General Media Blog :]

holy shit finally, this took wayyyy too long (13 hours of fucking around not knowing what im doing AT ALL in ibispaintx)

song lyrics from KATAMARI by femtanyl

post fraud i listened to katamari and thought "woww this is so v1 in fraud" and i wanted to make a drawing about it

i have never drawn v1 in full detail before so thats probably why it took half a day's worth of my life 👍👍👍👍👍👍

also i procrastinated on this a lottttt,, the file was created feb 27th and today is march 10th ⛏️⛏️⛏️ <- me hard at work doing NOTHING!!!!!

please enjoy it

lines also cause i liked them

As of late, I’ve noticed that people often use the exposition from the terminal entry above (which describes both the angels’ lack of biological division as a species and the usage of he/him by higher-status angels) to argue that the Powers should only be referred to by he/him. However, I think it’s important to note that greater angels aren’t necessarily choosing these pronouns of their own volition. As established in both the Terminal entry of the Powers and in previous dev commentary, they go by these pronouns because their usage is directly linked to their social status rather than any sort of personal gender/“masculinity” they’ve chosen for themselves (although I do think the social structure of heaven and the commentary on patriarchy being presented by it is, to an extent, likely deliberate).

Likewise, the Powers are explicitly stated to have fallen in line with heaven’s societal pressures and begun adopting the presentation of their peers (that of which has been shown to be rather patriarchal and masculine-leaning, as is the case with the variety of modern Christianity that Ultrakill tends to commentate on).

They’re being forced into a role by those pressures, and they’re so horribly self-conscious about not living up to the expectations of a fully-formed archangel that they manifest a useless arm solely for aesthetic purposes in order to better adopt this presentation.

Tangentially, let’s compare this to Gabriel and his narrative’s relationship with gender;

Throughout Ultrakill’s story, similar to the aforementioned greater angels, Gabriel has been shown to be addressed by he/him, a signifier of his status and closeness to The Father. Likewise, during the first intermission, these pronouns are stripped from him by The Council in a move that serves both to relinquish his status and to dehumanize (and, effectively, degender) him. Despite this, however, Gabriel is still shown to use he/him pronouns, with the exposition of the intermissions never faltering in its usage of them.

The parallels one could draw between his story arc and that of transgenderism (transmasculine or otherwise; I could see a strong argument made for a transfeminine interpretation of Gabriel as well, but that’s a tangent for someone more familiar with his character to pursue) are pretty blatant; despite being stripped of his light (and, by extension, his status), Gabriel has chosen an identity for himself, quite literally being described in a climactic scene as “a weapon reborn, no longer wielded by the will of another, but his own”.

With this in mind, just as you can derive transgender subtext from Gabriel’s story, I think it’s pretty easy to draw transfeminine subtext from that of the Powers’. Adopting the vanity (and, by extension, presentation) of their heavenly peers (presumably to integrate better with them), the Powers are forced into pursuing a role adjacent to that of traditional masculinity in a patriarchal society. Their status and respect as greater angels is dependent on their ability to present as such, and they feel ashamed that they aren’t capable of living up to it no matter how hard they try to force themselves into that box.

Just as it’s narratively satisfying to me for Gabriel to act of his own will despite the society that wielded him attempting to strip that away from him, it would be narratively satisfying to me for the Powers to carve out an identity of their own volition; for them, too, to act of their own will, rather than out of obligation or an attempt to emulate the archangels they aspire to. And if that process involves abandoning the constraints of the expectations used to shackle them? So be it! Lets be transgender with mentor

(and as a bonus for reading this far, here’s Heckteck’s commentary on the powers and their gender situation. ^_^)

Q&A:

“Are you saying it’s bad to headcanon the powers as transmasc?”

Nope! Go ahead. Again, this is just my personal take on them; I wouldn’t want to dictate that for someone else.

“When you call the powers transfem, do you mean you see them as binary women?”

Not necessarily! You can be transmasc or transfem and still be agender/nonbinary/etc., which is how I personally choose to interpret them. The world is your oyster

“Are you saying every Power is transfem?”

Again, not necessarily! The Powers are a species, not a hivemind, and Ultrakill proper does a good job of establishing them as individuals (giving the first three Powers you encounter their own names, giving them voice clips that vary in pitch, etc.). I think the framing of the narrative surrounding them is pretty transfeminine, but like any other species in the game, I think their genders/gender presentations would vary on an individual basis. This is also part of why I think it’s fine to use she/her on Powers. ^_^

“Are you just headcanoning the powers as transfem because you think their higher-pitched voices make them women?”

My genuine answer: angels have been stated to lack the biological division present in humans, and as a result of this, I think human sex characteristics simply wouldn’t apply to them like that. This is just as much the case for Gabriel, who is voiced by a man and speaks in a lower register (and yet is still commonly headcanoned as transmasc with no issue), as it is for the Powers.

The more concise answer: