Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
There are some... considerations in place, but otherwise you are absolutely right.
A Practical Guide to a Cushy Retirement ( Youjo Senki/APGTE )
- Thread starter Raiseth
- Start date
- Fantasy
There are some... considerations in place, but otherwise you are absolutely right.
AionVal
(Verified Figment)
- Location
- Beyond The Veil
In universe, that would be called an encounter dictated by Fate.
Although, if Named!Tanya didn't had any easily exploitable weaknesses Creation would make one happen for drama's sake.
Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
In universe, that would be called an encounter dictated by Fate.
Although, if Named!Tanya didn't had any easily exploitable weaknesses Creation would make one happen for drama's sake.
Maybe a distinct limp? Oh wait, that's taken.
How about a distinct lisp, lol?
Edison_Trent
Freelancer
So, forever? Heh.
Nah, then she can't go on fun rants or properly pronounce all the cool Bible-ish quotes for her spells.
But she'll definitely get a lime (allergy).
About Tanya’s Gender Identity
Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
There was a discussion on Space Battles tangentially related with a rather controversial topic, so I decided to crosspost my explanation here to preempt any questions about it and because I'm a hopeless optimist who believes that his readers are mature individuals wouldn't start a shitstorm just because we touched an adult topic.
Wink wink, nudge nudge.
The topic is, eh, Tanya's gender and her view of it. If this makes you uncomfortable to read, you can stop now and just be assured that Tanya is a 'she' in this story. Okay.
Now, a disclaimer. This is not meant to represent real life interpretation of gender or, God forbid, encompass my overall opinion on the topic. Incidentally, my opinion is "Tell me your pronouns, and I will do my very best to accommodate you as soon as I manage to browbeat my instinctual reactions and being taught to use 'he' as gender-neutral by my English teacher".
Now, Tanya. This is a massive cop-out, but I'm going to simplify it by saying she's genderqueer.
Now, what this means specifically in this situation. Manga chose to portray the young salaryman as socially isolated and fairly androgynous in his looks, which mostly tracks. The reason he identified as male is because he possessed outwardly male sexual characteristics, and because it was the most rational course of action to him. He didn't even think about it that much. Japan is predominately patriarchal in its societal composition, arguably more so than many of the other countries, and the world overall still views male gender as the stronger, more successful, more rational if you really wanna dig into stereotypes. Being male and not a member of sexual minority for whatever reasons translates into easier career advancement for him, so it's an easy decision, uncomplicated further by his apparent disinterest in anything sexually related or anything career unrelated at all.
Now, why Tanya would for example be so pissed about getting reborn as female, aside from the obvious reasons. Firstly, it's about power and control. In fact, it's mostly about power and control. She most certainly didn't choose it and if given a choice would have almost certainly defaulted to getting reborn as male. With all things being equal, again, being identified as male by other people would have been easier for her life in Germania, because, well, being male was easier period in the twentieth century aside from the small wrinkle that it's usually guys who were drafted to fight and die on frontlines during the world wars.
So, firstly, Being X changed her body without her consent. I don't ascribe to the concept that soul is gendered, but that's my religious views, so let's talk about factual science instead. There is strong ( and mounting ) supportive evidence that brains are in fact gendered. Brain is a part of a body. Being X could have certainly arranged for Tanya to be born with an essentially male brain in a female body, but let's just not go that way. Besides, as the closest thing to the religious fundamentalist in-universe, essentially being a portrayal of or a being masquerading as the Abrahamic God, with the Bible and other assorted religious texts certainly not providing such concepts as "tolerance to homosexuality", much less "genderqueer identity", I don't believe he even knows or acknowledges it's a thing. So. Being X transported Salaryman's soul into female body, which translates into her getting saddled with the personality, memories and batshit biases of her previous life. The gap between being born and becoming aware of surroundings is neatly explained by her brain growing enough to support cognizance and self-awareness, as well as the memories of previous life.
Secondly, again, he fucked up her chances to survive. A small girl growing up in an orphanage is like the worst possible scenario that precludes life expectancy numbering in double digits instead of dying in a ditch, nope, that would have been too easy. Magic doesn't necessarily help with that. If she hadn't enlisted she would have probably been drafted later like Visha, in battlefield support role at least. Granted, running headfirst into becoming a child soldier wasn't the objectively smartest thing, either, but that's a digression.
Lastly, it's about deeply rooted existential fear. He upended every single constant in her life, violated her body, factually made her his plaything for his amusement. It's an attack on ego that could have easily resulted in her acquiring a plethora of new mental issue, and could for example explain her psychopathic episodes during the war as a need to express control and superiority to cope with her insecure ego.
