#path of daggers

[agardenandlibrary]

Elyas: I bet your new Saldaean wife is like a leopard

Perrin: HEY NOW — well, okay, yes, actually Faile would LOVE to be called a leopard

[leechingvorta]

that's a canon queer character! there was occasional heavy subtext before and some very close calls, but she's straight up stated to be one. neat.

Turning, [Sulin] paused. “Tell me something. Teryl Wynter and Furen Alharra are close to Seonid Traighan—like first-brothers with a first-sister; she does not like men as men—yet they offered to take her punishment for her. How could they shame her so?”

[ayceofqueens]

My Preferred Rep in Wheel of Time Fanfic

I am disappointed by the lack of WoT fanfics which explore trans characters in the way that I want them to be explored. Most of the ones which do feature trans character go about it in a way that is unsatisfying for me.

I'll preface this by saying that I don't dislike this representation, nor do I think it is bad. Ppl can and should write whatever the fuck they want.

With that out of the way, my personal gripe with the handful of WoT fanfic I've found which explore trans channelers, is that most of them take what I'll call the Cosmic Validation approach, where a trans character is born with a soul that matches their gender, but not their body's sex. I think this is largely done for two reasons:

First, is that there's technically precedent in the story, with at least one character who has explicitly had the experience of a soul whose sex did not match that of their body.

Second is the namesake of the approach. I think that, for many people, writing a trans-male character as having a female-born body, but a male soul which channels Saidin fills a fantasy of cosmic validation. This character is, definitively, a man, because their soul is that of a man.

Setting aside that the sole example of an ambiguously trans character was the result of unnatural influence from the Big Bad Evil Guy, and that the character in question almost explicitly exhibited autogynephilia (fictitious paraphilia which was invented to invalidate trans women) after their forced transition, I still, personally, do not like this form of transness for a couple of reasons.

The first is that, I just personally do not like cosmic validation as a concept. No shade to those who like it and find comfort in it; more power to them. I don't like it because I feel like creating a setting with such cosmic validation, which would ostensibly skip all of the bullshit we're currently dealing with in the real world, is very uninteresting. Seeing how the world deals with a person they initially perceived as a man or woman in every way, even down to which half of the power they channel, deciding that, no, I'm actually going to be not that, feels like a more interesting and compelling prospect to me. That, and it either ignores non-binary people, or relegates all of them to the status of non-channelers.

Second is that I also just feel that it does not reflect my experience as a trans person. In my experience as a trans woman, most of the dysphoria I experienced in my life has been neurological. I often think like a man, and not just in ways that are socially conditioned. I did not know it at the time, but when I was in highschool, I had a strong feeling of envy for many of the depressed girls I knew. Looking back, I am able to recognize that this was because I was depressed, but it did not manifest in me the same way that it did for them, and I felt that it should manifest the way theirs did. So, bringing it back to WoT, I find that exploring the trans experience in a world where sexual dimorphism extends to one's very soul has very interesting potential.

I also feel that exploring channeling dysphoria could be interesting, particularly because channeling is repeatedly likened to sex in the books. The idea of somebody being dysphoric about the half of The One Power that they channel is very interesting to me. I imagine trans men and women deliberately trying to burn themselves out because of how awful they feel, with some of them accidentally dying as a consequence. But I also find the idea interesting because I imagine trans who don't experience channeling dysphoria, reflecting my experience as a trans woman who does not experience bottom dysphoria (and honestly feel that I would rather channel Saidin).

That said, I would ideally like a setting with both. You'll have the rare AMAB person who has soul that is connected to Saidar, many (but not all) of whom transition into women, and then you'll have some people who identify contrary to their sex, body and soul.

So, yeah. I've been unable to find fanfic which explores trans characters in a way that I would prefer, and that upsets me.

With all that said, I have found one fanfic that I'm really enjoying, which explores the cosmic validation approach. Fair warning though, the author updates extremely slowly, and has no intention of picking up the pace:

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[janeways-coffees]

Every single aviendha POV in path of daggers is the gayest shit i've ever read every time she thinks about elayne like. Damn she was keeping it quiet in book 4 when she was talking to rand about elayne lmaoooo

[caffeinateddreamthoughts]

Post-book 8 thoughts:

Still not a huge fan of Faile's attitude, but now that I know it's part of her culture I'm more understanding and forgiving. Elyas, you did a much better job explaining than Bashere did

Egwene my love, the way you handed the Hall's asses to them on a silver platter was *chefs kiss*

Rand, my dude, if you don't let some joy into your life the stress will kill you before the Dark Lord will. Also stop running from the Maidens and keeping them from battle, you're damaging any sort of goodwill they have for you, you dumbass. I didn't like Cadsuane at first but now I'm excited for her to thump some sense into that dense head of yours

The Asha'man are definitely working for Taim, right? Like they don't actually have any loyalty to Rand, just the Black Tower? I have an awful feeling about this

The Nynaeve/Elayne/Birgitte/Aviendha adventure continues to be one of my favorites, even more so now that Lan is added to the mix. And Elayne asking Aviendha to be first sisters? AUGH

I adored the Seanchan sections! It's fascinating seeing how the different cultures work and the different power structures at play

It is quite funny that Morgase is just There, even if There is now gai'shain to the Shaido lmao

WHERE'S MY BOY MAT. RJ GIVE HIM BACK

I'm definitely feeling the slog, this book was my lowest rated so far, but it had its good moments. It probably doesn't feel as bad to me since I listen to the audiobooks at work. I've seen a couple spoilers for the next book and I'm excited! On to the next!

[lordgolden]

😭🥺💖

I LOVE THEMMM

[tiredmoonslut]

Me: *fully convinced the Aes Sedai don't use hand movements for channeling except for maybe, like, fireballs, and that all the body movement in the show was purely a show convention

*Robert Jordan randomly revealing in book eight that the Aes Sedai have been using hand gestures for channeling the whole time

Me: What 😀

[orbit-of-eternity]

This is a PSA from ya boi, Lews Therin, telling you to

kill him