gachiakuta 172 spoilers under the cut!!! except for the canon fact that kyouka asexually reproduced zanka and that is her lil mini-me
i would like to point out that this chapter is technically our very first proper rudo smile. the fact that ZANKA'S SISTER, way more uptight than he is, could tell that he was smiling??? and it was the cutest expression in the world??? HE SMILED. HE SMILED!!! EVERYONE CHEER FOR HIM RIGHT NOW, HE SMILED.
and it's genuinely so sweet that he didn't care that she was captain of the hellguard or could physically fight back against him, no, rudo is only actively trying to be polite because he knows this is zanka's big sister. even if zanka's probably gonna laugh his ass off when he hears rudo initially gave kyouka a hard time.
and those two??? JUST ALIKE. i'm honestly not too into zanka gender headcanons, but i have so many thoughts and such about his relationship with kyouka and the reason why he looks just like her in the way he presents himself. has her attitude, tries to emulate her authority, lord have mercy that is just kyouka but blue!!! and the fact that she still loves him, even in a really twisted way, while he hates her... her dear zanka :(
and this may be a controversial opinion, but what i'm most glad about is the fact that kyouka and rudo do end up just having a casual conversation. i never thought the hellguard would be these big, villainous, abusive figures toward our protagonist!
aside from the fact that we've been made to believe they have to maintain a certain image and reputation, they areee cops, specifically targeting giver activities. but the cleaners aren't just random givers? they're a necessary organization, very essential workers and civil servants, that deal with trash beasts; something that the hellguard can't do. and as much as kyouka and the hellguard look down on givers, what're they gonna do if the cleaners went on strike? a whole lot of suffering!!!
so they HAVE to treat these people with respect, can't be too evil with or about them, and that really shines through in how kyouka talks to rudo. she's not inherently mean, she's as stern and serious as she normally is minus her cute lil code-switching moments, and didn't treat him with any form of hostility until he did first. she's only asking him questions, even sarcastically commenting at him not dissimilarly to zanka, and it shows that she's human too!
i'm not a lore or theorizing person so i'm not gonna even TRY to speak on the connection to the sphere and the ground, just know i still think the sphere is the moon and no one will ever take that from me
something that really stood out to me was the notion that "you can't be a giver on the sphere" because, aside from the lore implications of it, i think that's due to the detached nature everyone has from objects. even rudo, someone who was essentially born to be a giver, being unable to activate 3R because everyone around him besides regto talked down on them as "just dirty gloves". that mindset, even if he didn't agree with it, seeped into everything! it also makes me think of my "chiwa got dropped too" AU and how SHE wasn't incapable of becoming a giver, but it happened very belatedly because she held onto the mentality she was raised with on the sphere
i think kyouka is very cool and i think rudo is very cute and i LOVE GACHIAKUTA!!! i miss jabber.
Hello! I mean to say this with utmost respect and I genuinely don’t want to start ANY problems whatsoever, If you take a offense to this please take it with a grain of salt because that’s not what I’m trying to get at 🫶
me personally as a queer trans person, I just find it a little weird when people start calling Canonically male/female characters trans or genderfluid, not as an au but as the character themself. Sometimes it confuses me because it’s like ?? And people get so mad when people do the same to trans or genderfluid characters. I maybe overreacting with this so if I am let me know, but honestly it’s something I’ve seen a lot in the gachiakuta fandom. And while AU’s with that stuff don’t bother me at all, labeling the actual character as something they CANONICALLY aren’t does.
I’m not saying you’re doing this btw I just needed to rant my head off a little bit! Thanks for listening and let me know if I worded anything wrong 🪽-
awww hi wing nonnie !!
i wanna start this off by saying i didn't take this wrong, and honestly i agree! i feel like i know exactly what you're talking about, and even if we're not on the exact same page, i'll say what i'm thinking fully transparently under the cut.
i hope this doesn't offend anyone and i hope i don't say anything disrespectful!! this is me speaking from my experiences and viewpoint while interacting with the gachiakuta fandom!!
i wanna start off by correcting you, because this kind of thing is completely different than making trans/genderfluid characters cis or otherwise.
removing or changing the queer representation assigned to a character by their creator is just blatantly disrespectful, to both the creator and the group being represented, as every little bit of positive messaging matters. to try and twist it or take it away is just hella gross
people are allowed to have trans hcs, or genderfluid hcs, or queer hcs in general for cis characters, because there's an overabundance of cis characters and they gotta learn to share. assigning gender headcanons can help add interesting nuance to fan interpretations, help more people feel seen and represented, and allow more people to better connect to the character. the inverse is harmful, as it serves to remove or shift representation, and it shouldn't be compared or condoned.