Okay, now to deescalate. Since Tanya ( in this story ) subconsciously views gender as a societal construct of preconceptions and prejudices built by people instead of a thing she intimately possesses and has to interact with on daily basis, like having sex with other people, for example, she doesn't have any overt objections with playing up to people's expectations aside from the most egregious ones, like wearing a dress. She identifies as female because that's how she looks and because it doesn't cause her any inherent discomfort of gender dysphoria. APGTE world is much more accepting of LGBTQ+ minorities as a result of heroes coming from all ways of life regardless of their gender and sexuality, but she 1) doesn't necessarily knows that, though there is available evidence if she cared to look 2) doesn't really care after coming to terms with it and redirecting all her anger towards the singular object of her hatred: Being X.
To summarize, she's fine with being called a 'she', so that's what I'm doing, she would have mixed feelings about being called 'he', and she would be largely indifferent to being called 'they' if the reason for that was explained to her.
Again, this all *points at the last thousand words* is the result of me having to come up with a plausible scenario for why Tanya isn't mentally unstable from being treated as female trans male thirty plus years salaryman stuck in an adolescent girl's body. I just wouldn't be able to write that character, I wouldn't do it justice, I would mostly just fuck up. I want to say that I did it as a fun mental exercise, but it wasn't 'fun', so.
Let's hope I will be able to handle it with care in the story I'm telling.
And sorry to everyone who had their hopes up after noticing an alert, but, eh, I wouldn't ever post such a small chapteranymore.
Wink wink, nudge nudge.
The topic is, eh, Tanya's gender and her view of it. If this makes you uncomfortable to read, you can stop now and just be assured that Tanya is a 'she' in this story. Okay.
Now, a disclaimer. This is not meant to represent real life interpretation of gender or, God forbid, encompass my overall opinion on the topic. Incidentally, my opinion is "Tell me your pronouns, and I will do my very best to accommodate you as soon as I manage to browbeat my instinctual reactions and being taught to use 'he' as gender-neutral by my English teacher".
Now, Tanya. This is a massive cop-out, but I'm going to simplify it by saying she's genderqueer.
Now, what this means specifically in this situation. Manga chose to portray the young salaryman as socially isolated and fairly androgynous in his looks, which mostly tracks. The reason he identified as male is because he possessed outwardly male sexual characteristics, and because it was the most rational course of action to him. He didn't even think about it that much. Japan is predominately patriarchal in its societal composition, arguably more so than many of the other countries, and the world overall still views male gender as the stronger, more successful, more rational if you really wanna dig into stereotypes. Being male and not a member of sexual minority for whatever reasons translates into easier career advancement for him, so it's an easy decision, uncomplicated further by his apparent disinterest in anything sexually related or anything career unrelated at all.
Now, why Tanya would for example be so pissed about getting reborn as female, aside from the obvious reasons. Firstly, it's about power and control. In fact, it's mostly about power and control. She most certainly didn't choose it and if given a choice would have almost certainly defaulted to getting reborn as male. With all things being equal, again, being identified as male by other people would have been easier for her life in Germania, because, well, being male was easier period in the twentieth century aside from the small wrinkle that it's usually guys who were drafted to fight and die on frontlines during the world wars.
So, firstly, Being X changed her body without her consent. I don't ascribe to the concept that soul is gendered, but that's my religious views, so let's talk about factual science instead. There is strong ( and mounting ) supportive evidence that brains are in fact gendered. Brain is a part of a body. Being X could have certainly arranged for Tanya to be born with an essentially male brain in a female body, but let's just not go that way. Besides, as the closest thing to the religious fundamentalist in-universe, essentially being a portrayal of or a being masquerading as the Abrahamic God, with the Bible and other assorted religious texts certainly not providing such concepts as "tolerance to homosexuality", much less "genderqueer identity", I don't believe he even knows or acknowledges it's a thing. So. Being X transported Salaryman's soul into female body, which translates into her getting saddled with the personality, memories and batshit biases of her previous life. The gap between being born and becoming aware of surroundings is neatly explained by her brain growing enough to support cognizance and self-awareness, as well as the memories of previous life.
Secondly, again, he fucked up her chances to survive. A small girl growing up in an orphanage is like the worst possible scenario that precludes life expectancy numbering in double digits instead of dying in a ditch, nope, that would have been too easy. Magic doesn't necessarily help with that. If she hadn't enlisted she would have probably been drafted later like Visha, in battlefield support role at least. Granted, running headfirst into becoming a child soldier wasn't the objectively smartest thing, either, but that's a digression.
