gwyndolin is only ever referred to with male pronouns and is dysphoric about their "frail" appearance and mentions being "raised as a daughter" despite being referred to by followers as male. gwyndolin could be read as a trans guy just as easily. you really don't need to be so vitriolic over a headcanon.
Gwyndolin is only ever referred to with male pronouns by other characters and the item descriptions themselves, these sources are all biased, from the perspective of the writers.
I’m assuming you know Japan as a country has deep seated issues with transphobia, sexism, and homophobia, among other things.
So, the narrative frames Gwyndolin as a man, but Gwyndolin herself in the game does not, and while you might want to headcanon her as being a trans man, you cannot ignore the common transmisogynistic tropes that are very common in Japanese media. Specifically modern anime, games, etc. These tropes exist in the West as well, but it’s particularly common and bad in Japan. In this case, it’s specifically the transphobic idea of a “trap” aka “a pretty girl that’s really just a very feminine boy! oh no!” (Which is homophobia AND transphobia in one!) is probably the largest reason Gwyndolin is presented by the narrative in the way that she is.
(That trope is particularly vile because it sometimes includes features the character could only have by being on HRT or by being Intersex. It’s transphobic as hell.)
This intent by the writers is further solidified by the piece of trash in Dark Souls 3 called the Reversal Ring. The item description says: “A divine ring granted to the Darkmoon Gwyndolin in his youth. Causes males to perform female actions, and vice-versa”. It’s a stupid ring put in as a gimmick, but it shows that the writers thought of her as a man who just dresses and acts like a woman. (It’s also super biodeterministic and sexist…)
Gwyndolin as a character has a hell of a lot of agency in the Dark Souls story, but there’s an argument a lot of defenders of Gwyndolin “just being a feminine cis man” use, that her “deep respect” for her Father Gwyn is the in-universe reason for why she dresses and is the way she is. By the time Dark Souls 3 rolls around it’s a super dumb magic item. The real answer is there’s no big, valid, good explanation in universe. Gwyn just did it because gender roles. Out-of universe, It’s a bad excuse
from the writers
to include a bad trope. I don’t think it was to sell to otaku or anything, it’s not like they’ve made any Gwyndolin mechandise, and she’s hidden in the game. It’s just because Fromsoftware wanted to.Same reason why Miyazaki asked for Gwynevere to be a giant woman. It’s a bad reason.
In the game, the narrator says explicitly that Gwyndolin is “all too aware” of her “repulsive, frail appearance”, and that she hates herself. You could say it’s just the snakes, but I don’t think that’s accurate given the numerous pieces of evidence
I’ve given about the creators’ intent, which just so happens to be specifically transmisogynistic.
I think the narrative is saying one of two things by this specific quote here:
1. If the narrative is claiming that she’s upset she is “frail” in the sense of “not masculine”, then it is using part of a trope that “trap” characters who do so full-time are frail and weak because they’re just… “feminine” men? Which is, again, rooted in transmisogyny. So, If it’s that. Then from a trans woman’s perspective, it’s bullshit and it’s better interpreted as dysphoria with some parts of her body.
and/or
2. She’s upset she isn’t physically more imposing, that she’s only magically gifted. Her Father was an incredibly powerful God. Gwyndolin is tiny compared to her older sister. We don’t know if she knew the Firstborn before he was purged from history or if she was born after, but I’d be inclined to include him in here as an example of physical strength.
But! She’s a super powerful sorceress! She has the power to create illusions that can actually be interacted
with! It seems odd for her to be worried about that. I think the former alone is more likely. Gwyndolin’s magical ability is impressive and vast: Illusory Gwynevere, whom you can interact with as if she was a person, the entire sun in Anor Londo, the illusory wall outside the Darkmoon Tomb which you need a ring to get through, debatably Ornstein and Smough.
So. Here’s what Gwyndolin’s body and her general presentation look like:
She is a trans woman. She is not any of the transphobic tropes she was written as. If she wanted her body to appear different it would. And hell, she might already have done that. She doesn’t look frail or repulsive to me at all.
My interpretation isn’t “a headcanon.” I’m reading everything they left for us from the perspective of a trans woman who has lived through a lot of this. While many of the experiences may be relatable to the experiences of trans men, if you say she’s a trans man, or even that she’s not a trans woman then that is your headcanon. That is you disregarding the game and the surrounding influences. The work doesn’t exist in a vacuum.
Dark Sun Gwyndolin is a trans woman, she was just designed and written by a bunch of transphobes who didn’t know they were creating a trans woman.
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