request and discussion: pokemon fics with trans/genderqueer characters
This comes out of a conversation with Sonata two nights ago that I have no idea how we got into. Also, full disclosure: I identify as both trans and genderqueer and thus have strong personal feelings about this stuff. Okay! That said.
Basically: The Pokemon universe, to the best of my knowledge, has almost no characters who are canonically trans or genderqueer; see![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
pseudogeek 's comment below for some implicitly genderqueer characters, and Akari from the How I Became A Pokémon Card manga. (Please correct me if I am wrong!! I haven't read PokeSpe yet so I might be missing something.) Fortunately, that has never stopped fandom with anything at any time, so there's still fic (and art, and probably other media too) where some of the characters meet one of these descriptions. At the bottom of this post I'm including a list of the things I happen to have run into and will totally add things to it based on recommendations --- I don't get out of my personal little fanfic hole very much so I am sure there's a ton I am missing. I've run into a bunch of genderswap fic in which a character is written as if they have always been another gender/sex, but not that much where one of the characters transitions or comes into a different gender identity as a child or adult. In this post I won't be considering the genderswap fic, not because it's not interesting or important, but because I think it's a different kind of interesting/important. There's also crossdressing as a kink but while that sometimes can shade into trans stuff, I'm not really considering it much either. (Though I went and read a bunch to see if I should list any of it, and... not my kink. Oof.)
What I most want to see in fiction, at least right now, is stories with trans characters that don't shy away from discussing that transness but also aren't strictly speaking about it. This is what I've tried to do with Julie/N in New Game + and Collections of Elegant Formulas; I don't think I nailed it perfectly but I think the sense of it being important, but not the only important thing, comes through. I hope? Most of the other things I've found have been kink meme fills, and often the transness is part of or all of the kink, and so even when the stories are really well-written they are about transness and not too much else. I haven't seen any kink meme participants or such asking for genderqueer specifically, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. One of the things that excites me about stories that include trans characters is that the presence of the trans character can illuminate the relationships of the people around them to gender. I don't mean to suggest that trans characters should be used as ciphers to help better understand the cis characters, who are obviously the important ones --- that would be exploitative --- but anything that tugs at a thread in the gender norms blanketing society bunches them up in other places in interesting ways.
Other than N transitioning postgame (which is rocksolid in my headcanon even outside of the comaverse), I don't have any characters who I think of as trans in the Pokemon universe. Amanita strikes me as the sort of nerd woman who doesn't care about gender but not caring means going with the gender she's assigned because doing something else would get in the way of computers. Genderqueer Silver makes (perfect) sense but doesn't fit with the narrative in my headcanon; Cheren being a trans man makes a whole lot of sense to me but is and idea I ran into only recently so I'm not sure if I want to integrate it into my headcanon or try writing it yet. What other characters might be good choices for this? Are there characters you think of as trans or genderqueer, or think would be interesting to write that way? I kind of want to play with writing this stuff more, but I am not really sure where to go, so I'm asking both in general because I think it's interesting and also because I might try writing based off of other people's ideas to see where they take me?
Here's the list of stories I've found with some brief commentary. Most of these are from anon memes, partially because they are well-tagged, and partially because that was basically all I could find:
What am I missing? Have you written or read something like this that I should add to the list? I checked a couple of people's lists/journals but couldn't find anything obvious. Thanks tokeltena who helped me find a bunch of things on tumblr, pseudogeek who also sent recommendations, and sharonaparadox who mentioned Akari and added another link!
