The post I made about Astolfo in early 2018 is still the most viewed post on this blog, and that’s unfortunate because there’s a lot I don’t like about it, things I said I don’t stand by anymore and may even be completely reversed but what I shall say here. Or at the very least what I might still agree with wasn't expressed well.
Astolfo is one of a number of AMAB Anime characters where the Discourse surrounding them has been arguing whether they count as actual Trans representation or are merely an androgynous Cismale Crossdresser. However I’ve come to view Astolfo as, in the context of his own time and culture, not Androgynous or a Crossdresser at all.
But first so that my motives are not misunderstood, let me state my positions on some of those other Anime characters at the center of this discourse. Bridget is Trans, Lily from Zombieland Saga is Trans, I don’t know or care enough about Re;Zero to have a strong opinion on it’s relevant character. I want more explicitly Trans characters in Anime, and more attention given to the more obscure ones who haven’t been made the center of this discourse like Kiyo from Magical Girl Site or the ones in Twin Angel Break and Gankutsou. And I favor Trans-Feminine readings of a number of Gender Bending Anime like Onimai and Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl and even a certain character from the Spider Isekai. My personal bias is for Trans-Feminine readings of as many AMAB characters as possible because I have increasingly come to suspect I may be Trans Feminine myself, so I’m going against my personal inclinations here.
Gender is a Social Construct, but the details of how Gender is constructed do vary between different cultures and even the same culture across different eras of its history. And I think Astolfo is the perfect Anime character to explore that concept with, to read him as a Paragon of Carolingian Cismasculinity who winds up looking like a teenage girl when plopped into the 21st Century because of how things have changed.
But he is fortunately pretty free of Toxic Masculinity. The Weeb Revolution Youtube channel in their video on Bridget discussed the weird Toxic Masculine of some of the Cis Femboys who feel like Bridget coming out took something from them, and alluded to the Astolfo Monster energy drink meme. I’m not talking about that either, this isn’t about the size of his sword or how many people he’s impaled with it. It’s about how I feel you could make an Astolfo AMV to the only song people actually remember from Mulan and it would fit perfectly.
One last qualification, this is an analysis of Astolfo as originally presented in Fate/Apocrypha specifically, if Grand Order is indeed taking the character in a more Nonbinary direction then that’s cool, but I don’t play Gatcha games and Apocrypha's LNs did come first.
In Fate/Apocrypha Astolfo spends very little screen time in contemporary female clothing, he’s mostly just wearing the same presumably 8th Century wardrobe he was summoned in. And there was once a Meme floating around Twitter showing how every aspect of that look moderners read as being inherently Feminine coded has been coded as Masculine in the past.
When he does need to wear contemporary Civilian clothes it looks to me like he just chose some that are close to what he’s used to and they happened to be girl’s clothes. And that pink Sailor Fuku School Girl Uniform most popular in the fanart and doujins isn’t in Apocrypha at all, Apocrypha isn’t even set in Japan. In fact Grand Order isn't mostly set in Japan either, so I don't think it's really Canon there but just a silly DLC bonus costume.
Now I’ve heard that Astolfo explains why he dresses the way he does by saying he likes to wear “cute” things. This didn’t make the Anime for Apocrypha but even assuming it is from the Light Novel I assume the word used in Japanese was Kawai. Even outside the context of debating the identity of crossdressing Anime characters there has been some discussion of how “cute” as the standard English translation of Kawai is kind of problematic. For example when I watched the second Gundam Thunderbolt movie (which I mostly didn’t like nearly as much as the first) it played a song that said Kawai a lot, but in this case the Subtitles didn’t translate it as Cute but either Beautiful or Pretty. And even leaving translation aside, English words like Beautiful, Pretty and Cute being thought of as inherently meaning attractive in a Feminine way is itself a modern distortion of their original meaning. Like I get why so many Queer Tolkien fans want to use Tolkien describing the Elves as Beautiful to prove he envisioned them as androgynous, but that’s not actually what Beautiful meant to Tolkien or Lewis, to the Inklings and to the Ancient Greeks masculine manly macho men could also be Beautiful.
