#this is the only trans headcanon i've ever wholeheartedly held and it's a doozy i see why the kids today have so many

[rescue-ram]

I love your brad is trans hc! How do you think that would play out on the show and breaking Brad specifically?

OK THIS GIVES ME FEELS

I had... too many headcanons... and some of them got kind of personal

I don't think Zack knows Brad is trans. They grew up together, so he knows what she was like when she was young, but I don't think she overtly experimented with sexuality or gender until she was in college. So Zack knows Brad was never "like the other boys", that she was gender nonconforming when she was little before her dad beat it out of her, and probably thinks she's gay, but doesn't know she's trans

I imagine Brad had a moment in her mid-twenties, when she's starting to build her career, where she really seriously considered coming out and transitioning, but took a long, hard, self-loathing look in the mirror and decided she would never "pass", and imagined having everyone know something incredibly personal and painful with one look, having to explain and answer questions about it forever, and decided fuck that. No vulnerabilities. She's in an iron clad closet.

I don't think she thinks of herself as Brad, but I don't imagine she really has a "name"- maybe one she used in college, but not one that stuck. Brad is her legal name, someone she pretends to be at work. Brad is successful. Brad doesn't need friends. People can say anything they want about him- he can be a sociopath, or an asshole. Brad is a power play.

But then Zack shows up, and all of a sudden she's once again Brad the scared little boy, Brad the pussy, Brad the weak pathetic failure

Given how quick Zack was to put Brad's eating disorder on blast in mock concern, to solidify his image as a caring brother, I imagine he was sharing a lot of embarrassing stories about Brad when she was little- a lot of them centering on her gender nonconformity or early expression, in order to make her seem unmanly, stupid, and ridiculous

I don't think anyone on the team would overtly bully Brad, or use what Zack said against her- that's very much not the vibe of the show- but they know things, personal things, and Brad knows they know

I don't even KNOW where we go from this point, the thought of the next two episodes fills me with anxiety and preemptive pain

HAPPIER HEADCANONS

Dana and Brad is such an underrated dynamic, and I imagine she's been getting ~vibes~ from her since their streaming days, but didn't know what to make of them. Whatever rumors she heard from Zack confirmed Brad is "gay" to her. She's got too much shit on her plate to seek her out, but if she was alone with Brad in an elevator or an office, she would probably try a "muhluhmuh wuhluhwuh solidarity" joke that Brad would immediately shut down by saying she's straight (it's funny because she is)

(Rachel would be very conflicted and tell Dana afterwords that Brad was an assimilationist- if Brad ever heard this she would think it was funny in an darkly ironic way)

Jo, as we know, turns on Brad. This is mostly to cover up her own conflicted feelings. Brad still sees a lot of herself in Jo, and Jo is uncomfortable with how she no longer looks up to Brad- she identifies with her.

The concept of Brad becoming a V-Tuber who plays Street Fighter with the use of an anime girl avatar and a voice modulator is very wholesome to me.

I'm obsessed with the little curls at the back of her hair and her earlocks, and I love her style. I think her casual fashion is very similar to her office style, but she wears subtly more feminine tops and pajamas. She's very frustrated by how her height makes it hard to find clothes that fit

Her gender is a very interior thing- the way she thinks about herself, and the way she thinks of herself in relation to other people- and sometimes when she's reminded others perceive her as a man she gets a kick out of it, like she's gotten one over on them- and other times it's like a kick in the head

When she comes out, it's abrupt- "Yeah, obviously I'm a woman, keep up"- and not a lot changes outwardly. Everyone is supportive in the clumsy confused way- but Brad is surprised by how much better it feels to be understood