Fire Emblem 6 - Woman King (Notes)
Title: Woman King
Fandom: Fire Emblem 6
Genre: Angst
Rating, Warnings: PG for a hint of violence and some disturbing content. What part of it is disturbing to you may vary.
Word Count: ~500
Summary: Zephiel tries to make it right. Not AU.
In lieu of a third posting of this (since I feel weird reposting a 500-word piece in three places), I'm going to link to two sources for this fic and save this post for my incredibly long authorial notes on it. Because they're really long, but I really can't justify two posts regarding a 500-word piece to myself.
Also, leave my title alone. It's the best imaginable title for this piece. I tried to fit a bunch of other things on it and it was just meh. It's Woman King okay. Deal with it.
FFN : @ fe_contest
Usually I think a work should stand for itself. Usually I restrict my babbling to remarks about how it's been my headcanon forever that Soren likes peanut brittle, and not topics of central importance to the story. Usually I am not writing something bizarrely subversive.
(My writing coach from way back in middle school told us the judges loved creative use of prompt. She also told us not to upset them. I was always terrible at that part.)
My trust in my readership doesn't quite make it to expecting judge-writers glossing over 500-word stories to reread them until their confusion clears. And, despite it being the internet, I don't have absolute faith that the topic in question will come to mind. I have made it reasonably clear, I think, but I could understand how someone less familiar with the topic would still be lost. I would rather the realization come by itself rather than handed on a platter, but I'd rather state it than have it be missed. Ergo, this. In explanation.
Zephiel is a closet transwoman.
- "What the hell?"
I'm going to admit that this idea came to me in this order: 1) I'm not coming up with any good ideas for a feminist piece. 2) Holy shit what if I made it about transgender issues instead?! "Woman King" indeed! 3) It's getting very hard to find a character this could mesh with. 4) I think it can work for Zephiel.
That said, I do not wish to justify the following stance:
- "But it goes against canon. There's nothing that suggests that Zephiel is a woman inside."
I admit that there is little "evidence" for this interpretation outside of Zephiel visibly bearing quite some psychological burden. There are other perfectly likely sources, of course. In this sense, this piece does not quite obey that inseparability from canon thing you may have been hearing me rant about concerning fanfiction. Yes, that does disappoint me a little. However, it is because it is fanfiction that it invokes the response, "But it goes against canon."
And I think that's an interesting feeling to challenge.
In original fanfiction addressing transsexuality, the reader is hardly ever surprised in quite the same way. The reader will be given signs, foreshadowing, or even just handed that fact as the focal point of the book. In fact, it may be considered a sign of inelegance if such a revelation is too abrupt. Real life presents us with information in full noise form, unfortunately, and hardly ever do we pick out exactly the right things to heed.
In fanfiction, we have preconceived notions about these characters not unlike those we have concerning people we know in daily life. Zephiel, king of Bern, antagonist who we explore only secondhand, is unknown to us. Therefore we as people will gladly take the liberty of assuming that he does not have complex inner turmoil aside from that explored in the game, because surely the writers would have mentioned it. Concerning normal speculation, I would agree with this principle. Concerning impact, however, it is exactly that feeling of "Where did that come from?" that so often invokes nasty responses to those who come out "suddenly" in real life. Are you sure? There were no signs! You liked boy things well enough as a child. I never caught you with my dresses.
Because of what we carry away from canon, this piece's status as fanfiction makes it more effective than it could be otherwise.
So, no. It doesn't explicitly go against canon. It's not AU. Not unless you want to make cisnormativity into law. I will freely admit that it is unlikely, and not more than that.
- "But they do put on dresses."
Not always. It manifests differently, depending on the person. I think it's especially important to note that for a society as rigidly gendered as Bern likely is, it is not necessarily desirable for someone uncomfortable with their gender to hop right over to the next rigid dichotomy. I cannot imagine Zephiel wanting to put on a corset. A dress? Perhaps. But putting on dresses and playing with Barbies have become so cliche that they're a greater part of the transgender myth than the actual experience. At the cost of possibly losing some readers along the way, I wanted to avoid the shorthand (although it was tempting for a 500-word piece) and go for the real stuff.
It's like trying to write a convincing piece about real pirates facing real hardships. The moment "Ahoy, maties!" slips out of your pirate's mouth, you've instantly lost whatever genuineness you were going for.
- "Why the use of female pronouns?"
Long story short, because Zephiel is a woman in spirit and that's what counts, especially with narration sympathetic to her perspective. (You can find a thousand articles on the internet regarding pronoun usage and transpeople.)
This was in fact a deliberate choice in an attempt to reinforce the suggestion I'm now spending over five hundred words making explicit, because in avoiding dresses it's quite difficult to think of a strong way to suggest that Zephiel is transgender and not just, I don't know, depressed? Especially when reader denial is probably not on my side.
- "It's not the goal of fanfiction to be politically subversive."
I can agree with that. I would not have written this if I were not given a prompt to twist. I wrote this with a play on the prompt in mind first, and the social implications second. You could say that my primary goal was to be creative about fitting the prompt. And to do so in a nontrivial way, that demanded the further exploration of transgender issues.
- "You should have tagged this with a warning on fe_contest."
The rules did not dictate for this subject to give warning. Besides, that would ruin the effect. Aside from the surprise factor, I really wanted the piece to carry the feeling itself -- without resorting to a handy label.
- "So... how many words is this?"