Lastly, it's about deeply rooted existential fear. He upended every single constant in her life, violated her body, factually made her his plaything for his amusement. It's an attack on ego that could have easily resulted in her acquiring a plethora of new mental issue, and could for example explain her psychopathic episodes during the war as a need to express control and superiority to cope with her insecure ego.
Okay, now to deescalate. Since Tanya ( in this story ) subconsciously views gender as a societal construct of preconceptions and prejudices built by people instead of a thing she intimately possesses and has to interact with on daily basis, like having sex with other people, for example, she doesn't have any overt objections with playing up to people's expectations aside from the most egregious ones, like wearing a dress. She identifies as female because that's how she looks and because it doesn't cause her any inherent discomfort of gender dysphoria. APGTE world is much more accepting of LGBTQ+ minorities as a result of heroes coming from all ways of life regardless of their gender and sexuality, but she 1) doesn't necessarily knows that, though there is available evidence if she cared to look 2) doesn't really care after coming to terms with it and redirecting all her anger towards the singular object of her hatred: Being X.
To summarize, she's fine with being called a 'she', so that's what I'm doing, she would have mixed feelings about being called 'he', and she would be largely indifferent to being called 'they' if the reason for that was explained to her.
Again, this all *points at the last thousand words* is the result of me having to come up with a plausible scenario for why Tanya isn't mentally unstable from being treated as female trans male thirty plus years salaryman stuck in an adolescent girl's body. I just wouldn't be able to write that character, I wouldn't do it justice, I would mostly just fuck up. I want to say that I did it as a fun mental exercise, but it wasn't 'fun', so.
Let's hope I will be able to handle it with care in the story I'm telling.
And sorry to everyone who had their hopes up after noticing an alert, but, eh, I wouldn't ever post such a small chapter
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Edison_Trent
Freelancer
Might as well spoiler that here as well.
Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- It/Them
Yeah, can't see any Praesi person with at least a crumple of power tolerating any bias against them based on gender or sexual orientation. As that are problems that get solved very quickly by sentient tigers.
Through the goblin matron system has me very curious about its history. Obviously it is enforced now by copious application of magic, breeding for desired traits, magically enhanced breeding, backstabing, indoctrination and more backstabing. Through how did it got started? How did it survive the first few generations till it got itself entrenched?
Through, same as with the history of the gnomes, I don't think we will ever get an answer to that.
Through the goblin matron system has me very curious about its history. Obviously it is enforced now by copious application of magic, breeding for desired traits, magically enhanced breeding, backstabing, indoctrination and more backstabing. Through how did it got started? How did it survive the first few generations till it got itself entrenched?
Through, same as with the history of the gnomes, I don't think we will ever get an answer to that.
- Location
- Somewhere
Yeah, from what we've seen, Praesi culture is actually quite accepting in terms of orientation, as long as nobles actually produce an heir as well. One of the few positive aspects.
The only exception I can think of is that bisexuality is viewed as being better than being homo or hetro sexual, but seems to be less prejudice and more that being bisexual means your pool of people to be attracted to is twice as large.
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- It/Them
Fixed that for you, as iron sharpens iron
- Location
- Montana before it became stupidly Republican
- Pronouns
- He/Him/They/Them
This is a really well written and possibly accurate portrayal of Tanya. They are a very unique existence, having forcibly been changed in a manner that we, as a society, don't have a way to truly duplicated. Sure we could have Tanya go through a transition but it doesn't have the same connotation of violation and ego that you bring up here. Tanya and Salaryman are in many ways the same, and yet at the same time vastly different. We see, in the Manga, times where the Salaryman is almost outside of Tanya and experiencing his own reality independent of themselves and this definitely has building blocks of that same mentality that they can be almost utterly detached from themselves.
Anyway I'm going to save this to my cloud, in case I ever find myself in the mood to write Tanya, as this is an excellent starting point for how to get into the headspace of this character and then translate that into writing them in a respectful and genuine manner that I could enjoy.
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- Location
- Somewhere
I'll note that the Salaryman was either straight or bi, and apparently wanted children, based on a vision of his ideal future Being X used to taunt him: (for added fun, the wife looks like Visha and the daughter like Tanya)
Truth be told, I just thought that having spent two lifetimes (depending on how long she lived as Major Degurechaff, she may have lived as much time as Tanya as she did as a male in her original life) being referred to as female that her mind simply decided that correcting that in her head was too much effort and started defining herself as a she even in her own head. Like, she lived in meritocratic Germania and now she lives in oligarchic Praes, so other than missing being an adult without the monthlies, maybe Tanya has been a girl for so long that she just doesn't bother with male pronouns anymore.
