One of my favorite things here on the Plaza has been not to just create characters that are fun and unique but are also challenging and engaging. I’ve had so many opportunities since rejoining a little over a year ago now to invest in and create a world that I can see myself and those I love reflected in it. I get that opportunity every single day, every single post. I have been so lucky, so fortunate to be able to explore parts of myself and explore parts of the world around me. I am constantly learning, constantly growing, constantly looking to challenge myself and my beliefs.
The diversity within the Plaza is something that I am proud to contribute to. On the old days of the original plaza, so many of the ideas, characters, and stories I am able to tell would not be possible. Either from external or internal roadblocks, the world I wanted to see just couldn’t shine through. But those days are over and gone. Those days of not getting to fully express myself are gone. I can, instead of trying to hide or code messages and characters a certain way, be as wide and diverse as I can. And that is a wonderful, wonderful thing.
To wit, after some long conversations with @Tarawen about the kind of diversity we both want to see and explore here on the Plaza, we’ve come to a conclusion and with her blessings, I get to tell you all today something new about Frost and Zôr.
They’re both genderfluid!
The idea to do a genderflipped story at the ARPYs was originally just a fresh way to explore and interact, inspired by Adventure Time. However, as we continued to write the characters we noticed that in their genderflipped states there were subtle (and not so subtle) differences in how we portrayed them. We want to continue to explore what the means. Loki, at long last, has finally been confirmed to be genderfluid in the MCU. Anyone who knows anything about Loki though, either in comics or mythology, already knew this about him. Still, having it confirmed (albeit in a blink and you’ll miss it fashion) was incredibly important. It was a tiny step, but an important step towards greater diversity and equality. To that end, both Tara and I want to explore what it means for Frost and Zôr, our favorite characters, to be genderfluid, to explore new kinds of stories, stories we didn’t think we could write, emotions and arcs and angles we didn’t know or didn’t imagine we could write about and learn from.
Now, to make sure you, our dear readers, don't get confused by what you're reading as you come on this journey with us, rest assured we will have all the icons you could need to know which version of which characters is being written. Depending on the stories they might stay one gender throughout or they might flip flop between posts, don't worry though, we've got you covered so you know who's who.
I won’t speak for Tara (though I’m quite certain she’d agree) this is an incredible opportunity and I am beyond excited to show you all a thousand more facets to a character that you all loved enough to vote as “Best Character” (something I still don’t understand but at least it wasn’t Fleeg). Stay tuned, things are about to get… mischievous!




























