Oh, huh. Apparently Hulkling was originally gonna be a girl who disguised herself as a guy.

Because the writer wasn't sure if he could get away with doing a gay romance.

Kinda glad we got it the way things are.

indeed!

Xavin came out after, but the whole gender thing with them was really clumsily handled, I thought.

thanks Whedon

"He's a guy in love with a lesbian but it's cool because he's a shapeshifter. And now suddenly he defaults to being a girl, just like his girlfriend likes, and it's so romantic. And now they're genderfluid because they're a shapeshifter and if the writers had figured this out earlier it never would've been a point of drama anyway."

I liked the idea of Xavin as genderfluid by nature but defaulting male because of socialization, but spending time with their lesbian fiancee and her friends motivated them to really play with the fluidity

See, if it'd been presented that way, I would've liked it more? Instead it was very suddenly "You changed into a girl Skrull instead of a guy Skrull!" "I didn't know I was doing it, it just felt natural." "How romantic!" like a switch just flipped in their brain and they were naturally a girl now.

yeah i always thought that was a lil...ehhh

like. if the character is meant to be genderfluid, then the whole "oh you turned into a girl without thinking about it means you're really a girl instead of a guy so it validates the lesbian you're in a relationship with!" really just....does not seem to understand what being genderfluid is at all

and "it means you're really a girl" is kind of a slap in the face to the genderfluid thing entirely honestly

from what I remember of the original run, Xavin was just regularly cycling between forms, gender and species, and they and Karo just sort of agreed that she was only attracted to the female forms, and it was okay that Xavin wasn't always in one

i love xavin as a character and i appreciate the intent of the character in some ways but the overall handling was not great

I never read past the original but I facepalmed at that "you turned into a woman while emotional, that means you're really a girl!"

Hyatt yeah i was down with that original part, it was a thing in a later part that got a bit weird, where during an argument xavin shifted from male to female and molly was like "awww you girled out!" and it was presented as like. proof that xavin is really a girl so the relationship with karolina was valid

very awkwardly handled