Basically: The Pokemon universe, to the best of my knowledge, has almost no characters who are canonically trans or genderqueer; see
pseudogeek 's comment below for some implicitly genderqueer characters, and Akari from the How I Became A Pokémon Card manga. (Please correct me if I am wrong!! I haven't read PokeSpe yet so I might be missing something.) Fortunately, that has never stopped fandom with anything at any time, so there's still fic (and art, and probably other media too) where some of the characters meet one of these descriptions. At the bottom of this post I'm including a list of the things I happen to have run into and will totally add things to it based on recommendations --- I don't get out of my personal little fanfic hole very much so I am sure there's a ton I am missing. I've run into a bunch of genderswap fic in which a character is written as if they have always been another gender/sex, but not that much where one of the characters transitions or comes into a different gender identity as a child or adult. In this post I won't be considering the genderswap fic, not because it's not interesting or important, but because I think it's a different kind of interesting/important. There's also crossdressing as a kink but while that sometimes can shade into trans stuff, I'm not really considering it much either. (Though I went and read a bunch to see if I should list any of it, and... not my kink. Oof.)What I most want to see in fiction, at least right now, is stories with trans characters that don't shy away from discussing that transness but also aren't strictly speaking about it. This is what I've tried to do with Julie/N in New Game + and Collections of Elegant Formulas; I don't think I nailed it perfectly but I think the sense of it being important, but not the only important thing, comes through. I hope? Most of the other things I've found have been kink meme fills, and often the transness is part of or all of the kink, and so even when the stories are really well-written they are about transness and not too much else. I haven't seen any kink meme participants or such asking for genderqueer specifically, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. One of the things that excites me about stories that include trans characters is that the presence of the trans character can illuminate the relationships of the people around them to gender. I don't mean to suggest that trans characters should be used as ciphers to help better understand the cis characters, who are obviously the important ones --- that would be exploitative --- but anything that tugs at a thread in the gender norms blanketing society bunches them up in other places in interesting ways.
Other than N transitioning postgame (which is rocksolid in my headcanon even outside of the comaverse), I don't have any characters who I think of as trans in the Pokemon universe. Amanita strikes me as the sort of nerd woman who doesn't care about gender but not caring means going with the gender she's assigned because doing something else would get in the way of computers. Genderqueer Silver makes (perfect) sense but doesn't fit with the narrative in my headcanon; Cheren being a trans man makes a whole lot of sense to me but is and idea I ran into only recently so I'm not sure if I want to integrate it into my headcanon or try writing it yet. What other characters might be good choices for this? Are there characters you think of as trans or genderqueer, or think would be interesting to write that way? I kind of want to play with writing this stuff more, but I am not really sure where to go, so I'm asking both in general because I think it's interesting and also because I might try writing based off of other people's ideas to see where they take me?
Here's the list of stories I've found with some brief commentary. Most of these are from anon memes, partially because they are well-tagged, and partially because that was basically all I could find:
- A short ficlet about N transitioning post-game, where she moves to Hoenn and starts over.
- A short ficlet in which a trans Rosa idolizes Elesa.
- A short fic from Hydreigon's point of view in which Ghetsis was assigned female at birth --- it's unclear if they're trans or just passing. I like this one a lot.
- A story called "By Any Name" in which Bianca, about to have sex with a woman for the first time, discovers the woman is actually a trans N. Has some very cute/interesting moments but I found parts of it really twitchy; Bianca's thought process is not what I would consider enlightened. (Warning: is porn.)
- A short story called "Best Enemies" by purplekitte in which N tries to understand human gender and sexuality in a conversation with Black. This reminds me so much of a couple of agender people I know who just do not process gender at all that I had to put it in.
- A short ficlet in which Dawn is a young trans woman and reveals her transness to Barry, who cycles very quickly between disrespectful freakout and acceptance. Pulls off the second person very well but has a lot of transphobic tropes like "true voice" and de-sexualization.
- A short ficlet called "Derailed" in which Ingo experiences gender dysphoria. (Warning: gender dysphoria.)
- Two short Bianca/Cheren fics in which Cheren is a trans man and transitions very young. These are adorable. (Warning: one of them contains moderately abusive parents.)
- A short ficlet by ferrets-are-awesome (to whom there are a lot of dead links about trans Pokemon fanfic on tumblr, sadly) about a young transmasculine Cheren and Bianca.
- A story in which Red is a trans man, Red and Green try to have sex for the first time, and Green flubs some gender stuff and it gets really awkward but then they negotiate it and work it out in the end. This is a really interesting piece for how accurate it felt but also for that reason I do not want to read it a second time.
- A short ficlet by lyraeon about Red as a trans man being involved with Green.
- ghosts n stuff by thir13enth, in which Red wears Leaf as an alternate identity; the focus here is on Green, it's unclear whether Red is crossdressing, or bigender, or what. The idea of Red coming alive and suddenly becoming way more chatty and social when presenting female is itself really interesting though. (Warning: Green is hella misogynistic here.)
