LGBTQ+ Transformers fan thread

The Doctor Who

Now With Sheffield Steel!
Citizen
I've been thinking about my identity as a transwoman, doing that thing that I've heard a lot of trans people talk about where they look back at their lives and go "Oh, no actually, in retrospect it makes perfect sense".

It's hella weird how much difference a few small changes can make. By the numbers, I'm not really presenting myself that different than I used to. Shaved the beard off and started wearing a bra under my normal clothes. But, like, I look in the mirror and it's like I'm seeing me for the first time. It's wild! And very reassuring.
 

Fero McPigletron

Feel the fear!
Citizen
I can't share this in the game forum but I've been playing Hades on Switch and I'm annoyed that you can have sex with Meg the Fury twice but only once with Thanatos. The threesome doesn't count.

Whenever I see Thanatos, I tell him not to leave me but he goes poof, haha. Also I say hi to the minotaur, haha
 

Fero McPigletron

Feel the fear!
Citizen
Oh, that's funny. I just finished watching 8 episodes of the BBC Pratchett inspired The Watch show.

Fans and even Pratchett's daughter and Neil Gaiman said it was way different from the books so I was wary, thinking it was garbage. But it was actually ok. The humor isn't Pratchett and they did so many gender swaps but it was still ok. Fun even. Vimes was particularly good and Carrot was good looking (though not muscular).

On Cheery Littlebottom, she was suppose to be a bearded lady dwarf, the culture in the book being that female dwarves are indistinguishable from male dwarves. She was the first to give overt signs of being female by wearing lipstick and trying to create female dwarf fashion. But she would never shave her beard because that's simply not a dwarf thing to do.

In the show, Cheery was played as tall and clean shaven, which was odd (because Carrot's whole thing was he was a human adopted by dwarves and being tall was an inconvenience. So another tall genuine dwarf lessens his uniqueness). She was still extremely smart and was even given major plot abilities related to her orientation but, y'know, still different from the books.

I read up after the show and it seems that they altered her book metaphor to have her sort of be trans coded, which I didn't realize. (They already did the same for Vetinari, who I thought was only gender swapped but they called her as him several times). I didn't realize the person playing her was trans either.

Anyhow, just saying cuz it's a coincidence that it got brought up.

 

PrimalxConvoy

NOT a New Member.
Citizen
Oh, that's funny. I just finished watching 8 episodes of the BBC Pratchett inspired T** W**** show.
That show was universally hated by all fans of Terry Pratchett and, yes, his surviving daughter.

Heck, even Neil Gainman, a chum of Pratchet, hated it:

- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Watch_(TV_series) (Check out the "Reception" section)

As far as I can tell, Pratchet already included references to gender/sex issues via the original premise of dwarves and there wasn't really any need to change that. If they made a proper live action version of Diskworld, Cheery could still be "female" and played by any real life actor, of any gender/sex, providing they wore a beard. He also included several other parallels to identity, such as with Constable Aguna being a woman (heaven forbid) and a were-wolf:

- https://discworld.fandom.com/wiki/Angua_von_Überwald

That said, it wasn't really Cheery that was the main issue, but rather that the whole city, characters, lore and aesthetic had completely changed. Imagine LOTR having never been made and then having Peter Jackson turn it into "Bright" instead:

- https://chicago.suntimes.com/2017/1...smith-s-cop-fantasy-bright-a-netflix-disaster

Sorry, for my little rant, but I bloody HATED that "show" and could only stomach about the first 10 minutes of it before turning it off. I didn't even know about the show, nor the controversy surrounding it until after turning it off and looking it up. I remember watching it and having no idea, for the first 5 minutes, that it was meant to be based upon the Diskworld novels. I think the BBC even kept the description at the iPlayer app vague for that very purpose...
 

Fero McPigletron

Feel the fear!
Citizen
Well, I'm glad you gave it a ten minute watching chance. I'm a big fan of Discworld but I'm fine with it. I take it like multiple versions of Transformers and Marvel shows.

It would be grand to have different versions of Discworld available (not just the cartoons before (Soul Music) or the modern live actions (Hogfather, Going Postal) like how the stage plays change plots and scenes from the book (the book distinctly had Vines NOT say Fetch when killing the brother but the stage play simplified it so included it).

Unlike the Colour of Magic, Light Fantastic, Hogfather, Going Postal shows, this show isn't an adaptation of a specific book. Those previous shows are special mini series that are suppose to adapt a book (though they still change stuff, like Colour of Magic removing the whole segment with the dragon riders). The Watch mashes up Guards! Guards!, Night Watch, Fifth Elephant and whichever book the Arbiters first appeared in (pretty sure it's not the Science of Discworld).

And the show does have multiverse in the plot, being able to shuffle different versions of Discworld characters into the mix (actually selecting and switching out an alternate character. So this show is just another facet of Discworld. No worries.

---

Book Angua was discriminated as a werewolf. The woman thing was a misleading joke in Guards! Guards! (The comment was along the lines of 'do you think she's discriminated because she's a w---'. A first time reader is suppose to think it's w-oman but will retroactively know it's it's w-erewolf when reading further).

