re: proud parent stuff; parallax; weeeeird gender, queerpol and space ponies (+)
also it's gonna be so gay
i giggle madly every time i look at noa and wonder how many straight ppl are gonna look at them and assume they and kirt are a perfectly normal het couple
noa is VERY they— they're technically a blob of (adorable, hoofy) fungus, they basically look like passion fruit puree inside, their own culture's closest equivalent for Noa's "gender" is basically "peach and anise flavored," and their society's reproductive system is 100% fully bespoke and effectively handled at the planetary/elder level, ffs
re: proud parent stuff; parallax; weeeeird gender, queerpol and space ponies (+)
this basically continues a habit from Peg's previous work that was one of the main things that endeared me to it:
we don't really talk about the weird gender stuff, not in the foreground. we never defend it. we never open it up for debate. it's just THERE. in the world context, it's been settled centuries ago and everybody takes it for granted. we won. nobody cares. it's just there.
it's an ideology-penetrating bullet. the audience is already hooked on the story by the time they're hit out of the blue with "oh btw carol has 3 parents and one's technically a tractor"-- or reread parallax, look up kirt's gender, and realize it's basically "malt and cloves"