On the Gender Identity of Commander Hurricane · 9:06pm Aug 16th, 2014
The Hearth's Warming Eve story is a legend. The ancient fable of how the three pony tribes settled their differences and united to form Equestria has been retold many times, and in many different ways over the centuries. Passed by word of mouth from pony to pony for many years before being written down. Who can say if the pageant performed by Twilight and friends, and aired on the Hub is really the true story? This uncertainty in the historical facts in reflected in the many stories of these characters on FiMFiction. Every writer will reinterpret the characters in his or her own way. Indeed there is no agreement on even the most basic facts, such as their gender.
The most confusing of whom is surely Commander Hurricane, for here our one definite source—the transcript of series 2 episode 11—is ambiguous, at first suggesting the Pegasus leader is male:
Oh! Commander Hurricane, sir! How did it go, sir?
Before fixing her as female:
Actually, I don't really hate her, I just really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really dislike her.
Is it the convention of the Pegasus Legion to address both male and female commanders as 'sir'? Is Fluttershy forgetting the gender of the character she is speaking to? Or is Merriwether Williams just having a bit of fun with us, playing on the fact that, due to our subconscious prejudices, many viewers on seeing the show for the first time, thought Rainbow Dash was a boy? That was my interpretation used in The Equine Comedy.
But now, after years of uncertainty, a new historical source has come to light! Amy Keating Rogers' transcription of the Journal of Two Sisters provides new information of these characters. It turns out they were contemporaries of the young Princesses Celestia and Luna. We can now read their first-hoof accounts of meeting with Puddinghead and Hurricane and others. And according to Luna, Commander Hurricane was male:
Celie loves to fly really fast. Always has since we were fillies. And since Commander Hurricane is the fastest flyer in all of Equestria, she thinks racing with him is the best. (p81)
Even though he's merely been in charge of the weather brigade prior to this, Commander Hurricane is starting to get a defense force ready to battle them. (p86)
Hurricane is a stallion! But surely such a tough pony must be a girl? If we need more males, why not let Pansy be a boy? She'd make a really cute one.
It seems that Hurricane underwent gender reassignment after the events of the Hearth's Warming Eve story? Maybe taking advantage of a more relaxed policy for transsexuals serving in the new Equestrian armed forces?
Prior to women being allowed to join our armed forces, there was a long history of female individuals serving incognito, disguised as men. I rather like the idea of Hurricane as a Joan-of-Arc type figure. So I propose a new and totally-contrived head cannon: Commander Hurricane was a mare, who disguised herself as a stallion in order to win promotion inside the Pegasus Legion. Once she had risen to the top rank, this fact became known to her junior officers, who referred to her with female pronouns in their private conversations. But nopony dared to challenge her, and they all continued to address her as 'sir'. Luna knew none of this, and just assumed the commander was male.
Next point to ponder: Why is Starswirl the only pony with a beard? What is she hiding?
We now have the cast assembled for a Shakepearean cross-dressing comedy.
I am always sceptical about information from outside of the show. After all, there are already more than enough inconsistencies in itself.
In the end you shouldn't take a cartoon for little girls that seriously anyway and just go with what you personally like the most.
A comparison to Jeanne d'Arc is a bit out of place but the idea of Commander Hurricane being secretly female is certainly interesting. Your blog is charming as usual.
Oh wow I totally thought this was going in some really contrived social justice direction but then you mentioned Joan of Arc and I was happy.
I'd read that fic.
Does this mean that she gets burned at the stake and then made a saint of the Equestrian Church or something
2375563 Well, according to the show's writers, everything in the side material is canon unless contradicted by the show itself.
2375574 Which is pretty much the opposite of canon.
Sadly, Starswirl isn't the only pony with facial hair.
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However, this is certainly an interesting take on the Hurricane question. (Personally, I think it was just a parable that got mistaken for history during the tumultuous times of Discord's reign.)
I love to overthink too, but we have 2 problems with the Pageant:
* The story could be entirely apocryphal.
* Assuming the Pageant is based on historical events, this Pageant features the Saviors of Equestria as the cast, and these Saviors of Equestria all just happen to be mares, so any stallions must be portrayed as mares, so we can learn nothing about the gender of Commander Hurricane, or any other pony with a speaking role in the Pageant, from the Pageant featuring the Elements of Harmony.
Two possibilities that I have in addition to everything esle...
1. Hurricane was male but is often played by a female in a play. This was common back in the day (though in opposite where men played female roles) and the gender confusion in the text is from lack of preparation on the part of the actors (or nerves if it is Fluttershy) where they forgot in the heat of the moment to keep referencing Hurricane as a male since he is being played by a woman.
2. They are acting like this is Star Trek where all officers are referred to as "Sir" even if female.
2375869
Or indeed:
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or:
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Personally I always saw Hurricane as a huge battle scared mare famous for feats of strength while Pansy was an amazingly gorgeous pretty boy. He was at least theoretically strong because of military training, but he never used it and wasn't much of a fighter.