Duralumin_Ferring

Most of the changes don’t bother me too much but I hate the idea of gender-swapping Ham. There are three big things that Ham does in the book that sticks out in my mind. Those being his traditionally masculine character and where they choose to subvert it, his friendship with Breeze, and how he’s used to explain how pewter functions. Ham fills the traditional role of the big guy. Visually, this is clear by him being a tall, muscular, man. A stereotypical rendition of his archetype. And while he is a traditionally masculine guy, the stereotype is subverted by him being an enlightened thinker which adds depth to his character. If you make him a woman, he would be subverting his archetype in a much less interesting way. We’ve seen countless physically strong female characters and uncovering parts of his character would just feel less interesting if that was the first impression the film gave you of him. Then there is his friendship with Breeze. So often, strong male friendships in media are confused for romantic ones. Any time male friends are willing to be real with each other and have a deep bond where they both care about each other, they’re “theorized” by the fan base to be secretly gay. The lack of evidence is taken as evidence. However, I think Ham and Breeze are a great showing of how good, deep, friendships between men should look and that is something rare to see on screen in the modern day. It would be a shame to miss out on that. Additionally, Ham serves a role in Vin’s journey and the part that sticks out most to me is when they’re training with pewter. Ham has been shown as “the strong one” throughout the whole book until he’s training with Vin and points out that pewter doesn’t give you a percentage increase to your physical abilities but instead a flat number. This allows Vin to actually be better with pewter because she’s smaller and weaker than Ham who is the stereotypical strong man. By making Ham a woman, it makes this feel less special and interesting. This moment helps prove that Vin’s hardships give her strength and we shouldn’t take that from her.