Quote Originally Posted by Kish View Post
The impression I got is that Vlad(ia) has a weak male gender identity and now experiences very mild dysphoria, much less severe than he experienced when stuck in half-bat form. And so, while he would prefer to have a permanent male human form if such was absolutely guaranteed, he is happy to stay there rather than risk going back to what he expected to be his life.
When a character says "I've never been a man in my life" and is consistently referred to with female pronouns from that point on I think that's a pretty strong sign to her gender identity. The bit about changing her name because nobody wanted to call her Vlad can be interpreted as having it forced on her, but it kind of reads like sarcasm to me.