It’s not just how Astolfo looks that can reflect the changing nature of gender standards. I remember years ago reading a Cracked article that discussed how even the notion that "Real Men" aren't supposed to Cry is actually very modern, that a lot of the Manliest characters in Classical texts are constantly crying even over trivial things. So yes even how often Astolfo cries is not something his 8th century contemporaries would have told him to Man Up over.
And then there is Astofo’s Bisexuality. He only has a male love interest in the present narrative but the Lore does not seem to be ignoring that he was a Ladies man in his original legend. His ability to be attracted to men is Canon, when Jeanne asks if he’s in love with Seig he says “I don’t know” not "I'm straight" or “we’re both dudes”.
In modern society the notion exists that any Same Sex attraction for a Male at all is a reason to forfeit their Man Card. But it’s somewhat well known that in a lot of older societies it was only ever being the Bottom that carried the risk of undermining one’s masculinity while a true Alpha Male Giga Chad was expected to be willing to screw anyone. However when you dig even deeper you’ll learn the ideal Athenian Erastes/Eromenos relationship was meant to strengthen masculinity even for the Bottom. you see you’re more likely to be a responsible Top if you’d been the Bottom in the past.
But that last point wasn’t even necessary here since I see no indication that Astolfo is someone who tends towards being a Bottom. Quite the contrary his incompatibility with his original Master seems to in part be because he isn’t into being a Sub. Maybe you could try to theorize he’s like that quote said about Julius Caesar and he likes to Top with women and Bottom with men, but I don’t see Seig being much of a Top with anyone.
A lot of Astolfo’s vibes and energy really make him seem the most like a conventional Shonen Manga/Anime Protagonist of any character in the Fate/ Franchise.
But this isn’t a Shonen franchise and it turns out in the context of Otaku media the traits of Astolfo that are Masculine even by contemporary cultural standards fail to really stand out in a genre that gives action hero traits to hyper feminine characters both Cis and Trans all the time, so much so that it fails to even register as even mildly subversive anymore to Feminist critics of the medium. Even just within this show Astolfo isn’t the only character who’s relationship to Gender isn’t what fans of their original myths would likely expect.
But still I think it is worth remembering that being a Paladin (it still annoys me that the Netflix Dub refused to use that word) is traditionally a Male role, one that in real world Carolingian history it would be someone Assigned Female At Birth who would need to Cross-dress and hide their real anatomy to perform.
Those of us who view Gender as a Social Construct don’t really like to hear this, but one of the few things that is pretty universal across all cultures about gender norms is Men usually being the ones who do the fighting when necessary. The What Is Politics Youtube channel has a series on Historical Materialism and episode 7 among other things talks about the origins of Patriarchy. And it’s shown that even in the most gender egalitarian primitive communist societies that exist gender stereotypes still associate masculinity with aggression and being the defenders and protectors, and that the rise of Patriarchy begins when a society’s material conditions require them to prioritize self defense. I’m not pointing this out to defend having any absolute gender norms, today women have many options to be the defenders when they want, and no males should be shamed for lacking the ability to do so.
But I think it's interesting that just about the only non-negotiable quality of Masculinity is one Astolfo exemplifies, he is very protective of those he cares about and brave in situations that would scare me senseless. He fights for what he believes in but is never a bully.
Even the very scene that confirms he is indeed Assigned Male at Birth. Casually walking out of the shower naked making no attempt to cover up is another thing Anime depicts a lot of very feminine Cis Women doing but is in normal society generally thought of as a more masculine thing to do.
Not to mention how Muscular he looks once we finally see him shirtless. He’s not like a Jojo character or anything but compared what I generally expect of an Otokonoko/Femboy Anime character is clearly quite fit.
The only thing that kinda undermines my argument is that Astolfo is voiced by female Seiyuu in both the Japanese and English Dub. But lots of Cis male not even crossdressing characters get voiced by female voice actors in Animation. It's often to help someone sound young, and Astolfo does also look like his Heroic Spirit form simply manifested younger then all the more Masculine voiced Heroic Spirits.
And I have to say as someone who is a very vocal Dub VA defender, this particular job is one the Japanese Seiyuu usually do better. I watched Fate/Apocrypha Subbed as it aired and never even thought about how plausible Astolfo’s voice sounded. But when the Dub finally went up on Netflix I went, yep that’s a girl voice.
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