Y'all can say what you want about Elhokar but it takes balls to walk up to the gates of your occupied home city in full drag. This guy grew up in a ridiculously gendered society and was intended for THE most socially masculine role within it. His role models for manhood were the literal Blackthorn and Gavilar (who we also know was emotionally abusive). We know Elhokar is deeply insecure about not living up to those expectations, it's pretty much his whole Thing in WoK and WoR. He knows he's too weak for Alethi kingship and nobody takes him seriously. He practically begged Kaladin to teach him how to be a man. He daydreamed about returning to Kholinar a hero and a king and instead he got to return to it dressed up as a woman, which probably would have made Gavilar turn in his grave. And he did it without a single complaint because the mission required it!! And yes we can and should talk about the inherent queerness of that scene (Shallan saying that Elhokar would be most convincing as a woman because he has gay body language "a regal bearing", the way Elhokar took to the part so naturally, etc). But also we should just acknowledge that it was extremely fucking brave of him!!! Can you imagine the amount of internalized misogyny and homophobia that he probably had to fight in order to do that!! It's such a powerful moment of standing up against everything he was taught he should be, and stepping out of Gavilar's shadow. Elhokar's redemption arc is deeply tied to gender nonconformity. In this essay I will
