this is a sideblog! adult, they/them, hiveswap... not quite oldgen, but definitely not newgen. posts/reblogs about homestuck too sometimes, when it pertains
BECAUSE IF YOU HAVEN'T...... IT COULD DESTROY MY LIFE FOREVER.........
MAKE SURE YOU DO IT... AND TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS TO DO IT BEFORE THE FIRST 48 HOURS ARE UP...... OR THE WICKED "YACHT OVERLORD" AT BIG STEAM MIGHT SHADOWBAN MY GAME.........
and of course i shall deliver 🫡 though real quick, some context for everyone; we started out getting our mutual friend @newtnest to play act 1 while the two of us watched (we have both played it; bee in 2017, me in 2019, but newt had no firsthand homestuck knowledge whatsoever) at which point bee brought up that xefros had vaguely given her transfem vibes for years, which is something i hadn't considered before. i'll let her elaborate on what her thoughts were if she wants to, but it was all based on her experience playing act 1 as she had never played act 2 until yesterday
after finishing the game, we switched spots and bee started playing act 2. like i said, it's like my eyes were opened after what she said. moments in the game that i never thought much about suddenly seemed very conspicuous; there were parts where we just looked at each other like "……….😳………" and she kept saying "oh my god i was right"
(^ from @eridan-ampora's transcript)
I figured that there was some dialogue we missed, so I went and looked through the transcript to see if anything else jumped out at me:
(i didn't go any further than this because this is where we stopped playing and i don't want to spoil bee on the rest of the game)
i feel that there are a lot of small aspects of xefros' character in these games that could support him being transfem. most, if not all of these aspects can be mainly attributed to other factors (such as his place on the hemospectrum, or the way dammek treats him), but i find that these things can go hand-in-hand with a trans reading (like how, for example, june's sense of being adrift and disconnection from the world around her is a symptom of how she clings to the false ideal of her childhood, but it's also due to her living pre-transition as an inauthentic shell of herself)
one big aspect is that he's consistently self-depricating and has little to no self-confidence—a distinct symptom of dysphoria
something that i think is interesting is that this is an intentional subversion of the jock trope that he embodies, but it wouldn't make sense for the game's secondary protagonist to stay this way forever without any personal growth. homestuck's overall story places heavy emphasis on subverting norms, so being transfem would continue to follow this theme
going back to that fourth screenshot, i remembered that the song that plays in xefros' hive is this one:
that is, it plays in every room of his house... except for his sports room, the 1 room where he allows himself to have fun, be a kid, and overall be a more authentic version of himself. so, given the context of how it's used in act 1 and 2, "keeping your head down" represents repressing that authentic part of yourself in response to authoritative force and danger
another aspect is that xefros is someone who can be heavily in denial of what's going on:
and sees himself dying young:
these aspects could be reasons for xefros surpressing a potential trans realization
it even adds a new layer of depth to his moirallegiance with dammek; i've made comparisons before between them and cases of men who've fought for workers' rights and class equality who then leave their wives to cook, clean, and do the dishes:
so this is further supported with the possibility of xefros being a girl
all of these factors, combined with how there are already trans characters in hiveswap and he's a character created by a trans person, make me think that this outcome is very possible. (plus, the fact that act 3 is being produced by a trans woman doesn't hurt either)
joey claire is an autistic girl who has no friends, is frustrated that she doesnt understand what is and isnt age-appropriate, stims by dancing even when there isnt any music, and hyper-empathizes with (and gives pet treats to) pretty much everything in her house thank you for coming to my ted talk
when i finally scrape together the mental energy to write an analysis/explanation post about why autistic joey is a good read? it's OVER for all of you. one day...
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