Strickland asks Zelda what the “D” in her name stands for, and Zelda takes a long moment before answering. I think it’s meant to be read as her processing how much this man feels entitled to her to ask a personal question so casually, but something about how she does it made my brain go, “did she just make that up?”

And I love everything about what it would mean if she had. In the moment, she doesn’t want to tell him and actually kind of wants to spite him, so she picks something she doesn’t think he’ll expect: a biblical name. Delilah is the first one that pops into her mind as she doesn’t have much time if she’s going to lie to come up with something. 

And as I was looking at it, I kept thinking that this mark would bother Toast. It would be reminder of a terrible time when a man tried to lay claim to her. And I  thought of that symbol in which one of you Fury Roadies created (I think about it often). The one of the boltcutter breaking the chain shaped in a circle. 

So it came to me that Toast would want a way to scrape that symbol from her somehow, and she gets it in mind to have created a new brand of boltcutters to sear over top of Joe’s brand. She’d have a striking out symbol (Ø sort of) over top of his in the shape of a tool that helped her escaped. 

I know it’s extreme, but that’s part of why I think it would be Toast to think of it and determinedly have it done. It would be reasonable that the others might not want to be put through that pain, and I think perhaps even Furiosa might be able to look at Joe’s brand and view it as a war scar she overcome without necessarily needing to undergo an ordeal like that, especially having slain him with her own hand. But it seems in line with the Toast I have in my mind. 

I imagine if Angharad had survived, she would be all over this and even assist in its creation, and perhaps some of the other revolutionaries would follow in Toast’s steps for this reason, in a sort of remembrance of her strength and leadership. For some reason, I’m seeing Cheedo do this even though I view Capable as having the greatest love for Angharad. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Interestingly, I ran into a post about a week back now that posited that Steve works really well as a trans man. I’m hesitant to reblog the original post because some of the impact of the wording is very problematic toward trans people (as that was the response I got from the trans friend of mine I excitedly showed the post to anyway) even if the intent was clearly never meant that way. 

But I was on the lookout for it this watch, and it stands up really well! 

“You’re a man!” “Yeah! …Do I not look like a man??” 

“I’m above average” only to be followed later with “I’m not average,” both in contexts of sex/sexuality. First one could easily have been sly (he doesn’t yet know if he believes that she’s never seen a man before) followed by it said more somberly later on. 

“What do women here wear into battle?” “They don’t—” stops trying. I’ve always felt this line/lack thereof was a nod to the women who dressed up as men to aid in the war effort, but just as easily, it works for trans women who haven’t/don’t want to transition, and it does also work in general for this idea that gender doesn’t dictate your participation in the war/fighting for the greater good.

“What’s it like?” [A life without war] “I have no idea.” Obviously this is in many ways supposed to mean that the war has felt like it’s gone on so long, that it’s hard to imagine the times before it. But it also easily works as his way of saying that he doesn’t know what a “”normal”” life is like. Especially in the face of him being a fully adult male who made it clear he doesn’t ‘get’ marriage. 

The way he interacts with Diana in the scene they’re about to have sex. It’s so… drawn back. Even when she moves in to kiss him, he hesitates for a long while. Not to say trans people can’t have confidence in the bedroom, just that in the time period presented, you might understand some expectation of rejection on his part (and ofc Diana would be like ‘no you’re perfect). 

And ofc, we have Dr. Maru in this universe creating gas that can decimate a gas mask. It’s not so much of a mental leap to imagine that HRT was a thing in this universe at this time. Perhaps cutting edge technology or a really great father who’s a doctor and/or knows one. We don’t get much about Steve’s father except that he didn’t believe in doing nothing and instead doing the right thing… 

It just… I really feel like it works. And I love it!