Character Analysis
High EQ
Just as Katsa—who is physically strong, fiercely independent, emotionally reserved, and determined to remain single and childless—takes on many masculine qualities, Prince Greening Grandemalion, Po for short, takes on many feminine characteristics. Sure he can hold his own in a fight and best nearly anyone but Katsa when it comes to grappling, but his most defining feature isn't his physicality. It's his emotional intelligence.
Thanks to his Grace, which like Katsa's has been both a blessing and a curse for him, Po has spent his "entire life hammering out the emotions of others" (16.82) and himself in his mind. As a result, he's developed a super keen ability to understand a wide range of thoughts and feelings resulting in a level of emotional intelligence we normally associate more with women. (Sorry, guys.)
"Uh-oh, it's the Female Man"
But not only is Po able to express himself clearly, he's also patient, kind, supportive, and nurturing. He's not as strong and skilled as Katsa at fighting, hunting, lighting fires, or building shelters, and he's not ashamed or humiliated by the idea of her acting as his protector. Additionally, Po is more interested in and comfortable with the idea of a long-term committed relationship. And he wears a lot of jewelry, whereas Katsa wears none.
See how all of those characteristics, coupled with Katsa's physical strength, reserved nature, and commitment-phobia, sort of flip the typical gender dynamic on its head? It's pretty cool. But the coolest thing about Po is that he doesn't seem to compromise one iota of his masculinity, even as he takes on all of these typically feminine characteristics and roles.
Part of that is due to the fact that we can see—and feel—how attractive Katsa finds him. When she first sees him in daylight, she notices that the neck of his shirt is open (6.40) and she can't stop staring at him. "She knew she should move, but she found that she couldn't" (6.43). And later, she's still so flustered by that quick view of his chest that she finds herself remarking, "'I see you close your shirt for state dinners,' […] though she didn't know where such a senseless comment came from" (8.44).
Confidence Is Very Sexy, Don't You Think?
So yeah, the fact that he flusters Katsa gives him some street cred, but most of it comes from his confidence and his positive attitude. After Katsa's shirt comment, Po's "mouth twitched, and his words, when he spoke, did not conceal his laughter. 'I didn't know you were so interested in my shirt, Lady'" (8.45). And when Oll sees Po's black eye following Po and Katsa's first go round, instead of being ashamed that he's been beaten by a girl, "Po was smiling. 'The lady won, which I doubt will surprise you'" (9.66), he says.
It's like Po knows that no one can take his power from him without his assent—and he isn't assenting.
Toward the end, when Po loses his sight, his confidence becomes a little shaky, and when he starts wallowing in self-pity, we begin to see him as weak for the first time. Coincidentally, he also puts on a strong-silent type routine at this time and refuses to share or discuss his feelings with Katsa. You know what that means? It means Po's moment of weakness is, interestingly enough, also his moment of behaving in a stereotypically masculine manner.
All's Po that Ends Po
Thankfully he snaps out of it, and as Po and Katsa make their plans for the future, we come to realize that all this masculine-feminine business, while extremely interesting, doesn't really seem to matter all that much. Po is Po is Po. Masculine, feminine, whatever. And what a wonderful world it would be if we could take a lesson from Po's refusal to be emasculated despite all his feminine qualities and stop trying to pigeon hole people into stereotypical gender roles.