Erm. About 800. I'll shut up now.
Fandom: Fire Emblem 6
Genre: Angst
Rating, Warnings: PG for a hint of violence and some disturbing content. What part of it is disturbing to you may vary.
Word Count: ~500
Summary: Zephiel tries to make it right. Not AU.
In lieu of a third posting of this (since I feel weird reposting a 500-word piece in three places), I'm going to link to two sources for this fic and save this post for my incredibly long authorial notes on it. Because they're really long, but I really can't justify two posts regarding a 500-word piece to myself.
Also, leave my title alone. It's the best imaginable title for this piece. I tried to fit a bunch of other things on it and it was just meh. It's Woman King okay. Deal with it.
FFN : @ fe_contest
Usually I think a work should stand for itself. Usually I restrict my babbling to remarks about how it's been my headcanon forever that Soren likes peanut brittle, and not topics of central importance to the story. Usually I am not writing something bizarrely subversive.
(My writing coach from way back in middle school told us the judges loved creative use of prompt. She also told us not to upset them. I was always terrible at that part.)
My trust in my readership doesn't quite make it to expecting judge-writers glossing over 500-word stories to reread them until their confusion clears. And, despite it being the internet, I don't have absolute faith that the topic in question will come to mind. I have made it reasonably clear, I think, but I could understand how someone less familiar with the topic would still be lost. I would rather the realization come by itself rather than handed on a platter, but I'd rather state it than have it be missed. Ergo, this. In explanation.
Zephiel is a closet transwoman.
- "What the hell?"
I'm going to admit that this idea came to me in this order: 1) I'm not coming up with any good ideas for a feminist piece. 2) Holy shit what if I made it about transgender issues instead?! "Woman King" indeed! 3) It's getting very hard to find a character this could mesh with. 4) I think it can work for Zephiel.
That said, I do not wish to justify the following stance:
- "But it goes against canon. There's nothing that suggests that Zephiel is a woman inside."
I admit that there is little "evidence" for this interpretation outside of Zephiel visibly bearing quite some psychological burden. There are other perfectly likely sources, of course. In this sense, this piece does not quite obey that inseparability from canon thing you may have been hearing me rant about concerning fanfiction. Yes, that does disappoint me a little. However, it is because it is fanfiction that it invokes the response, "But it goes against canon."
And I think that's an interesting feeling to challenge.
In original fanfiction addressing transsexuality, the reader is hardly ever surprised in quite the same way. The reader will be given signs, foreshadowing, or even just handed that fact as the focal point of the book. In fact, it may be considered a sign of inelegance if such a revelation is too abrupt. Real life presents us with information in full noise form, unfortunately, and hardly ever do we pick out exactly the right things to heed.
In fanfiction, we have preconceived notions about these characters not unlike those we have concerning people we know in daily life. Zephiel, king of Bern, antagonist who we explore only secondhand, is unknown to us. Therefore we as people will gladly take the liberty of assuming that he does not have complex inner turmoil aside from that explored in the game, because surely the writers would have mentioned it. Concerning normal speculation, I would agree with this principle. Concerning impact, however, it is exactly that feeling of "Where did that come from?" that so often invokes nasty responses to those who come out "suddenly" in real life. Are you sure? There were no signs! You liked boy things well enough as a child. I never caught you with my dresses.
Because of what we carry away from canon, this piece's status as fanfiction makes it more effective than it could be otherwise.
So, no. It doesn't explicitly go against canon. It's not AU. Not unless you want to make cisnormativity into law. I will freely admit that it is unlikely, and not more than that.
- "But they do put on dresses."
Not always. It manifests differently, depending on the person. I think it's especially important to note that for a society as rigidly gendered as Bern likely is, it is not necessarily desirable for someone uncomfortable with their gender to hop right over to the next rigid dichotomy. I cannot imagine Zephiel wanting to put on a corset. A dress? Perhaps. But putting on dresses and playing with Barbies have become so cliche that they're a greater part of the transgender myth than the actual experience. At the cost of possibly losing some readers along the way, I wanted to avoid the shorthand (although it was tempting for a 500-word piece) and go for the real stuff.
It's like trying to write a convincing piece about real pirates facing real hardships. The moment "Ahoy, maties!" slips out of your pirate's mouth, you've instantly lost whatever genuineness you were going for.
- "Why the use of female pronouns?"
Long story short, because Zephiel is a woman in spirit and that's what counts, especially with narration sympathetic to her perspective. (You can find a thousand articles on the internet regarding pronoun usage and transpeople.)
This was in fact a deliberate choice in an attempt to reinforce the suggestion I'm now spending over five hundred words making explicit, because in avoiding dresses it's quite difficult to think of a strong way to suggest that Zephiel is transgender and not just, I don't know, depressed? Especially when reader denial is probably not on my side.
- "It's not the goal of fanfiction to be politically subversive."
I can agree with that. I would not have written this if I were not given a prompt to twist. I wrote this with a play on the prompt in mind first, and the social implications second. You could say that my primary goal was to be creative about fitting the prompt. And to do so in a nontrivial way, that demanded the further exploration of transgender issues.
- "You should have tagged this with a warning on fe_contest."
The rules did not dictate for this subject to give warning. Besides, that would ruin the effect. Aside from the surprise factor, I really wanted the piece to carry the feeling itself -- without resorting to a handy label.
- "So... how many words is this?"
Erm. About 800. I'll shut up now.