Soul Being Trans is just extending the process of soul finding himself out to this metaphor that's clearer and more.. tangible, i think. cause you can track these things - the first idea of soul being trans, soul letting himself be trans, pronouns, transition.... (for trans people obviously) i think "being reluctant to be yourself (trans)" is a bit of an easier idea to understand than being reluctant to be yourself for soul reasons: aka to feel as if all you are is someone else's right. idk. that's not something i've really felt before and i would think most people haven't felt it either. however, with soul being trans, obviously if you're trans it's easier to understand, cause being trans comes with a bunch of shared common experiences you can draw from, like the stage of obvious denial/being an "egg" ("i just think having a dick would be more convenient"/"i'd totally be a girl if i could be but that's impossible hahaaa"/go look at egg_irl RIGHT NOW). yet they're so visceral and specific. just like.

being trans is change. it's finding who you truly are. and i'd bet money the majority of trans people never really felt like themselves or that their body was their own until transitioning. no matter if soul is trans or not, there's a kind of transition he has to do of finding himself and figuring out who he is beyond the static and whole and the role he took. beyond the name atlas. being trans just makes it more literal. if soul is trans you can use the trans markers as easy signs of him getting better, easy milestones.

i like thinking of soul as a sentimental person, a la "do you know god?". even beyond that, names are always sentimental. they're supposed to be the culmination of You. the ultimate label. what everyone calls you, at the barest. not having a name can be seen as dehumanization. (sorry "do you know god?" was just all my name feelings but soul saying them so i'm gonna repeat a bunch of that here.) do you give every plant a name? every crack in the sidewalk? no. it marks something as important. these combine to make soul not really having a name just a reflection of how he doesn't really feel like a person. thus, him with a name would be the rejection of that. it would be him saying "yes, i am important. yes, i am real." it would be triumphant. this evokes being trans, or rather being trans evokes this. giving yourself a name, as in marking yourself a new person. refreshed. this is who i am now, and you can't fight that. not as in completely separate but as in a new state...

it's obvious to make soul trans it just pairs SO WELL

Yes!!! Soul being trans just Works. It is very good.

A name is something that marks something as important, a name almost humanizes or person-izes something, it is one of the first steps to Knowing something or someone beyond just a surface level. In this way, names are also something that gives a word to one's- self, almost. And thus changing one's name, or deciding to, is symbolic of reclaiming that self and deciding to make it your own. So him giving himself a new name would show him deciding that he has a self separate from Whole to give a name to in the first place, and then claiming that for himself and giving a name to it. Marking that self as important, as something real that not only can, but should, be referred to.

And also in a way, being trans would be another thing that marks him as Different from Whole. It wouldn't be another thing or identity piece that he stole from Whole, like a lot of other things are. Whole isn't trans. So that is something that is solely Soul's; not Whole's, not something he stole from someone else or derived from someone else. Something that's just his.

In confronting being trans, Soul could either attempt to reject it (which would just. be a return to the status quo. refusal of the call. etc.) initially or eventually come to accept it. In accepting it, Soul would have to also confront and accept that he is his own entity, his own person, that everything he is isn't just Whole's. He would have to choose something for himself and come to terms with that.

and yeah, most people haven't felt the feeling that they can't be themselves because they are someone else's right, but a lot of people have felt like they couldnt be themselves because they were trans or for other reasons, like you said. Another thing about it (that I can personally relate to, although not necessarily with transness; i do know it can be a concept that is relatable to transness though) is experiencing something that just. completely upheaves and shatters your entire worldview.

It gives you a strong feeling of-- well, where do we go from here? Everything you had ever known was just destroyed, or a large portion of it. What do you do now? How do you remake your entire life without the framework you had previously existed around?

You have to make a new framework entirely. Sometimes you would try to fit things from the framework of your new life into the framework of the old one— but it would never quite fit. I think Soul would have something similar to that in accepting his transness and his own personhood.

His entire life up to this point has been framed around not being a person, being subservient, being a self-made sacrificial lamb, willing and eager for his own slaughter. Where would he go from there after that view of himself, and thus view on the entire world, is shattered? He would have to construct a new framework, which would be slow and painful and awkward. It wouldn't feel right at first. It would feel blasphemous, or like a lie, it would feel untrue and wrong. But it would stop feeling that way so much one day, and making a new framework for himself and the way he sees the world ultimately be worth it in the end. Learning to live as his own person, not just something of Whole, not just Whole's Soul, but his own.

Idk yeah I have Thoughts. It just pairs so well with Soul that it's impossible Not to have Thoughts about it.