Gender Bender

[Lancewing]

Yep, everything is as the titles suggests: How would you depict each of the Tales characters if they were born in the opposite gender? It could be the whole cast or select members in order to venture into new pairings.

[Notes]

While their personalities would be practically the same with different reactions as their situations are different that makes them separate entities. Their symbols and color scheme would obviously be the same, would their symbols; however, they'd have difficult to describe, different mane styles. Generally, less voluminous ones for the girls and more voluminous for the guys. Their names so far would end up being Starblaze, Beloved, Lyric, Booker, Patch, Lucky, and Caramel. The boys would be Whiz, Teddy (it is actually a unisex name) and Lancette.

I'd normally change all of them or none of them, but I could do just a few at a time. However, for me this is unwise practice, whether the ship is same-sex or heterosexual, or canon or fanon. The genderbent ponies aren't the same entities as their counterparts thanks to their different levels of empowerment in early-nineties society (and different expectancy on what to be like).

So, if the genderbent ponies' attitudes are different, they would have totally different relationship dynamics, especially with the opposite sex, and, again, be different ponies. If I shipped say, Beloved and Teddy, the whole dynamic would fall apart thanks to Teddy's normal stubbornness being directed at not wanting to be contained to a house some day in a traditional gender role, and as such she would constantly prove her dominance despite Beloved already being a deviation from pony-society's standards.

That said, genderbending butchers these dynamics or warps them beyond repair. Bright Eyes and Lancer is still intact with only few problems, but Ace and Starlight has all kinds of issues when gender-bent. Would Starblaze still pine over Whiz? If so, it would be in a different light. If not, then you're not following canon to a T (assuming they are ten). If Whiz had the crush on Starblaze, you would have massive amounts of gender implications and dynamic butchering.

In my universe, there are so many gender roles because gender is a social thing (I'll end up going on a tangent about it another time). There are much more whimsical and I guess philosophical takes on the world when there are huge differences.

I'm clearly getting ahead of myself here. I would mainly try out shipping Ace/Whiz or Melody/Lyric just for hilarity, but frankly I ship stuff as-as. I like the idea of the ponies befriending their genderbent counterparts in new, quirky ways.

[Lancewing]

And there we have it. Although you did bring up in another thread the possibility of Ace meeting his female counterpart.

[Kat]

Would Starblaze still pine over Whiz?

Are you kidding? He'd totally complain about her "friendzoning" him (well not in those words, since that term thankfully didn't exist then). This genderbent couple would be a disaster though - given stereotypical gender actions, SB would totally be pulling the "but I'm a nice guy, why doesn't she like me?!" card, which would eventually turn into "what's wrong with her, clearly something is wrong with her because she ignores me, stuck up snob going after someone who doesn't like her". We don't get that from Ace in the original, because he's far more settled and invested in himself than Starlight is (so when Mel ignores him he just shrugs it off because he doesn't think there's anything wrong with himself, whereas Starlight is certain something is wrong with herself). But since she's always pining for him, it shows a distinct lack of confidence in herself on her own, which in a boy would be far more likely to manifest into nasty behaviour (not intentionally nasty, of course, but nastiness borne of a sense of entitlement, which boys are taught in society), especially if the girl he's pining for is confident and ignores him for the most part.

I think female!Ace would turn out to be a combination of Melody and Patch. I'm almost tempted to write some genderbent Tales and further explore this, to be honest. I'll have to think more on everyone before posting anything more though, but fascinating topic.

Oh and I do love the idea of Ace/Whiz, I think they'd work. At first it would solely be competitive, and they probably wouldn't get along. But then all of a sudden one day they'll bond over something (probably complaining about how they're so much better than everyone else at sports!) and then boom - instant attraction. I think they'd last as long as they don't compete with each other at things (they'd totally be one another's biggest cheerleader though in anything they do). They'd probably turn out to be that perfect couple that everyone wants to be friends with, but secretly can't stand.

[bobdude]

Kat: So your story idea is essentially On a Cross and Arrow but with Tales ponies? tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/OnACrossAndArrow Because with enough lampshade hanging (ie, Patch is disappointed in the universe being different gender swaps and not something cool with magic and monsters and the like) I could totally get behind that. Could also see Male!Patch and regular Patch question "Just what sort of egotist self centered narcissist falls for their opposite gendered counterpart?" Cut to Ace and Whiz making lovey dovey eyes with one another.