Book Cheery was a satire metaphor for gay (and hijab) issues but I never saw her as trans rep. Cheery was female. Their culture just wanted every dwarf to hide their sexuality and look male. Pratchett didn't have a major side character be trans until Unseen Academicals (the football themed book) as far as I can remember.

---

While I'm not into gender swap characters, I thought some folks would like or welcome the switches. They turned the major guild masters featured in the show as female (Assassin Guild Cruces, Thieves Guild with the death, main ruler Patrician Vetinari was trans tho. Also the other villain Wonse).

Cheery's gender issues became a major plot part (changing the whole nature of the Book version of the Summoning Dark) and she really was the MVP of the show. They found a way to put a drag show in it as well.

It could be a feminist or sociopolitical ploy but isn't the representation good?
 

PrimalxConvoy

NOT a New Member.
Citizen
I think the representation in the books was good enough, but could have easily been built-upon by new characters, stories, etc as the show went on. That's what Startrek has largely done, IMO. Also, all the good intentions and inclusiveness in the world can't really help (or be helped by) a show with a weak plot and (arguably) irrelevancy to most people. The show seemingly alienated fans of Pratchet, punk rockers or those unfamiliar with either by being a jack of all trades yet master of none, IMO.
 

Fero McPigletron

Feel the fear!
Citizen
Well, as long as they had good intentions.

Anyhow, saw this strip
JsMeQS0.jpeg
 

M. Virion

If Hell is forever, then Heaven must be a lie
Citizen
You said you were a hobbit, so be proud of that, just as the dwarves are proud of being dwarves?

My guy, she called it hobbit-like as a comparison, she never claimed to be one. Also maybe don't tell a trans person complaining of their dysphoria what they should or shouldn't be proud of.
 

The Doctor Who

Now With Sheffield Steel!
Citizen
You said you were a hobbit, so be proud of that, just as the dwarves are proud of being dwarves?
Again, I appreciate the intent. But you're not really understanding what the issue is. All the affirmations in the world aren't going to change what my brain tells me I should see in the mirror.

There's a fundamental disconnect here in understanding the psychology of gender dysphoria and how it affects the people who suffer it. It's not a matter pride or confidence, but one of core identity. That, when I look in the mirror, I don't see me, except for under certain conditions. That's a sensation that is nearly impossible to communicate to someone who doesn't experience it. It can even be difficult to understand for the people who do. It took me 40 years put the pieces together and I still don't have all the details nailed down. But I do know what my brain tells me. I know when I see myself in the mirror and I know what I want to see. Not for trends, nor for social confirmation, but for my own, personal pleasure and comfort.
 

PrimalxConvoy

NOT a New Member.
Citizen
Again, I appreciate the intent. But you're not really understanding what the issue is. All the affirmations in the world aren't going to change what my brain tells me I should see in the mirror...
Sorry, I was being a tad flippant and lost to the forces of Tolkein-esque fantasy. I also wasn't trying to say you were an actual hobbit, but rather that you're perfectly fine as you are, or rather, who you want to be?

However, far be it for me to tell you how you should look. Just be glad you're not ginger, like me (apparently, we have no souls)...

Best of luck with your endevours!
 

PrimalxConvoy

NOT a New Member.
Citizen
The parents raising their children without gender

p0d3hdxb.jpg


As Gabriella Martenson prepared for the birth of her first child, she came to a decision. She wouldn’t tell her child if they’d been born a girl or a boy, and would largely avoid discussing their birth sex with people outside her family and friendship group...

...She also believed raising a child without gender would make things easier if they eventually identified as a gender different from their assigned birth sex, and help them accept other people who don’t adhere to the gender binary or other societal norms. “I'm letting them be anything… and teaching them to not be so narrow minded,” she says...

(Source: - https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20220929-the-parents-raising-their-children-without-gender )
 

The Doctor Who

Now With Sheffield Steel!
Citizen
Sorry, I was being a tad flippant and lost to the forces of Tolkein-esque fantasy. I also wasn't trying to say you were an actual hobbit, but rather that you're perfectly fine as you are, or rather, who you want to be?

However, far be it for me to tell you how you should look. Just be glad you're not ginger, like me (apparently, we have no souls)...

Best of luck with your endevours!
It's OK, I'm not actually offended or anything. I could tell you weren't trying to be rude.

It is a sensitive subject for many trans people though, which is why I wanted to lay that point out more clearly, before it became a bigger issue. I remember it being touched on in the original thread and it does bear repeating here. Especially since it is such an esoteric experience that we struggle to make cis folk understand.

It doesn't help that it varies from person to person how strong the dysphoria is and what way it manifests. I'm decidedly fem and I feel a great desire to be more feminine. The times I've caught glimpses of "me" it's been in that context. Others may feel differently.
 

MEDdMI

Nonstop Baaka
Citizen
While I sometimes wear clothes intended for men, they're not really clothes that are super masculine. Eg, casual shirts, pants, and shoes are neutral enough. One of these days, I want to try cosplaying super masculine just to see how I feel. Not sure if I can do drag though, that means chest binding and I like breathing.
 

The Doctor Who

Now With Sheffield Steel!
Citizen
You might look into trans-masc resources for advice. I know there's a right way and a wrong way to do chest binding, but I've not really looked into it, having the opposite problem myself XD
 


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