Sexual/Romantic Orientations and/or Gender Identity Headcanons, anyone?

[Mokonalord]

Got any sexual/romantic/etc. orientation and/or gender identification headcanons for any characters? How do you usually write them? Conversely, do you feel strongly that certain characters are definitely not something in particular?

Personally, I see Eagle Vision as trans and will probably write him that way whenever I do something with him in it.
I don't normally write Ascot this way, but them as non-binary/genderfluid could definitely work, and even in AUs where that's not the case, I'll write him as occasionally rocking feminine-coded clothing if he's with people he trusts.
Caldina is heteroflexible. She's pretty experienced and could see theoretically see herself falling for any sort of person, but in practice, she's got a definite type.
Now, for Ascot, I pretty much write him as demi across the board. The one thing I couldn't ever see him as is aro.

You guys?

[Revolutionaren]

[screams from my hospital room window across the City of Salford]
ACE CLEF. ACE CLEFFFFFFFFFF.

Ahem. I may have mentioned this before. I will take thus head canon with me to the grave.

Other characters!
Eagle: Gay.
Lantis: Bisexual? Pansexual? Idk, but he and Eagle have this secret thing and everyone pretends they don't know about it.
...and that's it? I guess I see everyone else as just straight and cis. I'm so boring.

Although, in my Caldina the former prostitute head canon, she wouldn't turn down a female client because that's just bad business sense. Ayooo.

[shinomu]

Ace!Clef, whoa! I love it!

I also love the idea of a trans!Eagle, and it?d be great if you wrote it!
(Btw, the first dub I heard made Eagle a woman to basically avoid the gay between him and Geo and Lantis - on the other side? the relationship with Hikaru became a bit more interesting? ? and while I have a strong problem with that specific context, it?s still sometimg that crosses my mind from time to time ?Eagle being a woman)

Anyway, I?d say Eagle is mostly into men, but doesn?t set that in stone. While Geo is ace and has no real preference. Zazu would believe himself straight until he saw the light.

More often than not, I picture Hikaru as ace. Del had a headcanon about agender!ace!Hikaru which I find really appealing too ? but mostly I stick with the ace aspect. (And even when I don?t ? because huh, I would never pass steamy stuff involving my fave ? I can hardly picture her having kids, I drew her pregnant once and it felt so wrong idek so there?s that).

I feel Umi and Fuu would be pleasantly surprised with the fluid sexuality thing cephireans(?) have going on? And probably experiment at some point.

Presea gives me strong hetero vibes, together with Lafaga.

I?d also say Ascot thought himself straight until he too saw the light. XD And could also picture him being more gender-fluid at some point (I think he has issues with his body, no matter what, that?d have to be solved first).

Lantis is totally pan to me. As is Alcyon. XD

[suzanami]

I feel Umi and Fuu would be pleasantly surprised with the fluid sexuality thing cephireans(?) have going on? And probably experiment at some point.

*cough* I've been trying to work out how my Fuu/Umi/Ferio hookup crackship gets started and this is a glorious tidbit to help me with that.

I don't have much in the way of sexual/gender headcanons of my own that really deviate much from canon; I tend to just go "okay cool" with whatever canon dishes out  B U T ~ I do like reading them.. and sometimes they click for me!  so I kind of see everyone as cis and more-or-less leaning towards straight and usually treat them that way when I write.

Eagle's not exactly straight as an arrow for sure.  kinda maybe see him as bi/pan-romantic and demi-and/or-homosexual, but in a poly with Lantis and Hikaru, he still enjoys her, he just tends to prefer dudes.  I think Lantis really never gave any of this stuff much thought but ends up being kind of demisexual/panromantic.

I thought of Hikaru as ace before I knew it was much of a thing (vaguely aware of asexuality at the time).  I still tend to think of her that way but also try to challenge myself to see her as a sexual person because tbh I think seeing Hikaru as nonsexual is almost the norm, since she has a naive/innocent vibe to her.  same with Clef tbh, I've always kind of seen him as being kinda ace, which.. now that I'm thinking about it.. definitely contributes to my struggle with understanding Umi/Clef!