NOW. assuming this is what you're talking about:
i do love the transfem zanka headcanon, very very much, especially with the relationship zanka has with kyouka?? it serves for some AMAZING exploration of the dynamics between the nijiku siblings, zanka's relationship to the whole ground!!! and while it's a really really good headcanon, it's important to acknowledge that he is not trans in canon. not a trans boy or girl, and not transmasc or transfemme
i myself understand having headcanons that you get really attached to, or fandoms having widespread popular ones, but i agree with you when i say people need to specify these are headcanons? partly because it confuses people who don't know the canon story for certain, but also because it really does serve to ostracize people who don't agree with the headcanon and don't want to apply it?? if that makes sense??
i've seen people start using she/her pronouns for zanka just because tons of other people have, people who believe zanka is a trans girl because other people directly say "yes this is canon she's a girl", and even people who go out of their way to question you if you don't use she/her pronouns for zanka. and it, to me, turns it from a harmless gender headcanon to imposing something onto someone else's character.
i understand it's not done maliciously or even intentionally, fandoms and headcanons tend to get like this, but it really does get to a point where we need to be able to transparently draw that line between headcanon and canon. we can enjoy these headcanons and love them so much and explore them to our heart's content!!
and i just want to say, this is just my personal opinion. and, under all of this: this is not an attack on any specific person or creator, nor on the transfem zanka headcanon as a whole. i love the people who write transfem zanka and girl zanka, it's amazing art and writing and representation!!! and if you have hate in your heart for any of it, you can actually factually stay off my page and go to hell. it's a little irritating or confusing at times, but it's just something that people have to have a little more tact when navigating and NOT something that should be stopped completely or hated on
i saw your genderfluid jabber post and actually jumped for joy, i feel like i'm the one person in the world who thinks about his relationship with femininity and beauty and how those things present on a black boy(?). but i'm curious to know what you think of his relationship with women because i've admittedly never thought about it
I'M JUMPING FOR JOY AT THIS ASK. HIII THINK SO MUCH ABOUT JABBER'S BLACKNESS AND HOW THAT WOULD IMPACT HOW HE GOES ABOUT THE WORLD IT'S MY FAVORITE THING.
i don't want to reveal toooo much about my jabber backstory headcanons just yet, not unless asked, but i do love the widely accepted headcanon that he was raised by a single mom!!
and i choose to believe, in my modern AU or any AU where he gets to be around his biological family, he's just SURROUNDED by girls. his mama, his cousins, his aunties, just girls girls girls. and THAT would really impact his gender presentation and femininity teeheehee but that's a story for another day
THIS story, on jabber and his relationship to women and femininity, is under the cut!! just because it got pretty long
my biggest thing about my indie take of jabber is that it's not his mom who messed him up so bad, but the other women he'd end up under the care of. in my version of his backstory, he was taken in by a woman who really really hammered in that he's a BOY. a big strong tough BOY, a young man even!! bc god forbid black boys aren't adultified right!
i love love LOVE exploring the whole idea of him as a black boy being hyper-masculinized. because, the way i write his canon backstory, he was not raised as a loved brother and son and little boy with his mom and sisters. he was raised as an instrument of violence, and a tool for someone else's profit. and even though he was not explicitly Told "men good and strong, women weak and lame", because of that whole Strong Young Man thing, jabber upholds his "manhood" alongside his strength and all the masculine stuff that comes with it
it's why ( again, the way i write him!! ) he thinks he's being Funny byyy not paying for shit, being really chatty and petty and dismissive and stuff. because jabber has the very childish "cats are girls, dogs are boys" mentality, and so he thinks it's silly and fun and less serious to be more catty, more girly!!!
because, to him, it's not Actually who he is. he's still a big dog, he's still a guy ( he doesn't know he's jabkitty in cats&dogs AU, no one tell him )!! so in him aiming to be taken less seriously, and to take the world around him less seriously, he acts more like what he thinks girls are like. as if that's not just his personality.
and all is this is part of my larger take on how i think women/girls are widely seen and treated on the ground!! jabber isn't a hardcore misogynist that puts down women, he is not enjin stilza akuta, but he was just raised to see his own manhood and masculinity as Better than any kind of womanhood or femininity he could engage in.
things about hsau gachiteens that i feel is important for everyone to know:
- follo and momoa are cousins and they don't tell anybody until like. the day of graduation.
