Anghraine

I'm taking a brief break from my dissertation to ... uh, amuse myself by figuring out my readers' ranking of my genderbending fics on AO3.

Rules I'm applying: 1) I'm only including fic verses that are collectively at least 2000 words long because, well, I do have to go back to the diss, 2) verses comprised of multiple fics are ranked according to either the popularity of the series as a whole or the most popular individual fic (depending on which is higher; not combining them because there's a lot of overlap), 3) I'm considering both bookmarks and kudos in my judgment—we'll see if it makes a difference, and 4) I'm ignoring everything with less than 30 kudos and 5 bookmarks.

1. First Impressions | 215 bookmarks | 876 kudos | genderbent characters: Elizabeth Bennet (-> Henry Bennet) and Fitzwilliam Darcy (-> Catherine Darcy)

This is a genderswapped retelling of Pride and Prejudice set in its original period (not really a true "what if"). All stats are specifically for the original (completed) 36k fic. It individually beats out every possible stat for every other fic in the series as well as the series as a whole. (Note: The overall series is 44k words long.)

2. Lucy Skywalker series | 163 bookmarks | 406 kudos (The Jedi and the Sith Lord) | genderbent characters: Luke Skywalker (-> Lucy Skywalker)

This is a genderbent AU that mostly, but not completely, sticks to the rails of canon until the end of the ESB timeline, at which point it swerves into the "real" AU. The Jedi and the Sith Lord is the sequel to The Imperial Menace/the ESB plot, and the third fic in the main series, focusing on the consequences of Vader capturing Lucy. It's technically completed at 70k, but only in the sense that it explores what happens to/with Lucy and Vader until the nature of her captivity fundamentally changes, and everything after that will be a separate fic but hasn't been written yet. Although none of the individual fics have as many bookmarks as the series as a whole, my #2, #3, and #4 most bookmarked genderbent fics are all for the Lucyverse. (Note: the overall series is 129k words long.)

3. Love, Pride & Delicacy | 25 bookmarks | 163 kudos | genderbent characters: Fitzwilliam Darcy (-> Catherine Darcy, for convenience)

This is an actual Elizabeth/f!Darcy "what if" femslash AU rather than a retelling, though a slow one—it's still early in the overall story at 25k. It's also placed in the original P&P setting. There is no wider series.

4. The Lady of Gondor | 25 bookmarks | 119 kudos (we also are daughters of the great) | genderbent characters: Faramir (-> Fíriel)

This is a deeply self-indulgent Aragorn/f!Faramir/Éowyn AU, though it's not only a WIP but split into different vaguely related fics (some of which are also WIPs!) about some aspect of the verse in relation to Fíriel. I think the norms of Gondor and Middle-earth make the gender change particularly significant (in some ways more than any other verse), so actual plot and relationship changes tend to be the focus. The kudos are for the specific linked fic, which is a WIP at nearly 5k and the most Éowyn-centric of them. (Note: the overall series is about 9.5k words long.)

5. The Edge of Darkness | 17 bookmarks | 106 kudos | genderbent characters: Tarrlok (-> Taraka)

This is a genderbent f!Tarrlok AU, though told entirely from Noatak/Amon's perspective, and to some extent more about the impact on him than on Taraka herself (though she's extremely important to the fic). Even more than that, the linked fic is focused on the effect of the change on their family dynamics as children, until teenage Noatak leaves her behind per canon. The fic can look like a retelling à la First Impressions, since the basic plot points don't change, but the larger series is on course to swerve into full "what if" territory as well. However, like First Impressions, these stats are all for the completed opening fic (18k) and not the longer WIP series (32k), which is temporarily paused at the point where 37-year-old Taraka openly identifies Amon as Noatak. CW: child abuse.

6. Blood and Fire | 16 bookmarks | 67 kudos | genderbent characters: Tarrlok (-> Taraka) and Noatak (-> Nataka)

This is a dark(er) AU of The Edge of Darkness in which Noatak/Amon is also genderbent, and the bloodbending siblings never separated. Taraka fled home with Nataka back in the day, they only grew closer (...too close), and although Taraka still ended up on the Republic City council, her true loyalty is to Amon. She promptly turns Korra over when Amon shows up, which is where the fic begins; it's told entirely through Korra's attempts to navigate her circumstances as a prisoner of the Equalists. CW: incest, complicated F/F/F dubcon??? emotional bonding kink with occasional violence yet little overt romance and no sex. I am what I am. The stats are for the completed (though deliberately ambiguous) main fic, which is 10k, and not the side fics or the series as a whole (13k).

