I just saw a post you made about Silk (Belgariad) being trans and I just wanted to say thank you, ily, that post made my month. <3
I'm so glad the post resonated with you! The Belgariad (for all of its flaws) remains near and dear to my heart, and I made that post while I was doing a re-read while recovering from my own top surgery. Since I made that post, I've had some more thoughts on trans Silk that I never really felt the need to type up. However, your ask inspired me, so I took the opportunity to expand on them some more!
(This got kind of long, so putting it behind a cut.)
I think reading Silk as trans is absolutely supported in the text (not because Eddings intended for this reading, but because doing a trans reading of literally anything is my own prerogative and there's frankly a LOT there for Silk):
He's a short king, he absolutely DELIGHTS in disguising himself and playing with different flavors of masculinity, his attitude towards being (technically) in the line of succession for the throne is that it's all one big joke. And while I don't think he has any interest in ruling (he calls it an 'accident of birth' at one point, iirc), in a world where Kheldar was born female and became male through magic, he would have to make it very clear that he wasn't going to try to seek the throne lest he whip the vast majority of the Drasnian nobility into a frothing rage at the audacity of a 'princess' reaching above 'her' station. The world of the Belgariad is DEEPLY misogynistic (some of which is clearly deliberate, because Eddings provides examples of women who chafe at and push back against societal expectations, but some of which is more clearly NOT deliberate, and is a function of Eddings' own baked-in biases). I cannot imagine Silk's transition would be easily accepted under Drasnian societal norms, EVEN IF the Alorn Kingdoms have a framework for understanding and accepting the intervention and interference of powerful magic users like Belgarath. He's also in a kind of self-exile, with characters (esp. Porenn, more on her shortly) asking him when he's going to come home. It could, if one was so inclined, paint a picture of a member of the royal family who caused some kind of scandal and then made himself scarce in order to not cause more problems.
There are also places where I think reading Silk as trans improves the text, especially in relation to a few of the key women in his life.
One of those relationships is Porenn. She's married to his uncle, Silk is in love with her, she is aware of but doesn't return his feelings. I don't remember how much backstory we got for their relationship specifically, but given that Porenn is much younger than Rhodar, and how well she is shown to know Silk (she's the one who talks to Silk about his mother being present when they're in Drasnia in the 4th book, and knows enough about how Silk gets around her to know that once he cries, he can be put to bed, more on this shortly), I have to imagine that she and Silk grew up together and were quite close. Silk was likely in love with her for a long time, but she never returned his feelings and eventually ended up marrying his uncle and becoming Queen and also his Aunt. In a world where Silk is trans, Porenn and Silk may have actually been friends and peers within ladies society growing up! In this version, because Porenn primarily knew Silk as a woman, Silk might never have seemed like a viable option for Porenn to consider romantically (whether due to her own sexuality or societal expectation). Even if Silk professed his feelings to Porenn, or told her about wanting to be a man, Porenn likely wouldn't have been able to believe that Silk could ever actually transition socially (let alone physically). Consider, even, a world where Porenn's engagement to Rhodar is what pushed Silk to finally take the chance to become who he always knew himself to be, to try to win her over, but in the end, Porenn was never in love with Silk, (and maybe could never truly see Silk as a man). (In this version of events, I can see Silk deep in his cups, complaining to Belgarath who was like 'oh you just want to change your physical form? easy, hold my beer')
My absolute FAVORITE thing to consider, though, is Silk's relationship with his mother. She was a renowned beauty who lost her looks due to the disfiguring effects of a plague that also left her blind. Silk sees her rarely, and when he does, he has to mentally prepare himself and then drink until he cries afterwards. We're told this is because he has to keep up the lie that his mother is still beautiful while he interacts with her, and this affects him so greatly that he becomes a crying drunk about it afterwards. Now… It's fine, I guess, for all of these things to be true. However. However. What if the reason this relationship is so fraught isn't because he has to lie to his mother about her lost beauty. What if it's because she DOESN'T KNOW HE TRANSITIONED. What if Silk looked a lot like his mother, the great beauty, pre-transition. What if Silk's mother, (who MUST SURELY KNOW THAT SHE HAS BEEN DISFIGURED BECAUSE A BLIND WOMAN CAN STILL TOUCH HER OWN DAMN FACE, DAVID) clings to the idea that her beauty is still reflected in her 'daughter'? What if the hardship is that Silk has to put himself back in the closet for his mother who would not be supportive if she found out? Who would likely feel personally attacked by Silk 'rejecting' something that was taken from her? I just feel like this provides a WAY more interesting explanation for why Silk is so affected by seeing her, rather than the canonical one. Which is, in my opinion, stupid, shallow, and deeply misogynistic.
Finally, you CANNOT tell me that Belgarath 'yeah the love of my life, mother of my children, was originally a wolf that I met when I was also a wolf. Don't make that face, Garion, bodies are made up, who cares?' (I summarized it in a silly way, but this is a canon conversation) is not THE #1 TRANS ALLY OF THE MILLENNIUM. I think Belgarath performs gender affirming magic in every town he goes through. I think he can spot a sad trans person from a mile away and knows EXACTLY how to approach them to get them to spill their most secret, deepest wish that they could have the body they were meant to, at which point he says something like "Be you" and then vanishes again before the person can even register what just happened.
I think Polgara disapproves of his tendencies based SOLELY ON THE FACT that he never thinks to provide his patients with an appropriate change of clothes afterwards. If Polgara does your top surgery, you WILL be getting a perfectly tailored shirt and/or corset from her before you leave her presence, thankyouverymuch.
Thanks for reaching out! This was a lot of fun to think about and type up today.