#and also andy was the first character i wrote using neutral pronouns and i swear it soothed something in me to read a piece i wrote with

[scorchedhearth]

would love to hear more about how you understand andromache’s views on their own gender!! noticed you used they/them pronouns for andy :))

oh, thank you :> short answer is: they're MY fav so i get to project and live through the fictional character <3

long answer: i think andy's relationship with gender is both incredibly complex and really easy. not to get into history and queer history too much but historically gender has been much more complex than the modern and western binary we have now, so it makes sense for me to have andy, a character older than written language and alphabet, have a hard time fitting into the two neat boxes we have nowadays. i think andy has navigated through so many cultures and so many periods where the cultural understanding of gender, of what's feminine and what's masculine and what other options there are in between, can change drastically that their own understanding of gender will reflect that. can't say your own identity is x fixed thing when you've witnessed 4 different cultures in the same decade that have 4 completely different and opposite answers to what it means, where attitudes and expectations of individuals shift accordingly. if doing and feeling these things make you masculine in one but will be understood as being feminine in the other then what does it mean about you? this will lead to questions and self-reflection on your identity. even read with our modern/western standard, andy has both feminine and masculine traits, they fight and are rough and quite cold at times, the designated protector of the other immortals, their leader and boss, but they're also caring, open with their love and feelings, shown having roles and careers other than plain fighting, they're also the mother of multiple children in canon, and it makes me think that their understanding of their self would reflect that, reflect this lack of strictly defined gender

and without this historical and cultural aspect, without these outside inputs, i think andy would feel disconnected and out of touch with others, i think even in their first life there already was this feeling of otherness, of not fitting in so well and wanting to be something else. the way i see the character, and how i think they see themselves, is being in this constant state of in between, not being able to settle down fully in one thing despite trying hard to belong because of the immortality and their long, long life and long, long memory but also something that was there since the beginning, an existence outside the defined codes. which leads me to the easy part i mentioned: andy is andy. they may change names, change centuries and continents but, just like their mother's axe and just like the ship of theseus, andy is andy, and yes they are an anomaly but also terribly human, and it's an easy understanding they have now. others' perceptions of me will always change but i am certain in who i am and what i am. so while they'll use gendered terms in canon and call themselves mother and woman but also for various purposes use masculine ones like passing as a man for some missions, etc. and they are comfortable in navigating these gender and cultural norms, putting them on like clothes and shifting according to what's needed at the moment from them; deep down they see their person as detached from it, existing beyond, constantly shifting and at the same solid in its foundation.

and to me, using neutral pronouns is the easiest shortcut to try and get across these feelings and complex relationships with their gender