7. The Queer Rogue One AU | 12 bookmarks | 57 kudos (the words we've both fallen under) | genderbent characters: Cassian Andor (-> Cassia Andor)

This is, on one level, a relatively straightforward genderbent!Cassian AU that is more or less complete at 13k. The underlying concepts are: a) what if my male fave was a hot lesbian and my ship was f/f and b) what if we headcanon every single member of the main team as queer in some capacity :D and c) the SW universe is so blatantly patriarchal in the films that it's a particularly interesting setting for exploring the effects of the gender change on someone like Cassia, a female revolutionary and spy :D :D. It's a little challenging to properly evaluate where it sits wrt stats because I revised the scattered, vaguely connected scraps of the universe into a single fic through both sentence-level revisions and significant additions, but that revision is only on Tumblr (where the link currently goes to, sorry) and my GoogleDrive, not AO3. It's not even a series in my heart! But it is on AO3. Evaluate as you will, but when I finally get around to converting the AO3 version to the correct format this may or may not change. For now this is where it goes by AO3 stats.

8. Daughters of Númenor series | 5 bookmarks | 33 kudos (the voices of the sea) | genderbent characters: all Númenórean throwbacks in LOTR, but specifically Aragorn (-> Aranor), Faramir (-> Míriel), Denethor (-> Andreth), and Imrahil (-> Imraphel)

As might be guessed, this is an AU where every Númenórean throwback mentioned in LOTR is genderbent (in the backstory, this also includes Ivriniel and Finduilas of Dol Amroth, who become Túrin, Prince of Dol Amroth, and Gwindor of Dol Amroth). It's Aranor/Míriel and definitely focused on them despite the broader change (where Arwen is a non-factor for the OT3 in The Lady of Gondor because she went to Valinor with Celebrían, she actually is present in Middle-earth in this series, though unfortunately very straight). While Fíriel in The Lady of Gondor was never expected to be a warrior and gets on reasonably well with Denethor, this AU is more about the broader effects—so even though we rarely see f!Denethor/Andreth, it's significant that she was a trailblazer as a female warrior, loremaster, and ultimately the first female ruler of Gondor, inadvertently laying a foundation that Aranor could build on later (which would have horrified Andreth herself!). The specific fic with the most kudos in the series, linked above, is a nearly 2k fic about the effect of Faramir's canonical visions on Míriel. (Note: the overall series is currently 3k words long.)

Back in January (of 2024!), I saw sqbr's fantastic post on gender, female characters, genderswap, and original female characters. It's here and it's great. A nuanced, complicated take on this kind of genderbending is basically a bat signal for me personally, and at first I was going to comment directly to them, but my response grew as I thought about it, so I figured I'd put my response here instead of spamming their blog. I've basically been thinking about it off and on for the last two months. If you're reading this, I'd advise you to check out their post.

So, backing up a bit: I've often found the genderswap/genderbending and original female character (OFC) discourses to be—well, in all honesty, incoherent, unfair, and deeply stupid most of the time. I feel like a lot of "the discourse" around these things is contingent on 1) a “why are we not about me” approach to gender and 2) a sort of internalized fandom hierarchy, especially with regard to original female characters vs canon female characters. As I see it, all characters are someone’s OCs. As a consequence, the framework in which female characters produced by a generally male or male-dominated creator/creative group should be considered more authentically female than female characters produced by fans who are very often actual women can seem profoundly unjust and also simply very strange.

For instance, I love a lot of the female characters in Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time and would not argue that they aren't actually women. Moiraine Damodred is one of my favorite female characters in fantasy, partly because she's a woman in a role that goes to men most of the time. But the "fictional women created by a male author" vibe is intense and inescapable in these books. The idea that fans' OFCs reflect a less authentic femaleness than Jordan's powerful women getting sexily spanked over and over feels pretty bizarre.

And this extends to genderswap/genderbending, given that when influential people in Hollywood or the broader entertainment industry change a male character's gender to female (either the character was previously conceptualized as male in the creative process, or the work is an adaptation of a source in which the character was male), the same wing of fandom that condemns fannish genderbending tends to be completely supportive and to see the new version as a legitimate female character. We can see this with Ripley, Azula, Joan Watson, etc. And even going the other way, nobody seems to think Luke Skywalker is somehow not a real male character even though George Lucas kept changing his gender, or that there was anything wrong with Lucas doing that. The condemnations of genderbending cis male characters to female ones are pretty specifically about fans doing this, especially female fans.

That's a longer rant than I meant it to be, but the reason I bring it up is because this has always struck me as a baffling argument as well as an unfair one. But I think sqbr's post highlights an important distinction between arguments about characters' femaleness and arguments about characters' female characterness, if that makes sense. The ways in which female characters tend to be framed by the narratives they appear in shape our sense of what female characters are and what is desirable for them to be.

