Alix (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
zodiacal_light) wrote2012-09-11 02:20 pm
zodiacal_light) wrote2012-09-11 02:20 pm
Entry tags:
Er.
The problem with writing genderswap is working out the details.
I'm working on the third fic in the Unsecret/Unsilenced 'verse, and, well...
This spoils something in Unsilenced and the sequel I'm hashing out.
Thayet, in this 'verse, is male, but has spent his life as a woman. He chooses to publicly reveal his gender to the whole Tortallan court at the end of Unsilenced, and marries female!Jon.
So far, so good. I know there are real-world ways to address the male consort of a sovereign queen, but.
Here's the problem. It's twofold, really: the first is rooted in canon, that Jon and Thayet are co-rulers, and given this 'verse's Jon's issues with titles and the power they imply, I can't see her letting her spouse be known by a title that implies Thayet is lesser.
The second part of the problem is that this Thayet flat refuses to be seen entirely as male, even though a) he publicly revealed himself and b) he's not actually what we would call transgendered. This is mostly to honor his mother, though I suspect this Thayet also has a wicked streak and likes tweaking noble noses.
So Thayet is very determinedly - and unsettlingly, to the Tortallans - androgynous by the time Daine gets down to Tortall. And Jon in particular refuses to allow her husband to be called by a title that implies he's of lesser power than she is.
But Jon is also herself styled King, very deliberately.
I suppose my big debate, really, is whether Thayet insists on being called Queen or not. My (admittedly cracky) instinct is to say yes, because he'd totally do that both to honor his mother and tweak noble noses, but I'm not sure any of the Tortallan nobles'd let him get away with it. A female king? They can kind of get behind that one. It doesn't really upset the ingrained hierarchy of Tortall. A male queen? Might be an issue.
...And all this is really a long way of saying I don't know what the Riders are called in this 'verse. Still the Queen's Riders? The King's Riders? Just the Riders?
If anybody has any ideas, I'd love to hear them.
I'm working on the third fic in the Unsecret/Unsilenced 'verse, and, well...
This spoils something in Unsilenced and the sequel I'm hashing out.
Thayet, in this 'verse, is male, but has spent his life as a woman. He chooses to publicly reveal his gender to the whole Tortallan court at the end of Unsilenced, and marries female!Jon.
So far, so good. I know there are real-world ways to address the male consort of a sovereign queen, but.
Here's the problem. It's twofold, really: the first is rooted in canon, that Jon and Thayet are co-rulers, and given this 'verse's Jon's issues with titles and the power they imply, I can't see her letting her spouse be known by a title that implies Thayet is lesser.
The second part of the problem is that this Thayet flat refuses to be seen entirely as male, even though a) he publicly revealed himself and b) he's not actually what we would call transgendered. This is mostly to honor his mother, though I suspect this Thayet also has a wicked streak and likes tweaking noble noses.
So Thayet is very determinedly - and unsettlingly, to the Tortallans - androgynous by the time Daine gets down to Tortall. And Jon in particular refuses to allow her husband to be called by a title that implies he's of lesser power than she is.
But Jon is also herself styled King, very deliberately.
I suppose my big debate, really, is whether Thayet insists on being called Queen or not. My (admittedly cracky) instinct is to say yes, because he'd totally do that both to honor his mother and tweak noble noses, but I'm not sure any of the Tortallan nobles'd let him get away with it. A female king? They can kind of get behind that one. It doesn't really upset the ingrained hierarchy of Tortall. A male queen? Might be an issue.
...And all this is really a long way of saying I don't know what the Riders are called in this 'verse. Still the Queen's Riders? The King's Riders? Just the Riders?
If anybody has any ideas, I'd love to hear them.