....Marie this is all your fault.
Further on the matter of girl!Usopp because, well, going into further detail is probably for the best. I begin in maintaining that her history is pretty much the same. Or at least in basic facts: father who left, mother who got sick, friend who got sick and the abduction of three small boys. Uh. It was much more innocent an abduction than that sounds like. There are a few key differences in there, though.
For instance, in all honesty, I can't see Banchina on her deathbed saying “be a brave person like your father.” This could just be me being weird about it, but that just seems like the kind of thing you say to your son and not your daughter. It's one thing to tell her just to be brave, or maybe to be strong, and of course “don't dream so much.” In the One Piece world, like Marie said in her essay, men are mostly the ones who get the positions of power, fame and glory as pirates and Marines and everything else. And her mother knew that, I think.
Usopp was a bright, creative, idealistic little girl at the time. She still tried to convince her mother to live with a lie about her father returning; if you knew you were dying and your daughter was that... just shy of flat-out denial, what would you do? There's nothing wrong with a big imagination or wanting a future, but living with your head in the clouds doesn't make things happen where you are. It doesn't earn you a comfortable life.
Ah. My head-canon Banchina is a bit of a realist, if you can't tell. In essence, she told Usopp “be strong enough to live in reality.” She wanted her daughter to have the best life that was possible for her here with the villagers.
So...it's not so much that Usopp wants to be like her father, in this case. Sure, she wants to be a pirate, and she happens to be a skilled sharpshooter, too- but it's not because Yasopp has both of those that she'd spend her time thinking of a future of adventure. Usopp wants to be brave (to be a pirate, lead a life of adventure) because she wants to be. She wants to be strong not just because her mother would want her to be strong but because she wants to have strength to draw on. And she is also very aware of just how far she has to go to be as much of those things as she wants to be.
Hell, while we're on her father and the dream thing, I'll get this out of the way now. Usopp doesn't quite understand the “pride of a man” thing. She doesn't really look up to Yasopp the way she would as a boy because of it. But that doesn't mean she doesn't have her own kind of pride in him, and the fact that he's a pirate- maybe he left, but he's still her father and she still loves him. She's still proud to be a pirate's child, proud to be different in the same way that she's proud of having her mother's nose. And just like in normal canon, if someone starts badmouthing any of that they can expect to have to deal with a fist to the face and a lot of yelling. Suddenly growing a pair when enraged is another trait that crosses the gender barrier, apparently.
Now the way I have it figured, Usopp probably grew up a real tomboy. Inasmuch as a girl can be a tomboy while still prone to shrieking and running away from the things that gross her out. She loved being outside, climbing trees, catching bugs, and had no real problems with getting dirty. The villagers kept her fed and clothed, but she had plenty of free reign with herself, just like her male counterpart did (though on a side note: I do think some people would have wrangled her into learning the basics of typical “girl” activities like sewing and cooking, even if they didn't have much success with handing her dresses until she was well past 14).
On the matter of meeting the genderbent Kaya: yeah, that didn't really make a difference in how she dressed and acted. Usopp isn't very interested in romance in general, even if she loves fairy tales with princes and big gestures and everything. She's still young, there are things she wants to do before she really considers the age-old issue of settling down. Besides, Kaya is a good friend so why ruin it?
The situation Kaya was in- parents gone and sick all the time and lonely- would have had her going to that window out of empathy no matter what gender he was at the end of the day. And that affection would become no small amount of protectiveness no matter what gender, too. Now, for some One Piece-ish reason, Kaya is the only person relatively close to Usopp's age in the entire village. Kaya is Usopp's first real friend and confidante- sick and weak and fragile, always glad to see her, never sick of hearing her talk about adventures she wants to have. It's the same way no matter if the gender's been swapped or not.
All of this pretty much just leads up to me saying “I will grant that Kaya is Usopp's first crush.” That's that, that's how it is, that's how it seems to work out no matter which way things go. The rest of that arc would go much the same as it already did, if I calculate correctly.