I think Ferio's also pretty cis/het overall, though nothing is carved in stone and tbqh gay Ferio.. piques my interest... we'll phrase it that way, it sounds more mature.  definitely agree with Del's take on Fuu being somewhat demi, it makes the most sense for me, but once she's with someone she wants to be with, she is pretty happily sexual with them.  I think of Umi as being heteroflexible, too, and whatever Hikaru's sexual orientation is, I can't see her as anything other than pan-romantic as the day is long.  Hikaru has big big love for everyone.

Presea's always pinged me as kinda gay, maybe leans toward homo-romantic and demi-sexual, that sort of vibe.  I don't feel like she thinks about it very much tbh.  agree with Lafarga being very straight, agree with Caldina as heteroflexible for sure, agree that Zazu is staunchly cis/het until he falls in love with Ascot, whatever gender Ascot may be in that universe XDD  real talk though genderfluid Ascot makes so much sense, I think Ascot can definitely be easily interpreted as canonically being dissatisfied with his body so to extend that to gender identity is really really interesting, I'd love to read fic with that being explored.

(Btw, the first dub I heard made Eagle a woman to basically avoid the gay between him and Geo and Lantis - on the other side? the relationship with Hikaru became a bit more interesting? ? and while I have a strong problem with that specific context, it?s still sometimg that crosses my mind from time to time ?Eagle being a woman)

I forget which dub it is (I wanna say Italian but Ithil could correct me) but I remember reading that... and Sailor Uranus got similar treatment in the Sailormoon dub in (I want to say?) the same language.  which amuses me because Eagle and Haruka have the same seiyuu of Ogata Megumi.

[shinomu]

*cough* I've been trying to work out how my Fuu/Umi/Ferio hookup crackship gets started and this is a glorious tidbit to help me with that.

Hee! Glad to be of service!  But I do feel the culture clash will affect them in many ways, and what better one than this?

  I still tend to think of her that way but also try to challenge myself to see her as a sexual person because tbh I think seeing Hikaru as nonsexual is almost the norm, since she has a naive/innocent vibe to her.

It's funny, because the opposite happened to me! Only recently I've been thinking more of her as ace... but I guess it could be challenging either way. I tend to think she'd be very curious about sex in general, and would find some shit real funny and stuff. XD

I forget which dub it is (I wanna say Italian but Ithil could correct me) but I remember reading that... and Sailor Uranus got similar treatment in the Sailormoon dub in (I want to say?) the same language.  which amuses me because Eagle and Haruka have the same seiyuu of Ogata Megumi.

I'm pretty sure the one I watched was by Televisa? It was in spanish, I got VHS with a friend who went to Paraguay. XD The I can't remember how the brazilian version came to be, but they're pretty chill with it here. They dropped the "Haruka and Michiru as cousins" thing real fast.

[Down]

I HAVE TOO MANY THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS THOUGH fewer on gender identity because the one overarching theory I have on the Cephirans covers all of them, heh. The Cephirans all pretty much give me very confused looks when I talk about gender because their concept of it is - not a particularly strong thing, and I pretty much headcanon the entire society as sex-fluid (rather than gender-fluid) because of the whole form-follows-will-follows-self-identity so their actual physical sex is fluid and definetly not a binary, particularly given the whole spirits-not-really-bothering-with-physical-sex-much-unless-they're-wanting-to-have-a-go-at-the-human's-kind-of-intimacy becuase they are more Genius Loci to me and born from Cephiro not reproduction? Um.

May or may nt have fic started playign with this but um it's all smut and I'm terrible at writing that so it's slow going (And also the thing which is Tarta/Umi/Clef and Umi and Tarta have a child because politics, that one's not actually that much smut! But does rely hard on the sex-follows-will thing?)

GEO IS ACE apparently this is now the thing I am insistent about heh. But pan-romantic?

Umi - thinks she's straight but uninterested (not realising ace is an option) until she's hitting at least 16-17 or older and at some point running into the fact she's demi-romantic&sexual and HI TARTA UM.

Apparently my Tarta has pretty much no interest in men at all once she's actually stopped thinking in terms of 'everyone's telling me I'll grow up and have a boyfriend so I'm just going to accept that because why bother thinking about it' because she's also very very demi-sexual. Though with specific guys who she has a connection with it's not completely out of the question as a thing she'd take part in on occasion with the right emotional incentive/blowing off steam/if there's a woman she's into involved (mostly that). (and Umi-as-a-guy makes her wail because GUYS AREN'T MEANT TO BE HOT BUT UMI TOTALLY IS WHEN SHE IS ONE FOR A WHILE IT'S CONFUSING).