For me, M->F genderbending is partly about my own wobbly, weak sense of gender, but also partly an expression of affection. It's satisfying to give the kind of centrality and/or Very Special Boy treatment that my male faves typically get to a girl or woman, and to explore the ways in which the kind of frameworks typically given to male characters collide with generally patriarchal settings, all without sacrificing my fave. So, say, my female Luke Skywalker has to deal with The Space Patriarchy and with being Special and Important and centered in a way typically reserved for male characters.

And that's often a major part of the appeal of M->F genderbending for me—a female character getting the structural narrative benefits typically reserved for various kinds of male characters, but without fundamentally disrupting the structure of the cast as given in canon. So turning Luke into Lucy feels fundamentally different to me, and much more satisfying, than inventing, say, a female triplet to take his narrative place.

And this is basically the exact opposite motivation as the one described in sqbr's post, of relating to female characters because of the narrative framework typically given them. I don't think either of us are wrong, factually or morally, we just sometimes have different tastes in terms of how we do fandom and gender.

I do think they're very correct about how a lot of female characters who are kind of presented as badass or whatever by way of receiving traits often assigned to male characters don't hit the same note as female characters who are given the kind of narrative framing often assigned to male characters. And I also think sqbr is right that what we all get out of female characters, what we find appealing in them, or gratifying, or admirable (or cringey, reminiscent of painful RL experiences, an annoying trope given female form Yet Again, etc), is hugely variable between people in ways that can actually be entirely legitimate for those different people. I've known female SW fans, for instance, who couldn't latch onto Leia the way I did because of the ways she's sidelined by the narrative structure of the OT (particularly ROTJ). I think that's perfectly fine, actually, even though I don't feel the same.

In addition, I had some amorphous thoughts about how when canon female characters click for me, they tend to really click, which sqbr also discusses in their post. An easy example for me is Attolia Irene in The Queen of Attolia, whose experiences and choices are profoundly shaped by patriarchy and who is given the kind of messy sympathy and resourceful triumph that is often reserved for characters like Gen and who is beautiful in a way I personally find hot as a lesbian. I briefly thought about what f!Eugenides/Irene would be like—cool to be sure, but tbh I'm not that interested because I'm so invested in Irene specifically.

Sort of relatedly, I do find it annoying when there's a discussion going on about favorite female characters in a canon, especially a male-dominated canon, and people respond with canonically male characters "because he's a lesbian to me" or whatever. I’ll defend a lot when it comes to genderbending, but that’s not cool.

I reblogged a meme asking people what 2020 fanfic they were most proud of, and added:

#i didn't write much but #turning out a bunch of lucy chapters after years with no updates felt really good :)

This kind of needs the original context, so:

ao3commentoftheday said:

the jump from “someone should do this” to “I should do this” is scary, but oh so worth it in the end

beanarie responded:

and then “there’s nothing stopping me from doing this”

fredersens added:

“someone should do this”“…i’m someone”

I reblogged the whole thread and added:

#the origins of the lucyverse :) #i was so WAIT WHAT when i heard that it [ETA 3/12/2024: female Luke Skywalker, not my specific take on her in the Lucy fics!] was actually planned and saw the beautiful mcquarrie concept art #with reasonable clothes and a ponytail! #and was like ... well there's no point to fic since luke isn't really an inherently gendered character ... #though that itself makes certain story options possible ... esp if you assume the misogyny is a real in-universe thing ... #some outlines write themselves

heckofabecca said:

Give me a 6 :)

I replied:

6. What’s your favorite piece of dialogue you wrote this year?

Heh, I wrote a lot of dialogue. It’s definitely going to come from The Jedi and the Sith Lord … okay, it’s kind of cheating, but my favorite dialogue-heavy moment was very predictably:For something lighter that leans less on canon … I’m fond of this, from later in the fic:

Finally, her arm went completely numb and Vader knocked the lightsaber right out of her hand. It clattered somewhere on the floor beneath them, while the red lightsaber hummed at her throat.

Lucy looked at the lightsaber, and then at Vader’s unreadable mask.

“Damn it,” she said.

He seemed—she concentrated—something like amused, or at least entertained. Lucy scowled.

“A worthy effort,” said her father.

“For a failure?”

“Yes,” he said, which wasn’t exactly encouraging. “Consider it instructive.”

“Thanks,” said Lucy.

“Do you acknowledge your defeat?”

She nearly wrinkled her nose. “I guess.”

He waited, the lightsaber still inches from her skin. It was, though not frightening, certainly unsettling.

“Yes,” she grumbled. “I have fallen before your mighty skills, Lord Vader. Can I get down now?

brambleberrycottage said:

1 and 8 for writer's ask?

I replied:

1.

