Beyond Selidor

Again, I've elected to roll the current snowflake_challenge prompt into today's open thread, since it's a fun prompting question:

Share a favourite piece of original canon (a show, a specific TV episode, a storyline, a book or series, a scene from a movie, etc) and explain why you love it so much.



I always feel a bit weird doing these, because all my fandoms of the heart are fandoms-of-one, the sorts of things that I'd be lucky to get given as gifts for Yuletide, and they have potentially offputting elements (teenage protagonists, a writing style people will either love or hate, divisive relationship dynamics, and so on). So I can talk about why I love them forever, but assume that no one will take me up on the recommendation, or not be hooked by the same things that first hooked me. A lot of these canons are things that I've loved unstintingly for three decades; they're a part of me — they've seeped into my bones, into the story I tell about myself.

I've written a lot of primers/manifestos/gushing walls of emotion over the years!

( I've gathered a bunch behind the cut )

What about you? Feel free to link back to your own posts if you've already answered this prompt for Snowflake.

It's fandom meme time, and we're up to Day Eleven:

K: What character has your favorite development arc/the best development arc?

The obvious answer would be any of the main characters from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Honestly, I often want to sit all writers of serialised fiction down and make them watch the series from beginning to end, because I remain staggered at how good its characterisation and character development was.

But instead I'm going to talk about Mai, my favourite character from Kate Elliott's Crossroads trilogy.

( Some spoilers )

Which character arcs do you like the best?

( The other days )

Day Eighteen: Favorite non-warrior female character

Mai (Crossroads series, Kate Elliott)

Today's question is an odd one, in that almost all the characters I like aren't warriors, so I decided to interpret it as 'favourite female character who is essentially the antithesis of a warrior'. I've written frequently about Mai on my various blogs, so I'll keep today's entry brief. Suffice it to say that Mai embodies several characteristics I tend to latch onto in fictional favourites.

We first encounter Mai as a merchant's daughter, living in a trade town that is occupied by a mercenary band led by the exiled noble, Captain Anji. As far as occupations go, it's fairly reasonable, in that the people are able to go about their daily lives without much intrusion and Mai's family is able to retain something of its privileged position under the new regime. Mai is a seasoned market trader, managing her family's stall and very good at persuading people to buy their products. She's also adroit at managing her rather difficult family and carving out a place of calm for herself among the more domineering and aggressive personalities of her relatives. Her talents lie in managing people, keeping a 'market face' on at all times, understanding the needs and desires of others and persuading them gently in a direction that is beneficial to her and hers without people perceiving that they are being manipulated. One thing Elliott does that I appreciate is that she emphasises that Mai's abilities in this area are a skill that she has learned, and that they are valued by those around her. Indeed, the mercurial Captain Anji decides to marry Mai because he wants to embark on a military campaign and recognises that Mai's skills are necessary to smooth his path with the people his mercenaries will conquer.

Once she's married to Anji, Mai does indeed put her skills to use forging ties with the local people by encouraging marriages between Anji's men and local women and helping to establish markets, trade routes and farms. In most cases, especially early on in the series, it's Mai's skills that are more necessary. The region into which Anji moves his army has been wracked by civil war and chaos for quite a while, and the people are quite happy to live under his rule, once Mai's diplomacy has been put to use showing them that they will be able to resume ordinary life, growing crops, building, making crafts and selling them. It's very rare in fantasy novels for talents like Mai's – what I normally term 'mercantile behaviour' — to be presented in a favourable light, and I've always loved the fact that Elliott made them heroic and highlighted their significance.

( The other days )

My brain sometimes takes weird turns. Last week, Matthias and I went to London to see Robyn in concert (which was amazing) and it got me thinking about her music. Its power lies, I think, in taking the words that are used against the powerless and dispossessed and using them as weapons or armour. Her lyrics are so sharp they could cut you, but you kind of don't notice it until some time later. Anyway, what with the Robyn lyrics and the fact that my PhD thesis is basically about dispossession and the creation of history and identity and the realisation that, like everyone, I have certain literary tropes that are like catnip to me (in my case, motley families that are made, not necessarily born, taking their power back) I have come to the conclusion that I am all about the dispossession.

With that in mind, I decided to compile a (provisional) list of texts (that I love) with this trope. That is, stories about the dispossessed finding strength in their dispossession and reclaiming the power that was always theirs. I emphatically do not mean 'dispossessed' people using the tools of their oppressors to save the world - Campbellian heroes have no place here. If you're the rightful king, and you defeat the evil, false king and replace him, you're not really dispossessed, even if you grew up on an isolated farm. A benign monarchy is still a monarchy.

( Was my Una icon ever more appropriate? )

What about you? Do you have texts that fit with this trope that you could recommend? Or do you have your own particular tropes which you want to read/watch again and again and again? Inquiring minds want to know.