Collected rants on Zexion

[kazaera]

Fandom? A small remark about Zexion -

To be honest, it is making me twitch to see him referred to as "boy" in fic.

Okay, yes, physically the matter is arguable. His appearance in pictures varies so much that his physical age could really be anywhere between fifteen and late twenties, and a lot of people go for the fifteen end of the scale. (I

Comments

[nilmiel_chan]

I'd just like to say that I agree very hard. The whole "boy" thing has been bugging me for quite a long time. {I actually just went of at someone I rped with about it."

I love your rants, by the way. They always make me happy.

[kazaera]

Yay, I'm not the only one who is developing a tic about it. Although considering how often it's used in constructs like "the slender blushing blunette boy" *gags*, probably no wonder.

Although I hope your RP partner listened to you and wasn't too insulted. *g*

I love your rants, by the way. They always make me happy.

*BLUSHES* Thank you~ glad to know the product of my pain is appreciated! XD All the practice is paying off.

[nilmiel_chan]

Uh... sort of. He relapsed, and I need to yell at him again.

It's always appreciated. heck, any activity in this community is a god-send. 8D

[cygna_hime]

You know how much I agree! Poor Zexion. He deserves better than to be "the boy" or "the younger man/Nobody/swordfish" all the time.

[kazaera]

...swordfish.

Yeah. It's especially annoying because of the pov issue - if it's random bystander thinking of him as a boy, I can buy it, if it's DiZ or Ansem I'd probably write it myself but Saix? Xigbar? Lexaeus??

[cygna_hime]

I can see Saïx referring to Zexion as a boy once, dismissively, when he first arrives, because he sized Zexion up very wrongly indeed at first. And then getting his ass kicked.

[kazaera]

That? Definitely.

I'm starting to be deeply intrigued by how Saix and Zexion interact now. Curse you, lack of canon!!!

[anthraxpretzels]

To be fair, canonly Zexion fares somewhat poorer when his illusions get dismantled as a result of battle or otherwise. While he doesn't resort to uke-dom, it's definately possible for him to be defeated when poked too hard

[kazaera]

Oh, I'm not saying he's invincible. I've just seen far too many fics where he crumples at... not even the first set-back, but the first time the other person acts at all, pretty much.

Plus, a lot of the time this isn't physical combat but something distinctly more psychological, like verbal sparring or manipulation - in which our dear Mr. Mindfuck should be able to give a good showing at the very least, instead of being completely overrolled.

[kokanshu]

A lot of people use 'boy' as a referral to gender/sex, not knowing or ignoring the connotations of age.

[kazaera]

All right, if the fic also refers to Xemnas, Saix, Lexaeus or Xaldin as 'boy' I shall let it pass. *g*

(Personally, I don't think I've ever come across a completely age-neutral usage for boy before. I'm willing to believe it exists even if it's not part of my personal vocabulary, but most of the time I see it the term is very emphatically /not/ being used in an age-neutral way.)

[kokanshu]

Use of 'boy' as age neutral tends to be... a matter of age. Mostly while people are younger, they see the world divided into boys and girls. It's only as we grow older that we start to add other options to the mix, including the age differentials of women and men as 'adult forms'.

Seeing as the majority of KH writers are quite young, I usually let it go, especially when they're referring to a character who could be viewed as a teenager - which is usually the point where it gets confusing on whether you should refer to them as a boy or a man.

Sorry if this is phrased at all harshly, I'm a little tired atm.

[cygna_hime]

My mileage almost certainly varies, what with English being such a multi-dialect language, but I never recall thinking of an adult male as a "boy". From the age of about fourteen on forward, I thought of my male contemporaries as "guys". That's what I would expect to see from a writer about that age--if she were speaking of someone who could by any stretch of the imagination be considered a contemporary. I.e., not a scientific genius with his fourth PhD in Mindfuck, who is too old to be a teenager if the Nobody years count, and still too old to be a contemporary of a fourteen-year-old if they don't.

I just consulted a twelve-year-old for her opinion. She says she would think of Zexion as a "guy", because "he's more intelligent...and more sane...and acts more maturely" than a "boy". Admittedly, she's an unusually articulate and intelligent twelve-year-old. But still, Zexion? Not a boy.

[rhaella]

You're angrier about this than I realized. XD

RE: The boy issue. By and large, I agree. Especially with the newer members of the Organization. However, with the original members, there's still the issue of residual from their previous lives, and coming from the "anyone considerably younger than me = kid" school of thought, I imagine that Ienzo could easily have been viewed in such a manner. Not condescendingly, but just as a fact. Zexion... they'd have to be completely crazy and suicidal to write him off for it, but it would probably be a hard habit to break entirely.

I put him at about 18 or 19, btw; any younger and Ansem does not at all get away with letting him play "study the darkness."