Okay let's get into it. Aradia's arc is tied up with themes of femininity and the consequences of that femininity (there's a post that articulated this better than I can but I can't find it t-t). She's killed by her boyfriend, and comes as a ghost (literally haunting the narrative. Not relevant to this post but I thought that was funny/interesting). She becomes a sprite, then a frog ghost hybrid ( also not relevant to this post but frogs are very very associated with with the space aspect, the parallel to time and an aspect that is also heavily associated with sacrifice, specifically sacrifice for the sake of other (remember the aradiabots from all those failed time lines sacrificing themselves in the beta trolls battle with the black king?) ). Equius builds a robot body for her to inhabit, but he tries to get rid of some of her autonomy with the chip in the robots heart and the fact that he gave the robot blue blood. When aradia finally finally comes back to life, it's because her dream self died on her quest bed during the creation of the green sun (+ jack? I'm going to be honest this part was never the clearest to me). Her autonomy and sense of self have been ripped away from her over and over again throughout the story... which brings me to the next section part of this post: aradia's femininity and her. (Putting this part below the cut bc I can feel this post getting long t-t)
Ive seen some people headcanon aradia as nonbinary or transmasc, and I can see why. Blah blah blah suffering from her femininity blah blah blah. There is something there! But to me, this almost feels like a.. cop-out I guess? The laziest way to look at it. If the social construct of femininity is oppressing you, just stop being a girl! Easy-peasy! Problem solved! But what about those who can't do that? Who just aren't boys, or who chose to be girls? They can't simply opt out of that oppression. The problem isn't solved, it just doesn't effect you specifically anymore. This aradia feels... nonconfrontational. But let's be honest... cis aradia is also kind of boring? It addresses the problem a little bit more (women systematically have their autonomy taken away from them, their bodies violated, and suffer at the hands of the men around them. Aradia persists, and at the end of the comic, is successful in a fight against the concept of the patriarchy and masculinity personified, lord english), but... we could go deeper. There are more layers of this to be seen. One of aradias main struggles is with her body. It's taken away from her against her will. She becomes a ghost, a sprite, but it's still not right. It's still not who she truly is. She's fetishized by equius, who, "was engaging in romantic activities" (can't remember what exactly this entailed) with some of the spare aradiabots, similar to the way the port industry fetishizes trans woman (we've all seen those pornbots floating around), but he gives her robot blue blood instead of rust, refusing to accept who she is in her entirety (they're called femboys. traps. futas. All the aesthetics of a trans woman, but never admiting thats what they are.) While she's dead, life is meaningless to her. She's apathetic, depressed, but when she god tiers she became full of energy, happiness, excitement at the future and the new things she gets to experience and enjoy. She fights lord english!!! THE masculinity guy! I think her storyline is just so much more interesting when you look at it though the lense of a depressed, dysphoric, taken advantage of trans girl who, by the end of the story, has found freedom and happiness in a life and body she enjoys.
