as an extension of how hera reads as trans to me, hera/eiffel resonates with me specifically as a relationship between a trans woman and a cis man. loving hera requires eiffel to decenter his own perspective in a way that ties into both his overall character arc and the themes of the show.
pop culture is baked into the dna of wolf 359, into eiffelās worldview, and in how it builds off of a sci-fi savvy audienceās assumptions: common character types, plot beats, or dynamics, why would a real person behave this way? how would a real person react to that? eiffel is the āeverymanā who assumes himself to be the default. hera is the āAI who is more human than a lot of humans,ā but it doesnāt feel patronizing because it isnāt a learned or moral quality; she is a fundamentally human person who is routinely dehumanized and internalizes that.
eiffel/hera as a romance is compelling to me because there is a narrative precedent for some guy/AI or robot woman relationships in a way i think mirrors some attitudes about trans women: itās a male power fantasy about a subclass of women, or itās a cautionary tale, or itās a deconstruction of a power fantasy that criticizes the way men treat women as subservient, as property. but what does that pop culture landscape mean in the context of desire? If you are a regular person, attracted to a regular person, who really does care for you and wants to do right by you, but is deeply saturated in these expectations? how do you navigate that?
I think that, in itself, is an aspect of communication worth exploring. sometimes you wonāt get it. sometimes you canāt. and thatās not irreconcilable, either. itās something wolf 359 is keenly aware of, and, crucially, always sides with hera on. eiffel screws up. he says insensitive things without meaning to. often, hera will call him out on it, and he will defer to her. in the one case where he notably doesnāt, the show calls attention to it and makes him reflect. itās not a coincidence that the opening of shut up and listen has eiffel being particularly dismissive of hera - the microaggression of separating her from āmen and womenā and the insistence on using his preferred title over hers. there are things eiffel has just never considered before, and caring for hera the way he does means he has to consider them. he's never met someone like hera, but media has given him a lot of preconceptions about what people like her might be like.
thereās a whole other discussion to be had about the gender dynamics of wolf 359, even in the ways the show tries to avoid directly addressing them, and how sexual autonomy in particular canāt fully be disentangled from explorations of AI women. i donāt think eiffel fully recognizes what comments like āwind-up girlā imply, and the show is not prepared to reconcile with it, but itās interesting to me. in the context of transness (and also considering heraās disability, two things i think need to be discussed together), i think itās worth discussing how heraās self image is at odds with the way people perceive her, her disconnect from physicality, how she canāt be touched by conventional means, and the ways in which eiffel and hera manage to bridge that gap.
even the desire for embodiment, and the autonomy and type of intimacy that comes with it, means something different when itās something she has to fight for, to acquire, to become accustomed to, rather than a circumstance of her birth. i suppose the reason i donāt care for half measures in discussions re: hera and embodiment is also because, to me, it is in many ways symbolically a discussion about medical transition, and the social fear of whatās ālostā in transition, whether or not those things were even desired in the first place.
heraās relationship with eiffel is unquestionably the most supportive and equal one she has, but there are still privileges, freedoms, and abilities he has that she doesnāt, and he forgets that sometimes. he will never share her experiences, but he can choose to defer to her, to unlearn his pop culture biases and instead recognize the real person in front of him, and to use his own privilege as a shield to advocate for her. the point, to me - whatās meaningful about it - is that love isnāt about inherent understanding, itās about willingness to listen, and to communicate. and thatās very much at the heart of the show.