Clef laughs at me any time I try to pin down his sexuality because he doesn't care? Occasionally he has one and it tends to throw him? Sex has been a nice way of being intimate with some people he has cared about in the past but it's not all that? He's more interested in the other party/ies enjoying themselves and being able to make that happen than anything else. VERY RARELY there might be a crossing of person-he-loves and person-he's-attracted-to and if they like sex then he's all for that! (he's really touch-starved and rather lonely at the moment in my headcanon???)

((Umi and Clef both being sides of myself *HEADDESKS FOREVER* oh over-identification let me count the ways you are confusing. Especially when one writes the characters before one realises the same things about THEMSELF ughhhhhhh))

(((I am seriously writing Clef having had a relationship with a most-often-tree-shaped spirit and with Eagle's great-uncle into my Actually Serious No Seriously This Isn't Crack Ignore The Accidental Magical Soul Bond epic because I CANNNNNNNNNNNN and it's rooted in my view of that Clef. We shall see what the general readership makes of it once I get that bit up. XD;;;;; )))

Caldina likes hot people. She doesn't care much beyond that. XD

Zazu - not as straight as he thinks he is. He just hasn't really been about anyone he's been interested in since he hit puberty because he's been on teh NSX the whole time pretty much and they're all like his older brothers and sisters. The whole ship adopted him! HE IS THEIR MANIC LITTLE DRUNKARD MASCOT. And then OOPS ASCOT okay then whatever he's cute too LETS ROLL WITH THIS

Except in the versions where he's pretty oblivious until he realises he's about to ask Ascot if he can kiss him. Which is most versions. Zazu is better at machines than feelings! Feelings look shiny! And then they're real and they're all messy and confused!

Eagle - loves Geo and Lantis and Hikaru and likes sex with any of them who are interested in that! I have no idea beyond that. He's very focused, bless his obsessive little heart.

Presea - well, I SHIP PRESEA/HIKARU TOO XDD and she's in the whole Cephiran 'am I meant to think about this before it happens? Why?' box. Not sure she's all that interested in the sex bit of any relationship though?

Ferio - doesn't think about it but is mostly straight. When he isn't though he isn't with just as much, um, vigor, as he is when he is. (sentence probably strange I'm giggling too hard to fix it sorry)

EXCEPT in the OVA where CLEF/FERIO FOREVERRRRR LETS RESTART CEPHIRO ~JUST THE TWO OF US~ he's very pan in that.

Tatra - mostly straight, I think? But very picky. People have to earn her time. XD

Aska - why would I like anyone other than SangYung??

SangYung - *has never really looked at anyone but Aska. Other women are beautiful too! But they aren't her!*

Fuu - bi, though once she's been around the Cephiran's more she'd clarify it as 'her own and other genders' not a two-gender binary.

Hikaru - LOVES EVERYONE! If that involves sex with people then that's fine! If it doesn't then that's fine too!

I HAVE TO GO TO BED NOW sure I've left some people out sorry people. Also have the feeling that everything I write should just be labelled crack and have done with it. XD

[suzanami]

Aska - why would I like anyone other than SangYung??

Aska is basically SangYung-sexual

they're gonna have the goshdang cutest babies one day

Fuu will be a proud auntie

[shinomu]

Presea - well, I SHIP PRESEA/HIKARU TOO XDD and she's in the whole Cephiran 'am I meant to think about this before it happens? Why?' box. Not sure she's all that interested in the sex bit of any relationship though?

Dude I - how could I forget Presea/Hikaru??? That was probably my first ship before I realised season 2 was a thing! :O
I'm sorry Presea for ever thinking you gave off straight vibes, 12 year old me would be disappointed.

Hikaru - LOVES EVERYONE! If that involves sex with people then that's fine! If it doesn't then that's fine too!