My favorite thing that I posted in its entirety this year: probably the gift of men, my Eldarion/Faramir’s daughter fic that I managed to squeeze into my challenge format of seven parts of seven sentences each. It had been rolling around in my head and in scraps for a long time, even though it’s quite short, and I finally managed to get it out in a way I was happy with!

My favorite thing that I updated this year is, inevitably, the chapters of The Jedi and the Sith Lord (the current fic from my Lucy Skywalker [f!Luke] ’verse) that I added. For some reason, TROS ignited my brain and after some four years of no updates I added a ton of chapters within a few weeks.

8.

Which fic this year was the most fun to write? Hmm, it’s got to be Lucy! I just really enjoyed it—the evolving relationship between Lucy and Vader, the droids, the ~drama, the RO cameos, everything. It’s a nice change, too, because while I’m really fond of the Lucyverse, some of it has been a misery to write and this was just a great time.

steinbecks responded to this post:

AWWWW I love this.

I replied:

<3 <3

She said:

Of course Lucy Skywalker’s here haha

I replied:

Inevitably! adfkfjdjka and when I first heard about Lucas making Luke a girl, I was like “that would have been so cool, but there’s not really point to fic about her…”

Nine years later:



[A screenshot of the Lucy Skywalker AO3 series page, listing the creator as me, the beginning date of 2011-5-16, the then-most recent update of 2020-02-12, and the word count as 126,879.]

Belatedly, here's the third challenge!

Create a wish list of fandom things (podfic, graphics, playlists, canon recs translations, research help, vids, sky's the limit!) that you'd like to receive. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

This one stalled me because I love art so much that it was hard to think of anything else! I'm flattered by getting podficced, but because my particular autistic auditory issues don't work well with audiobooks/podcasts/etc, it's not something I'd specifically ask for. But images are great (graphics or more traditional art). So I'll go for what I honestly would most like at this moment in time:

1. I haven't even written it yet (...okay, mostly haven't written it), but I'd love some kind of art/graphic/whatnot for the Commander Bennet (P&P/Mass Effect) AU, especially involving Elizabeth (as Commander Bennet aka FemShep) and/or Darcy (as Dr. Illia T'Arzi aka Liara, though she looks more like Aria in something like Liara's clothes in my head, haha). I envision Elizabeth as an Infiltrator-like tech expert and Illia as a powerful, skilled biotic who occasionally remembers that guns exist.

2. In terms of fic I have written, probably the single fic I would most like a visual gift for is The Jedi and the Sith Lord, the third fic in my f!Luke Skywalker series, but the first one where the plot truly is drastically and permanently wrenched off the rails by the AU. The entire fic is about what happens after Lucy (f!Luke) gets taken captive by Anakin/Vader in the previous fic, and I'm not sure how many of you seeing this have read it (if any!), but I've always thought art of the scene where Lucy strikes her deal with Vader (in Ch 16) would be really cool. But really anything for it would be awesome—it's one of my most beloved of my fics (not necessarily the best, but one of the dearest to me personally).

3. Art of Tolkien canon Faramir—long black hair (not shoulder-length "long," long enough to stream out in the wind and mingle with the considerably shorter Éowyn's), naturally beardless, grey eyes, with the canonical "fair face" (as in pretty, not pale), very tall. Bonus for a more Byzantine aesthetic that would contrast with the usual quasi-western medieval vibe. Bonus if with Éowyn (blonde, grey eyes) or Aragorn (also beardless, tall, greying hair).

3b. Speaking of the Faramir/Éowyn scene, a variant: I mentioned on Tumblr awhile back that in an earlier draft, Éowyn cut her hair as part of her male disguise. People quibbled with me being like "hey that would be cool too" but I stand by the greatness of long-haired Faramir+post-haircut Éowyn.

4. Since this is a random wish list and not an exchange, I'll actually go wild: bookverse f/f Faramir/Aragorn in basically any medium. My personal preference would be for f!Aragorn to be a tough, hardened warrior and f!Faramir to not be a warrior at all.

5. Something for Love, Pride & Delicacy.

Looking over these, all but one involve genderbent characters. Ah well, I am what I am.

I've been backing up The Adventures of Lucy Skywalker to moirharad, and although I'm a long way from where I actually paused writing, I've got a 15-pg detailed outline of the next fic and really wish I could find the time, will, and energy to turn it into actual narrative. I really like a lot of the ideas I've got in there, some of which have been planned for over ten years. But my mind is always just like "hm, not today."

(I've had the 15-pg outline for nearly two years. >_<)

150 bookmarks on the Lucyverse <3

Anyway, this is the last night of my year of being 35, so after a day of revising, I'm spending the evening with games and rice pudding. Onto 36! :)