter and succeed in protecting the prince

[lesbianfakir]

One thing I enjoy about The Narrative in Princess Tutu is how implicitly tied to gender Drosselmeyer’s story roles are. Take Princess Tutu and the Knight. They ostensibly have the same fate: dying for the Prince while achieving absolutely nothing. But while Princess Tutu gracefully turns into a speck of light after confessing her love, the Knight is gruesomely torn apart. Over and over again in Drosselmeyer’s narrative, femininity is associated with romance while masculinity is associated with violence.

The Princesses are given one goal: earn the heart of the Prince at any cost. Meanwhile the Prince and the Knight are both expected to be fighters. The Knight will fall against the Raven and the Prince will be left to battle for the rest of his days. And while the Prince is strongly tied to love—he loves everyone—he isn’t expected to compete the way the Princesses are pitted against each other. The men are protectors against the Raven while the women are left to fight over them.

We see the strain these toxic gender roles have on the characters. Without the influence of the story, Fakir most likely would have grown up to be a writer. Instead, the combination of trauma and growing up under the expectations encapsulated by the role of the Knight hardened him. In this way, violence was something that was imposed on him, something he learned to embrace. Likewise, Duck doesn’t want to compete for Mytho or make him hers. She’s more preoccupied with protecting her friends than finding romance.

That’s why it’s so cathartic to see these characters defy their fates. Duck is perfectly contented without her Prince, Fakir puts down his sword in favor of a peaceful life that he’s much more suited to, and even Mytho rejects the idea that he must love everyone equally to pursue romantic love. In this way, defying fate is also defying gender.