Yeah, I think this pretty much sums up Hikaru. XD

And Aska being SangYung-sexual. HEEEEEE that's just perfect really. ♥

[Mokonalord]

Glad I'm not the only one who finds genderfluid!Ascot compelling. I'll have to come up with at least a drabble sometime, most likely in canonverse so I can play with the dynamic of willpower actually altering appearance. Subtle shapeshifting possibilities and all.

same with Clef tbh, I've always kind of seen him as being kinda ace, which.. now that I'm thinking about it.. definitely contributes to my struggle with understanding Umi/Clef!

Eh, I can't even begin to try understanding it. Too much emotional baggage goes there. Thanks, ObamaAnime. Thanks, OVA.
(But yes to Ace!Clef)

I HAVE TOO MANY THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS THOUGH fewer on gender identity because the one overarching theory I have on the Cephirans covers all of them, heh. The Cephirans all pretty much give me very confused looks when I talk about gender because their concept of it is - not a particularly strong thing, and I pretty much headcanon the entire society as sex-fluid (rather than gender-fluid) because of the whole form-follows-will-follows-self-identity so their actual physical sex is fluid and definetly not a binary, particularly given the whole spirits-not-really-bothering-with-physical-sex-much-unless-they're-wanting-to-have-a-go-at-the-human's-kind-of-intimacy becuase they are more Genius Loci to me and born from Cephiro not reproduction? Um.

Oh. Wow. That's quite the headcanon you got there. I mean, I get it, it's a great alternate take, but now my brain kinda hurts. It's just- All the implications that come with that- It's massive. I can't even begin. OW.

Actually, there is one matter of curiosity. Do you headcanon Autozam, Chizeta, and Fahren as more binary-normative? To what degrees? And now my brain is dead and my stomach empty. Excuse me.

[Revolutionaren]

Wow at Down's response. Just wow. I don't even know how to begin to respond to that other than to nod and say "respectfully, I'm not feeling it" but that's cool, mostly I'm just impressed with the sheer amount of thought that's gone into it. Four for you, Down.

[Down]

I've been writing one fic for more than eight years. There has been a LOT of procrastination. XDD Which means thinking too much about EVERYTHING. But - TO BE HONEST I really like cross-dressing as a trope and I'm pretty certain half the reason I though about this so much was trying to work out why I couldn't find anything I wanted to write with the Cephirans. XDD

It's not like it's the be-all-end-all of my headcanons, it just kinda sits quietly in the background mostly? Because I think it's a fun idea to play with But trying to work out how to non-obtrusively work it in is a headache. XD There's barely a mention of it as a ~thing~ it just sometimes means I cut out gender-influenced comments/expectations in Cephiran characters, mostly? When I remember, anyway. ^^;;;

(There's blatantly only one real Rayearth ~agenda~ I try to push at people, which is ZAZU AND ASCOT BECAUSE THEY ARE AWESOME, and I forgot to say I cackled with GLEE at the amount of mention they got in this thread. They're just so cute! I am happy other people are now running with this! )

Actually, there is one matter of curiosity. Do you headcanon Autozam, Chizeta, and Fahren as more binary-normative? To what degrees? And now my brain is dead and my stomach empty. Excuse me.

Yes! Because I don't think they have any equivalent to the easy sex-fluidity thing where they can adjust so easily (and pick on the scale where they want to be) - I tend to think that Autozam's got somewhat equivalent or better versions of our own hormone suppliments and sex-reassignment surgery and there are a range of gender norms which are vaguely expected - enough that some people feel uncomfortable when they don't align with what's expected of 'someone like them' - though since the real development of the 'willpowered technology' thing there's not so much of an association between power and gender - probably still some, though, and I think they've probably got more masculine-identifying people in their military, for example, and various more traditional settings.

Chizeta - I think they have a concept of a gender spectrum from very-feminine through to very-masculine (Tarta's less feminine than Tatra, and presents as such in her clothing and actions? and the Djinn would be an example of the very-masculine if they were actually human??) I don't know how far their technology is, though, or Fahren's, so don't know how they are on physical alteration and reassignment of people who would like that - there could well be a sex-change economy with worlds like Autozam providing the technology for places without it or something, so it might be harder to access and expensive if it's not avaliable in your own land?

