Trying a new spam blocker because behind the scenes, I am getting FLOODED. If there’s any issues with comments, please use the email link, just in case.
Selkie
Love, Life, and Fishies
Trying a new spam blocker because behind the scenes, I am getting FLOODED. If there’s any issues with comments, please use the email link, just in case.
I may be reading too much into this, but with the one-part names being male and two-part names being female, and how sad she just looked at her dad’s slip-up… do we have a little trans Sarnothi on our hands?
To be honest, I thought the dad was a mom at first.
I think it’s mostly the line across the chest doing that.
I’ll admit, that was my first thought as well. But honestly – I hope not. I’d love to see how Sarnothi view transgender people, but we’ve just established Bohn Bohn’s a mix of two clans and that that’s A Big Deal. Having her be BOTH a mixed race and transgender representation would be a lot.
If we had more characters that displayed these traits already it wouldn’t be a big deal, but as the first/only sarthoni, being both those things will make it very hard for Bohn Bohn to get enough attention and depth to show characterisation outside of that, especially given how big the cast is. It runs the risk of these traits and Bohn Bohn being reduced to tokenism.
I can’t help but agree
… meanwhile, me, a native Spanish speaker, just realized that the name “Bohn Bohn” sounds a lot like “Bonbon”… which means marshmallow. And is also a cutesy nickname for little kids or girls.
Heh.
Honestly, it could be anything. The sarnothi are a distinct sapient species that is presumably not interfertile with humans; their biology and psychology are similar enough to ours to allow for meaningful emotional relationships to form, but they’re not us in a funny alien suit. They do seem to have less sexual dimorphism than humans do; their gender identities could be anything from set in stone to ‘which role in the family/community am I performing today?’
Heck, they might not HAVE a gender until they’re past the pollywog stage. They actively undergo a metamorphosis into their sexually active phase, so it’s possible that there’s no way to know whether an egg/baby Sarnothi is ‘male/female/other’ until they’ve lost their tail.
Sarnothi language might have distinct pronouns/phrases for discussing ‘pre-walking’ children, that get lost in the translation to English, and so parents just call their kids whatever until they find out.
i kinda hope so.
He does have some traditionally feminine features in his appearance: a pink shirt, long hair and kinda narrow jawline, even though none is exclusively feminine a feature
…which is what I intended as a reply to Cannie.
It may be that the name thing is connected to clan culture. While the gender possibility is more in line with what we’ve seen of names so far, clan differences would align more with her character so far. Perhaps Bohn Bohn is a name in one clan and Bohn is a more common name in the other. Vemn messing up could be unconsciously ignoring her other clan heritage or not fully recognizing her as a member of his clan.
This was also supposed to be a reply to a different comment! @DataWog/Sunny. But it ended up here.
It’s possible, but we’ve seen multiple different clan females who all have two males so it seems kinda unlikely. Selkie is also nei li, then we have te fahn, I feel like the mor’kama English tutor has two names, etc
Names* auto correct sucks, sorry
I’m not talking parts/syllables, I’m talking about the idea of these specific names. Either way, it adds to her introduction where she states “you say it twice.” Definitely has some additional weight now.
We haven’t seen a whole lot of representation within Jin’sorai, but the males we have seen, do seem to be slighter of build than the seemingly muscle-bound Sar’teri. The mom of this family is the first female we’ve seen, other than Brown’s wife, and she’s got the same rounded face shape that we see with Scar.
Plus, Dr. Pohl REALLY likes pink, so color may not be as gender-rooted in their culture as it in in ours. It just seems to be a tacky/obnoxious color maybe, because the grumpy old Jin’sorai seems annoyed by Pohl’s color choice. (or maybe annoyed at just Pohl and his fun attitude)
Bon-bons ARE nice.
Question. Was the spectrum of colors sarnothi can see ever addressed? I’m admittedly too lazy to check.