Since I saw the post about trans!Mordred you reblogged earlier, I thought I’d share a headcanon I’ve had for a while, which is:
Basically everything about Gareth’s story actually makes more sense if you headcanon him as trans.
I mean, think about this: Gareth shows up at Camelot. But he doesn’t introduce himself as who he is. Instead, he refuses to tell anyone his real name, and just asks to stay at Camelot and be given food and drink for a year. Then, when the year is up, his second request is that he be given the chance to go on Lynette’s quest and prove himself. And only then does he reveal his real identity.
And, throughout this story, we’re given no indication that Gareth’s brothers ever recognized him.
It’s a hard story to understand. I always headcanoned that Gareth wanted to keep his identity hidden so that he could prove himself on his own merits, not just be seen as Arthur’s Nephew or Gawain’s Little Brother or whatever. And I do think that’s absolutely part of it, regardless of what other headcanons you add to it.
But if you headcanon Gareth as trans, a whole lot else falls into place.
Why don’t Gareth’s brothers recognize him the minute he shows up? Because they’re expecting to see a sister, not a brother. Mallory explains that they didn’t recognize him because it had been a few years since they’d seen him, but would that really be enough on its own? Maybe. But if you factor in the few years plus the fact that they’re seeing someone of the opposite gender than they’d expect, it makes a lot more sense. (I still definitely headcanon they’d figure it out well before the year was up, but it makes the lack of immediate recognition much more plausible.)
And he doesn’t immediately introduce himself as Lot and Morgause’s son Gareth because he’d be immediately told that no such person exists. So he asks to stay a year, keeping his identity hidden, because he wants to give the knights the opportunity to get to know him as a man, without the prejudice he knows would be there if he immediately revealed himself for who he is. It’s only once the other knights have accepted him as one of them, both through getting to know him and through him proving himself on his quest, that he feels comfortable telling the truth.
You could even factor Kay nicknaming him Beaumains into that, IMO. Maybe it’s a reference to the fact that he’s unusually pretty for a guy, or his hands specifically don’t look like a typical man’s. Who knows?
I just think it all fits together pretty well, when you think about it.
Arthurian Legends 