Perhaps one could say Tanya no longer identifies as a male trapped in a female body, but now just as a girl. One that happens to like girls, which no one of worth is bothered by or even cares about in her new, power-centric setting.
Perhaps one could say Tanya no longer identifies as a male trapped in a female body, but now just as a girl. One that happens to like girls, which no one of worth is bothered by or even cares about in her new, power-centric setting.
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- Location
- Saof Afreekah
This fits the narrative nature of the world...
- Location
- Somewhere
She's a Villain. The "memories of a lost love" is a pretty classic villain weakness.
AionVal
(Verified Figment)
- Location
- Beyond The Veil
I mean... That's more of a human weakness. Don't know how many times I've read about heroes being poked in the dead-love-interest-shaped hole in their psyke.
Is just that in this case that poke can and will make Tanya go berserk.
TheLastOne
Person of impeccable tastes (for destruction)
Heroes ulimately draw strength from it though, while it's a weakness that forms a chink the the mental armor of a villain.
AionVal
(Verified Figment)
- Location
- Beyond The Veil
No.
Heroes Overcome: they come to accept the deaths, they realize that they have other people to lean on, they learn to love again, etc.
Villains Wallow: they never get over it, actively suppress it, plainly ignore it, go full-blown nihilistic.
Essentially, Heroes go over all stages of Grief, while Villains are stuck in Denial or Anger.
BarbatosLupus008
Certified Not Killer Giant Robot
- Location
- Behind You
The Stages of Grief have already been disproven, but I definitely figure poking the Visha button is going to be the chink in Tanya's armor as the Cold Emotionless, Efficient and Ruthless Villain. I'd imagine the body count however will ask the question if it was worth it for a little bit of blood.
Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
Crossposted from SB:
... fuck.
Right, so.
I caught something, dunno what yet, but the ambulance doc said it's probably nothing serious, since my lungs are okay and wrote an appointment for me.
I won't know for awhile, lol, but it seems I'm fine, mostly.
Unfortunately, this doesn't translate into me being okay enough to write. Like, I don't feel like writing a chapter about Tanya starring in a musical or some shit only to wake the next day and scream about what I have done.
So, the next release is postponed, again. Sorry for that. Stay safe, stay healthy, and don't do heavy drugs, kids, it's probably not worth it.
Also, coffee shop APGTE AU when? Well, okay there is one already, but I crave more. Which is weird since I don't like coffee and have been to a coffee shop maybe three times in my life.
I'm asking about it here, too, because a coffee shop AU is a travesty that every fandom should commit at least twice, and I don't see any takers.
... fuck.
Right, so.
I caught something, dunno what yet, but the ambulance doc said it's probably nothing serious, since my lungs are okay and wrote an appointment for me.
I won't know for awhile, lol, but it seems I'm fine, mostly.
Unfortunately, this doesn't translate into me being okay enough to write. Like, I don't feel like writing a chapter about Tanya starring in a musical or some shit only to wake the next day and scream about what I have done.
So, the next release is postponed, again. Sorry for that. Stay safe, stay healthy, and don't do heavy drugs, kids, it's probably not worth it.
Also, coffee shop APGTE AU when? Well, okay there is one already, but I crave more. Which is weird since I don't like coffee and have been to a coffee shop maybe three times in my life.
I'm asking about it here, too, because a coffee shop AU is a travesty that every fandom should commit at least twice, and I don't see any takers.
ExNihilo
SPACE!
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Literally no one in APGTE is fit to run a coffee shop.
Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
I know, won't that be just amazing?
- Location
- Toronto, Ontario(occasionally)
Did you catch your plague at the Grey Pilgrim's coffee shop?
ExNihilo
SPACE!
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
While Cat has some experience bartending, the place will be burned to the ground for tactical advantage within the week. To be clear, this is a no-combat setting.
Apprentice will just completely forget about it.
Heiress will poison everyone and then blame them for dying.
Lone Swordsman would scare everyone away with his brooding, and then only sell really edgy coffee.
Corporate, aka Black and Empress, keep trying by terrible schemes, but they're losing ground to the Procer brand teashop across the street.
Bard just wants alcohol. The coffee shop has never sold alcohol. This doesn't phase her.
Thief is running it amazingly well. Everyone assumes it's a scam or a con, it's absolutely not.