- momoa's part of the school newspaper and has a specific section just dedicated to her song recommendations. she secretly runs the gossip column, and no one thinks it's her because she seems really sleepy and always has her headphones on ( it's how she eavesdrops )
- jabber, zanka, fu, and momoa are in the same grade, with riyo a year below them and follo a year above them
- jabber and zanka regularly fight each other. zanka's accepted the detentions as long as they don't actually go on his record
- ( zanka actually believes in a permanent record. no one tell him )
- riyo is the only one that's never gotten dress-coded for breaking the school uniform. this is because she's my favorite, and also because she's really good at knowing how to just barely break the rules
- jabber is salutatorian. he has also skipped class more than any other student combined. his teachers rlly like him #okay he turns his work in
- riyo got out of school suspension in freshman year because she was running a haircut and piercing business in the girl's bathroom. she does it again for junior prom
- fu and jabber are childhood friends and often walk home together. fu finds out that everyone's coming over when they all just follow him to his place and he never tells them to go away
- zanka failed the honors test to get into the fancy high school he was supposed to go to, which is why he goes to grounds with everyone else. hyo passed, but she just ends up not liking the school and leaving to come to the same school zanka and everyone else goes to. he does in fact have a panic attack seeing her in his first period calculus class
- hyo proceeds to become president of the student council, with jabber as her vice. they work so well together, zanka was only pissed for a few days
- hyo joins every club and ghosts more than half of them. somehow, drama club is what sticks with her and she loves it
- gris is the junior-senior phys ed teacher and follo is regularly pawned off to him when enjin runs out of busywork to give him so that follo can play in gym with everyone else. this is the origin of the great follo-zanka beef
- zanka swears he's not gonna get got by senioritis, but he's the main one curled up on the beanbags in the back of enjin's classroom during his free periods
- none of them, and i mean NONE OF THEM, like counselor tamsy goddamn caines. they all go to tomme, who's the underclassmen counselor, and she accepts them with open arms
- they all skipped prom and went to six flags in their prom fits. it was a good night
- momoa made everybody get airbuds so she can judge their music taste. she and fu didn't talk for a week when she caught him listening to taylor swift
giggling to myself abt hsau janka in gym class together, bc you know EVERYTHING is a competition for them.
specifically the presidential fitness test?? they partner up, because of course they do. jabber makes zanka do his sit-ups first, and just stares at him really hard while holding his ankles down. doesn't count or anything, just like, really menacing bug-eyed stare ?? to the point where zanka gets annoyed at him and tells him to "take a damn picture ??" and loses count when jabber tells him he's too sweaty for that
( jabber was counting in his head ) ( the intense stare was so he didn't start talking to zanka and lose focus ) ( "see i was just hella distracted by the pimple on your—" and he can't even finish, zanka smacks him ) ( "no but you actually got a—" (SMACK) "ow!! ( ← joyous ) alr zitty, damn—OUCH." )
( zanka does have a little budding pimple near his hairline ) ( he punches jabber for not telling him sooner, fake ass ) ( dw, he takes one of riyo's star patches and puts it on there. he has no shame and very solid masculinity )
AND GOD FORBID THEY GOTTA DO THE PACER TEST. zanka's got a bad leg ( lovely is his mobility aid, she's a forearm crutch or cane in my heart ) it starts aching when he puts pressure on it too much, and he's like. medically exempt from doing excessive running, ie The Pacer Test, but jabber?? mr. jabber "can do a solid hundred laps easy peasy, usually the last one running just to show off" james wonger??? nnnnah. no way zanka's letting him win.
and he proceeds to tap out one lap after jabber does, all triumphant and sweaty and panting... fully. limping. like he's basically hopping to go sit somewhere on the floor because his leg hurts BADDDD. but it's zanka, he refuses help or a piggy back ride or a pass to the nurse. what, he doesn't need it! he's a grown seventeen year old boy, he doesn't need. ...? where's his. hello???
( "... jabber." "yea? ^^"
"??? don't Yea me, scuzzball. you left my bookbag?"
"yyyep! 'cause what happened to 'i don't need yer help, ya show off-y piece'a shit' ?? very sure that's what i heard, z."
"... arright, fine. and i hope somebody stole that ugly damn lafufu bullshit ya pinned on there—"
"CHILL yk im not on that broke shit it's a REAL LABUBU. and they better had not?? hollup," ) ( ← this exact thing happens often )
that was very much it, but i need y'all to imagine zanka doing the flex arm hang and just hanging there for a bit, yk he's a show-off too dpwm, and then jabber just starts booing him LMAO and everybody else boos him Too and he gets pissed and drops down and ruins his time LMAOOO
sooo many lil thoughts about jabber's childhood. the corruption of mankira's small form, and how she loves him so much regardless of it. the origins of his loving relationship with pain. his relationship with women, mothers and titis, and his own relationship with femininity and its antithesis. send me asks and fall for my genderfluid jabber propaganda NOWWW!!!
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