Anyway, with those very long exceptions, I'll just move on.
Usopp is very strong-willed, stubborn, a chatterbox, prone to exaggeration, melodramatic, not huge on girly things but not afraid to put on a dress if she has to. If she doesn't really know someone, she's the epitome of friendly and polite. The better you know her, the more likely she is to shriek at you on a daily basis. She also has no problems with physical contact. Pretty much just like her male counterpart, actually. Jumping on crewmates and clinging to them and hugging and palling around with Luffy and carrying Chopper around, all that stuff. Probably a bit less so with Nami and Robin for the sheer fact that they're Nami and Robin (not counting that they're male, there's also Nami's incredible powers of pwn and Robin can be very creepy).
And, of course, she's big on curiosity. This usually means a lot of questions for people she doesn't know about things she doesn't know enough about, with the addition of a lot of poking and prodding. Remember how Usopp got super curious and poked Franky with a needle on the sea-train? Yeah, that kind of thing stuck around. Curiosity overcomes a lot of initial apprehension for her- if it's not the safest situation for it, all someone has to do is remind her of the fact and she'll go right back to bemoaning her fate.
I find in my head that boy or not, Usopp will seriously always be the cowardly type. Not for lack of trying to man up, but it's still something that she has to work on. I mean, she still has that semblance of common sense and logic- if she thinks something's fishy you can bet she'll be finding an excuse to head in the other direction.
OKAY. That aside (but if you have questions on something else, just let me know), I'll move into a little bit of crew relations.
Luffy still holds Usopp's undying loyalty as a captain and as a friend. She's like a mixture between an older and younger sister, a best friend, and a role model. And, of course, shenanigans abound that either end in a lot of yelling or a lot of helpless laughter. And the same can be said for Chopper as far as those shenanigans go. Chopper is the little sister through and through, and Usopp is very protective of her little sister. Just like with any incarnation of the Strawhats, messing with Chopper is a death wish.
Zoro. Is. Awesome. She's strong, she's fearless, she doesn't care if you're a man or a woman- actions speak louder than words with girl!Zoro, it seems. I think Usopp very unabashedly takes up acting like an enamored younger sister with her- complete with teasing for the sake of teasing and getting less afraid of her over time. At first, though, I imagine that Zoro was the most intimidating and deadly thing this side of the Grand Line. Don't get on her bad side, don't argue with her or cop an attitude, just be polite and friendly, etc. After joining the crew and having some time/adventures pass, Usopp learned that Zoro was completely trustworthy, capable of being fun to hang around and plenty of fun to be a little shit around. And, of course, the occasional bout of harmless slapping and nagging.
And seriously, the dynamic with Sanji wouldn't change too much. Another older sister, but one a little less untouchable, who is probably victim to any number of glomps and clothes-tugging. Taking into account Marie's views on a female Sanji, the flirting thing would throw Usopp off completely at first. Mostly because of it being a girl she doesn't really know, which means she has no idea if it's a joke, not to mention this is someone who could meet Zoro and not be afraid to try to kick her ass in the same day. Every day. As their friendship progressed and Sanji got more comfortable just being Sanji, that occasional bit of flirting probably gets some flustered spazzing and a little flailing and a not-really-angry-but-that-kind-of-stuff-is-embarrassing-oh-my-god-why-would-you-do-that shoving.
For the record, female-Brook probably gets that same kind of treatment if she asks men about their underwear. You know, “who the hell asks that kind of thing”, rawr, screech, hiss. Apart from that, it probably wouldn't be much of a dynamic change, either. Skull jokes are cheesy, but amusing anyway, and Laboon merits a good tearing up.
Nami is...well. Nami. The normal guy who once stole the ship and her friend, who she made the Climatact for. Of course, the whole Arlong arc got rid of any suspicion, and she still has so much respect for wanting to protect an entire village like that. More or less the same, with an added extra dosage of her hiding behind her version of Nami: because obviously it's his responsibility to protect helpless young women and all. Well, when she hasn't got a Sanji or Zoro around.
