Okay, so bear with me a moment and consider this thought I had: Mordred as a trans man.
- The doom prophecy about the May Day baby specifically referring to a son, so when Arthur learns that Morgause’s May baby is a daughter, he breathes a huge sigh of relief and lets it fade from his mind. Crisis averted.
- Mordred spends most of his childhood being cossetted by his mother, who’s happy to have a little girl amongst all these boys. Mordred doesn’t care for his brothers or their violent games; he has a greater affinity for Morgause’s magic instead.
- He doesn’t really start to notice that he’s “different” in any vital way until his body begins to change: he never considered that he would start to resemble his mother in the physical ways his brothers resemble their father. Each change is more awful than the last, but he doesn’t know why.
- The answers come bit by bit, mostly by accident. He’s more comfortable in Gawain’s hand-me-downs. He accidentally catches his hair on fire, so it must be cut, and he likes the look of it better. Strangers call him “boy” and he gradually forgets to correct them. His aunt Morgan puts the final piece in the puzzle when she says that he was always destined to be her favorite nephew.
- He goes to Camelot as a young man, wearing his new identity like a bright suit of armor. Arthur meets him for the first time, and his stomach sinks at the sight of a boy, equal parts himself and Morgause, staring back at him.