Am now making this up as I go along. XDD

I actually think that there are probably stronger gender roles on Chizeta than Fahren, though again, with magic, not sure it's that linked to /power/, but it may be linked to /types/ of power - and I think there are probably fields where being of a particular gender role is more required - the Princesses' bodyguard are all women, whereas Aska has SangYung and ChangAn with her at the very very least. Admittedly there's an age differential there - Aska's (probably?) not of child-bearing age, and certainly not marriagable age, so there's not so much reason for a ~scandalous affair~ to be possible with her attendants. Plus if people havn't noticed she just adores SangYung then they're not paying any attention - ChangAn seems like he'd object and seperate them if that was ridiculously inappropriate? But the Chizetan guard are all women (and in clothing which would make it very difficult for a male to slip in unnoticed), which makes me think there's more homosocial areas of society, and that gender/sex would therefore control your access to certain spaces, just in terms of who it would be appropriate for you to be intimate friends with.

It could be because there's more emphasis on bloodline lineages and inheritance in Chizeta - Fahren might work on more of a system where you declare who you are accepting as your heir, and can adopt people in if you want them to inherit. (Adoptions into families are I think more typical of traditional powerholding situations in far east asian cultures including various chinese, korean, and japanese ones, than they are in middle eastern ones? Though I could be very very wrong about this! This is supposition! My knowledge of middle-eastern middle-ages history and culture is abominably poor.) Which would mean less emphasis on 'everyone must be ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that this child could not POSSIBLY have a different father than we all think' because you could easily disinherit them and pick your niece/nephew to inherit instead, or second child, etc!

So, Chizetan people would probably be more comfortable in most situations if their sex and gender identity were brought into alignment as much as possible through medical means, nowadays, though the possibility of using a glamour/illusion to present as you want to would be there as a traditional method which might be frowned upon as a transgression/something you could pretend to do when really you don't identify that way you just want illicit access to a group/person, and in Fahren you could probably live more easily without the medical help just presenting with clothing/etc as the way you want to, but some people would probably still take up the option of going somewhere like Autozam for access to surgery etc when avaliable, just it's not reversible and you can't go in degrees of physical sex in quite the same way (control of amounts of hormones to attempt to control the degree to which you develop particular secondary sex characteristics is pretty tricky I'd think) whereas seperating the two and having a gender expression seperate to your physical sex would be a more responsive and fluid thing.

I think???

..............full FULL disclosure - I originally wanted to do my undergrad dissertation on the relationship (or not) between femininity and expression or perception of it and access to power in the reign of Richard II in England. Which my professor pulled a face at me and went 'yes, and that's a doctoral topic, lets narrow it down a bunch'. So I ended up doing a case study of a powerful woman! And her sphere of influence and how she identified herself in terms of family connections and power. But I've done rather more study on various historical ideas of gender and sexuality than most people I guess, so it's a thing which I will play with ENDLESSLY. XDD

Also I watch too many dramas which centre on cross-dressing and I love the ones which explore the gender/sex/sexuality ramifications of that stuff and would highly reccomend Painter of the Wind to anyone who likes period kdramas and hasn't seen it. I LOVE IT SO MUCH. And it's got lots of tasty 'woman brought up as a man for reasons who then falls for a woman and part of the attraction is explicitly expressed as 'drawn to the thing she doesn't know how to be herself' because she doesn't even know how to feel like a woman let alone express herself/live as one and the attraction to the femininity she's missing goes along with the connection between the two of them as artists and - THIS IS THE KIND OF THING I ADORE :DDDDD

also of course tragedy all over the place political intrigue hand crushing assassinations murders and people being thrown down a well so they can't finish their painting exam. Plus Scandalous Depictions Of Women's Lives In Paintings By A National Painter!

which is off topic like whoa just, er, wanted to explain why I wander so much down this road. XD (Also because writing this made me want to watch it again. If I wake up Mils by wandering up to bed cryign because I just hit the first tragic death of a main cast member - episode three if I remember right - I WILL BLAME THIS THREAD. XDDD)

THIS IS SO LONG I AM SO SORRY

[Mokonalord]

Just rereading this thread and realizing I never elaborated on why I see Ascot as demisexual/demiromantic.

His heart is through his beasties. Catch him on a really good day and he might agree to one date just to see how it goes, but if he doesn't think you'll get along with his friends, forget it. Even a Cephiran lifespan's too short to put up with more of that.