Uhhh. Damn. Tooooooo long. QUESTIONS. COMMENTS. Anything you think doesn't make sense. Leave it with me.
For instance, in all honesty, I can't see Banchina on her deathbed saying “be a brave person like your father.” This could just be me being weird about it, but that just seems like the kind of thing you say to your son and not your daughter. It's one thing to tell her just to be brave, or maybe to be strong, and of course “don't dream so much.” In the One Piece world, like Marie said in her essay, men are mostly the ones who get the positions of power, fame and glory as pirates and Marines and everything else. And her mother knew that, I think.
Usopp was a bright, creative, idealistic little girl at the time. She still tried to convince her mother to live with a lie about her father returning; if you knew you were dying and your daughter was that... just shy of flat-out denial, what would you do? There's nothing wrong with a big imagination or wanting a future, but living with your head in the clouds doesn't make things happen where you are. It doesn't earn you a comfortable life.
Ah. My head-canon Banchina is a bit of a realist, if you can't tell. In essence, she told Usopp “be strong enough to live in reality.” She wanted her daughter to have the best life that was possible for her here with the villagers.
So...it's not so much that Usopp wants to be like her father, in this case. Sure, she wants to be a pirate, and she happens to be a skilled sharpshooter, too- but it's not because Yasopp has both of those that she'd spend her time thinking of a future of adventure. Usopp wants to be brave (to be a pirate, lead a life of adventure) because she wants to be. She wants to be strong not just because her mother would want her to be strong but because she wants to have strength to draw on. And she is also very aware of just how far she has to go to be as much of those things as she wants to be.
Hell, while we're on her father and the dream thing, I'll get this out of the way now. Usopp doesn't quite understand the “pride of a man” thing. She doesn't really look up to Yasopp the way she would as a boy because of it. But that doesn't mean she doesn't have her own kind of pride in him, and the fact that he's a pirate- maybe he left, but he's still her father and she still loves him. She's still proud to be a pirate's child, proud to be different in the same way that she's proud of having her mother's nose. And just like in normal canon, if someone starts badmouthing any of that they can expect to have to deal with a fist to the face and a lot of yelling. Suddenly growing a pair when enraged is another trait that crosses the gender barrier, apparently.
Now the way I have it figured, Usopp probably grew up a real tomboy. Inasmuch as a girl can be a tomboy while still prone to shrieking and running away from the things that gross her out. She loved being outside, climbing trees, catching bugs, and had no real problems with getting dirty. The villagers kept her fed and clothed, but she had plenty of free reign with herself, just like her male counterpart did (though on a side note: I do think some people would have wrangled her into learning the basics of typical “girl” activities like sewing and cooking, even if they didn't have much success with handing her dresses until she was well past 14).
On the matter of meeting the genderbent Kaya: yeah, that didn't really make a difference in how she dressed and acted. Usopp isn't very interested in romance in general, even if she loves fairy tales with princes and big gestures and everything. She's still young, there are things she wants to do before she really considers the age-old issue of settling down. Besides, Kaya is a good friend so why ruin it?
The situation Kaya was in- parents gone and sick all the time and lonely- would have had her going to that window out of empathy no matter what gender he was at the end of the day. And that affection would become no small amount of protectiveness no matter what gender, too. Now, for some One Piece-ish reason, Kaya is the only person relatively close to Usopp's age in the entire village. Kaya is Usopp's first real friend and confidante- sick and weak and fragile, always glad to see her, never sick of hearing her talk about adventures she wants to have. It's the same way no matter if the gender's been swapped or not.
All of this pretty much just leads up to me saying “I will grant that Kaya is Usopp's first crush.” That's that, that's how it is, that's how it seems to work out no matter which way things go. The rest of that arc would go much the same as it already did, if I calculate correctly.
Anyway, with those very long exceptions, I'll just move on.