[Lancewing]

Okay, I think I should try my hand with Lancer. So here we go.

Lancette would still be shy, probably a little more well reserved due to her gender swap. She'd probably rather read than participate in any athletic activity.

That's all I've got so far.

[Notes]

I looked back at my post and groaned. That's what I get for writing a post the second I wake up and not proofreading it... lX( And because a whopping three of you are here, I'll color-code you guys and respond in the order you replied to the thread in.

Blue for your color, Lancewing, because Lancer and I think Optimus Prime are blue! But yes, Lancewing, I did mention Ace and Whiz at some point, and on the other thread too. And you sound pretty much spot-on about Lancette, thanks to the encouragement for girls to be quiet and let men do the talking back then, but I've thought of Lancer as more mature and introverted than shy, though shyness is definitely present at times. I also think that Lancette would be like Lancer in that she loves reading and sports.

I think you mentioned green once in one of your stories, so I'll use green for you, Kat! I thought the whole Ace/Whiz thing would be interesting to you, because heavens knows it's interesting to me. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one on here who despises the 'friendzone' term. And you're right with the Ace versus Starlight crush thing. The Perfect Pair song reveals that, that's certain. You're right about the sense of entitlement, though. I've seen  some boys who feel they deserve infinite chances for their troublemaking and have all the world to say (though the latter is actually a nice guy, for the most part). I've also met lots of nice boys, too.

You're somewhat right about the Melody/Patch thing, though, but Whiz would have a huge helping of some good ole Ace running through her veins. It's tough to talk about genderbending, but there are some possibilities there you can't touch in the show.

Would it count as OCxCanon if I shipped Ace with Whiz? Because I love your idea about it. Lots of funny potential there, and even just interesting stuff. One episode of The Amazing World of Gumball called The Storm had Alan the balloon and Carmen the cactus having perfect love and everyone thinking it was so sweet but hating them for it. Easily one of the best episodes in season 2, so I thought of that when you said the 'friends with them, but hates them for it' mentality.

And bobdude, I'll give you orange, because orange is cool! I've only read part of On A Cross And Arrow, but it was well-done, if I may say so myself. You're so right about Patch's disappointment, though I didn't think of it that way. I laughed aloud at the egotist thing, though. That'd be pretty darn hilarious in a story! I could also picture Bon Bon falling for Caramel (in part because she can only really trust herself during the series). And maybe Melody and Lyric. Or maybe not. Maybe she can ignore Ace, but could she really ignore herself as a dude? Probably not.

[Lancewing]

First off, bonus points for identification. In fact, you shall be purple, Notes. But yeah, I was trying to picture a shy girl at a soccer game. Obviously didn't picture it too well. Heh heh. Man, gender bending is so hard...

[Notes]

Yay, I'm royalty!  (Also, on threads with more than three people, are we going to use color coding now?)

But seriously, there are plenty of interpretations of Lancer and of Lancette. Around here, everyone focuses on someone different, though, so it's tough to figure it out. I like your way of implementing Lancer though, overall.

And gender-bending is hard. I really hate gender roles and stereotyping, so I stay away from that stuff normally, but I have to calculate everything just right, because of different expectations in society. It'd be like suddenly making Patch-Male super boyish to the point of being against girls. That ain't Patch; she's pretty much friends with everyone in my universe; at least, going across genders more than the others. My male Patch would be more like Cheese Sandwich than Rainbow Blitz though, if you catch my drift.

[Lancewing]

Yep, I catch your drift. And would Bright Eyes be similar to Doctor Whooves?

[Notes]

From how I understand Doctor Whooves from the bronies and bobdude's reviews, yes. Of course, he'd be very deeply involved with nature in addition, and not identical to the Doctor, but likely similar. Also, possibly like Sherlock Holmes in some ways as well, with the deductive skills.

[Lancewing]

Alrighty.

[Notes]

8Y

[Lancewing]

But then why keep it to the main characters? Let's try one of the guest characters, like... Corny.

[Notes]

OHMAHGOSH CORNYYYYYYYY

I jest. I was thinking of them too when I typed up the post, but I couldn't fit them in. I'll begin typing up a list.