Name is one thing, esp. if the character in question has a highly gendered name. Entirely changing their personality? No. There are a rare few cases where drastic personality changes might make sense, but outside of that... no.
Doesn't apply in this case, but yeah, I've got no problem with changing Bruce Wayne to Brianna Wayne or something like that. And there are characters where Gender Stuff would definitely factor into their behavior and personality, but this wasn't like that, this was someone throwing their entire personality out the window because I guess "quiet, withdrawn, hypercompetent introvert with a lack of regard for their own life" is not something girls are allowed to be. 888/// Can't stay someone who completely fails to notice people trying to hit on them and has their train of thought completely derailed by the idea that someone might care about them enough to be worried about them, has to be someone who snarls and gets mad and huffily turns their back on people flirting with them and this means they actually like it.
Gripe: that feeling when you get an idea stuck in your head which you should never, ever write. Nobody is going to be happy with me if I write Rule 34 necrophilia, even if it's species-accurate.
Well, the fandom in question does have a worryingly disproportionate amount of scat fics, at least it would be a variation on the squick? (Three, one of which got taken down a day later, but it's not a big fandom and there's very little porn at all.)
On a related (and much more petty) note, though, I get disproportionately snobby when people are Wrong about genderswapped names. I mean, I know it's not the most important detail, but I swear people always just choose a name based on how similar it sounds to the original one, even when there's no other relation between the two and the original name has actual significance in meaning or cultural context! (I've seen two people who named male!Colette Brunel Cole, and I'm just over here whining but her name is a mythological reference! it should be Nicolas or something! or at least Collin, since that can be derived from the same source...) But also yes, where are all the cool genderswap concepts of both characters who wouldn't actually change at all and characters whose experiences and self-image would be impacted in much more fundamental ways than just a trendy, gendered wardrobe change? Like, I'm not saying I don't see the appeal of drawing female Cloud Strife hefting a giant sword and putting on all the tryhard aloof badass airs of the original, but then I want to see meta about how a character arc so intrinsically tied to cultural ideals of masculinity could be adapted in the context of a female protagonist! I've seen genderswaps done with that focus a couple times, maybe (see: that one beautiful Rorschach fic which I will cherish forever), but I always want more, dammit. :(
That's why I said "Brianna" instead of "Bryce," which I've seen other people use. "Bryce" used as a female name is way too recent of a phenomenon for the age Batsy normally is. Yeah, or like, Yosuke Hanamura as the girl who's trying so hard to fit in with the guys and be the Cool Girl Who's Not Like Other Girls. Though to be fair, I think a lot of genderbend art is done as much as a character design exercise as anything, and a lot of the artists probably don't have a ton of meta about characterization in mind.
Yeah, the ending was...no. Like, I personally thought the fic started going downhill big time at some point in general (probably around the flashback chapters, I'd say (local damara stan grumbles endlessly about her portrayal)), but the ending was just a fucking slap in the face. :/
I remember there was also a prequel fic about Roxy's Program, which I never finished. It handled the whole Calliope and Caliborn sharing a body thing really weird. Caliborn was like her murderous alter ego that came out at some point during the Program, after she had to kill someone I think.
Should we set up a Bottom Serket thread for "embarrassing fics you have to get out of your head"? (I'm not sure I can be blamed for this one, since otters DO fuck corpses. Though Folgrim's a river otter, not a sea otter, which are the ones who've been observed doing so.)
1: same 2: do you have a link to that fic or can you remember the title or author? I've probably read it already but JUST IN CASE.
If it's the one I think it is, last time I tried to find it I ended up having to google "site:archiveofourown.org "Wanda Kovacs"" to locate it.
*accidentally brushes finger over "kudos" button while attempting to exit fic that keeps using motherfucking -dashes- in place of quotation marks* ... GOD-FUCKING-DAMMIT!
Here you go! (Standard warning for, well, Rorschach, but if that doesn't put you off it's a fantastic read.)
aw hell ye, thank you :D ...I have read that one, but i'm gonna read it again because it's been a while and it's a Quality fic. the Watchmen fandom is such a gem, it's a damn shame that the kinkmeme died.
wrt bad genderswaps, kitkat vantas with red barrettes in her hair, a miniskirt, and an off-the-shoulder sweater. she torments me.