Usopp is very strong-willed, stubborn, a chatterbox, prone to exaggeration, melodramatic, not huge on girly things but not afraid to put on a dress if she has to. If she doesn't really know someone, she's the epitome of friendly and polite. The better you know her, the more likely she is to shriek at you on a daily basis. She also has no problems with physical contact. Pretty much just like her male counterpart, actually. Jumping on crewmates and clinging to them and hugging and palling around with Luffy and carrying Chopper around, all that stuff. Probably a bit less so with Nami and Robin for the sheer fact that they're Nami and Robin (not counting that they're male, there's also Nami's incredible powers of pwn and Robin can be very creepy).
And, of course, she's big on curiosity. This usually means a lot of questions for people she doesn't know about things she doesn't know enough about, with the addition of a lot of poking and prodding. Remember how Usopp got super curious and poked Franky with a needle on the sea-train? Yeah, that kind of thing stuck around. Curiosity overcomes a lot of initial apprehension for her- if it's not the safest situation for it, all someone has to do is remind her of the fact and she'll go right back to bemoaning her fate.
I find in my head that boy or not, Usopp will seriously always be the cowardly type. Not for lack of trying to man up, but it's still something that she has to work on. I mean, she still has that semblance of common sense and logic- if she thinks something's fishy you can bet she'll be finding an excuse to head in the other direction.
OKAY. That aside (but if you have questions on something else, just let me know), I'll move into a little bit of crew relations.
Luffy still holds Usopp's undying loyalty as a captain and as a friend. She's like a mixture between an older and younger sister, a best friend, and a role model. And, of course, shenanigans abound that either end in a lot of yelling or a lot of helpless laughter. And the same can be said for Chopper as far as those shenanigans go. Chopper is the little sister through and through, and Usopp is very protective of her little sister. Just like with any incarnation of the Strawhats, messing with Chopper is a death wish.
Zoro. Is. Awesome. She's strong, she's fearless, she doesn't care if you're a man or a woman- actions speak louder than words with girl!Zoro, it seems. I think Usopp very unabashedly takes up acting like an enamored younger sister with her- complete with teasing for the sake of teasing and getting less afraid of her over time. At first, though, I imagine that Zoro was the most intimidating and deadly thing this side of the Grand Line. Don't get on her bad side, don't argue with her or cop an attitude, just be polite and friendly, etc. After joining the crew and having some time/adventures pass, Usopp learned that Zoro was completely trustworthy, capable of being fun to hang around and plenty of fun to be a little shit around. And, of course, the occasional bout of harmless slapping and nagging.
And seriously, the dynamic with Sanji wouldn't change too much. Another older sister, but one a little less untouchable, who is probably victim to any number of glomps and clothes-tugging. Taking into account Marie's views on a female Sanji, the flirting thing would throw Usopp off completely at first. Mostly because of it being a girl she doesn't really know, which means she has no idea if it's a joke, not to mention this is someone who could meet Zoro and not be afraid to try to kick her ass in the same day. Every day. As their friendship progressed and Sanji got more comfortable just being Sanji, that occasional bit of flirting probably gets some flustered spazzing and a little flailing and a not-really-angry-but-that-kind-of-stuff-is-embarrassing-oh-my-god-why-would-you-do-that shoving.
For the record, female-Brook probably gets that same kind of treatment if she asks men about their underwear. You know, “who the hell asks that kind of thing”, rawr, screech, hiss. Apart from that, it probably wouldn't be much of a dynamic change, either. Skull jokes are cheesy, but amusing anyway, and Laboon merits a good tearing up.
Nami is...well. Nami. The normal guy who once stole the ship and her friend, who she made the Climatact for. Of course, the whole Arlong arc got rid of any suspicion, and she still has so much respect for wanting to protect an entire village like that. More or less the same, with an added extra dosage of her hiding behind her version of Nami: because obviously it's his responsibility to protect helpless young women and all. Well, when she hasn't got a Sanji or Zoro around.
Uhhh. Damn. Tooooooo long. QUESTIONS. COMMENTS. Anything you think doesn't make sense. Leave it with me.