- A story called "Not Female, Just Shiny" by pyroluminescence in which a Nidoran male shiny deals with being viewed as female because of his color. I'm not sure if this is precisely a trans narrative but it's really interesting? And one of the very few examples of a trans pokemon I can find. (
other than my headcanon that Silver's Crobat is agender) - Another short ficlet with a transmasculine Pikachu.
- A story called "Confessions of a Crossdressing Pokemon Trainer" in which Ash has to present female in order to tell Gary that Ash has a crush on him. I waffled about putting this one in here --- is there really anything trans specific? --- but it's presented as if Gary is used to Ash doing this, and going out in public together, which at least opens up a lot of avenues for genderqueer thought.
- A short ficlet in which it is suggested that Bill may or may not be a trans man. Features Amanita (and thus is me-bait) and is also adorable.
- Mrs. and Mrs. Gropius-White, a tumblr with an extended part-art part-fic story about a trans female N and White (game protagonist) being a married couple. I haven't read it all yet but the artwork is adorable. Summary/info here.
- Dark Secrets, a novel-length (90k words) fic in which Cassidy of Team Rocket is a trans woman and deals with transphobia and violence inside the organization. (Warnings: Transphobia, violence, self-injury, dysphoria, suicide attempts, rape, parental abuse, I haven't read the whole thing yet but I think it's safe to say that if there's anything you would be worried about being warned for it is probably in this fic.
- This Nuzlocke Run by LizardAndBlankets has a trans Kadabra in the rival's team.
- Ask TG Pokemon is a tumblr ask blog (a narrative format with audience participation) about a collective of trans pokemon who live on their own without trainers. It's adorable and occasionally heartwrenching, and hasn't updated in a few months. :(
- Elephant Colors by bisharp riffs off of an NPC from BW1 and depicts a character where one gender is dreaming and the other is awake.
- Seeking Evolution is a fic I wrote for pyroresonance in an exchange featuring a trans Red in a Red/Green relationship as well as timeline shenanigans.
- And if you haven't read my stories New Game + or Collections of Elegant Formulas, they contain a well-post-game trans N as a main character whose transness is not the focus of the stories. They are also ridiculously long. Warnings in the masterlists.
- Something Better Than In The Middle is a gift fic for me from outstretched in which that trans N (Julie) shows up in a wonderful Silver/Julie slice of life.
What am I missing? Have you written or read something like this that I should add to the list? I checked a couple of people's lists/journals but couldn't find anything obvious. Thanks to
keltena who helped me find a bunch of things on tumblr, pseudogeek who also sent recommendations, and sharonaparadox who mentioned Akari and added another link!
no subject
Ahem. In anime there's Jessie and James who are pretty much genderfuck with their frequent cross-dressing and unisex behaviors. You haven't read PokeSpe, but Ruby and Sapphire, while not explicitly trans, have switched gender behaviors. In Electric Tales of Pikachu there's a man (in Orange Islands arc I think? can't remember too well) who at the end of the chapter decided to become/come out as trans so his beloved little sister can have a big sister (his gender behavior was rather ambiguous before, but seemed to be some kind of two-spirit/genderqueer). In the games B2W2 there's a male who looked like a woman until he took his shirt off and claimed that he disguised his biological sex in order to get his job, which is not exactly trans, but if he was trolling he would be.
So if by canonically you mean explicitly, then no. But if implicit, there should be plenty.
In fanworks... I'm sure that I have seen some, but I can't think of anything specific right now. There was a movement of "Red is actually a trans" for a while, but I can't find the works again. Some include the theory that Blue and Red are physically the same person, Red being Blue transed. Some have Red trans into Blue. If I can't find them I'm going to write one... after my finals. Give me three weeks.
no subject
When you've written something, let me know and I'll add it to the list, please. :) (I thought you had written something before, but I couldn't find any flipping through your DW.)
Thanks again!
no subject
Actually, there's Akari from the Japan-only How I Became A Pokémon Card manga; the word "trans" is never said, but it's clear that he's meant to be a trans* boy (his entire story is here, here, and here, although I feel like I should warn for expressed cissexism by other characters).
Also, ferrets-are-awesome currently goes by furry-furrets, and Tumblr doesn't redirect for some reason when users change their names. A while back, I also got a nice fic of a trans* Pikachu on a separate meme (I was anon at the time, but, yes, I was the requester).
Anyways, this is fantastic to see! Pokémon is one of my main fandoms, and I'm always excited to find trans* fanworks for it.
no subject