Tragic Love Interests: Tortured Pasts and Abusive True Loves

Author: Dennis Skley  Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs License

What makes for a really hot male love interest?

If we’re feeling restrained we would mentioned kindness, compassion, understanding, willingness to listen, patience.

If we’re less… high brow… we’d mention bulging muscles, smoldering eyes, a firm backside and a massive… personality. (Though I still think some of these men have “personalities” that can rupture internal organs, which is sexy apparently. But we’ve already looked at the bizarre things that are considered sexy).

But there’s one other trait that seems to be even more required for your hot love interest to truly make everyone’s knees buckle: a horrendous tormented past

Yes, nothing makes your hot guy truly smoking like knowing he is dealing with some terrible trauma. Knowing your man is fighting off desperate PTSD symptoms seems to really get people going.

Of course part of this just an extension of the same writing habit that kills off the parents of protagonists at a truly alarming rate. A traumatic past is quick and dirty characterisation. When you’ve created a walking penis carrier who you don’t especially want to define nothing allows for quick and dirty characterisation like a huge whack of angst. Instant characterisation, life goal and general motivation and attitude in once, nice, tear-stained package.

Traumatic backgrounds are not inherently a bad thing (though there are many issues with a traumatic background being slightly more common than completing high school in the genre) if it’s done well (and not just lazy characterisation) and it’s certainly good to explore issues like PTSD, triggers and other manifestations of trauma as well as careful well written road to healing. Unfortunately, we rarely see this - and especially not with the sexily brooding love interest. Instead, all too often their oh-so-sad lives are used as a reason for them to be arseholes - and even abusive.

And because they have a tragic past we’re expected to accept that - or even find it romantic.

At the mildest level, your super sexy guy with his oh-so-special personality is (or believes he is) cursed/tortured/hunted/just-too-tortured and simply is bad for the girl (who he loves beyond reason, of course). This inevitably leads to that common and aggravating trope - driving her away for her own good! Of course, the idea of actually letting a woman decide whether she wants to take a risk or plan her own life or decide what is actually good for her or not. That would involve respecting her decision making.

Face off: Mortal Instruments vs The Infernal Devices

Cassandra Clare is the author of The Mortal Instruments Series and the Infernal Devices series. By now most know the history of Clare and plagiarism but in her published work she has shifted from stealing from others to borrowing liberally from herself. Yes, a step up I know.  As a reader it is beyond frustrating to be promised new characters and a new plot only to discover that the author could not be arsed to come up with anything original.  In the following face off to prove this point, we are going to compare a few of the major characters from each series to prove this point.  Unless you are a fan of reading the same book twice, we suggest you pick a series and stick with it.

Shall we look at the 2 main characters in each book?


Jace

Jace is a Shadowhunter of extreme skill. His fighting prowess is second to none and truly remarkable. He is also blessed with stunning good looks that you can’t help but be in awe of.  Unfortunately he also has a dark and terrible past and is completely estranged from his family, being all but adopted by the Shadow Hunters who run the institute instead. His dark and terrible past looms heavily on his current life, meaning he drives people away, often with his acerbic and venomous tongue. Despite this, Clary is drawn to him and impossibly attracted to him no matter how much he tries to drive her away. For a considerable amount of time he believes himself cursed due to the demon blood he believes went into his conception - which further causes him to drive people away; thankfully this turns out not to be the case and, yes, he can let people get close to him.

Thankfully Jace can rely on his friend and parabati, the quietly tortured Alec.


Will

Shall I just copy and paste? Shadow hunter of extreme skill? Yes. Stunning good looks? That would be yes. Dark and Terrible past? Oh yes, not gone into great detail, but yes especially since he believed he killed his sister. Naturally this also estranged him from his family and has caused him to be all but adopted by the Shadow Hunters who runs the institute. He believed he suffered from a dark and terrible curse that killed anyone he was close to - so he drove them away with his acerbic and venomous tongue. Which, yes, turned out to be incorrect. And yes, despite this Tessa still likes him.

Thankfully will can rely on his friend and parabati, the quietly tortured Jem

We’ve reached a point where the main difference between these two is their hair colour. No, really. And I’m sure many of you will rush to tell me how different they are - but with this many similarities, the differences become moot.

Face Off: Tessa Vs Katniss

Face Off is a new weekly feature which will appear on Mondays. We intend to compare and contrast two characters. Sometimes, these characters will be examples of how not to do it and how to do it right. Sometimes, they’ll both examples of how very wrong you can be. Occasionally, they’ll both be awesome -  sometimes they’ve been randomly linked elsewhere.

This week, we’re looking at Katniss from the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins vs Tessa from the Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare, which have been linked in the Heroine Torment. It's worth mentioning that when you have a count down clock for the next book in the infernal devices series, whatever competition you are running can hardly be said to be unbiased.

One of the advantages of this Face Off, is that the site itself presents the strengths of each character.

Personally, one thing I’m not going to rate is the relative combat abilities of each character. One trope I think literature in general and Urban Fantasy in particular needs to realize, is that a strong female character isn’t defined by the number of martial arts she has mastered, the heat of the fireballs she can throw out of her ass, or the size of the gun she can shoot.  The very fact that we have to equate strength with the ability to be violent is extremely limiting, simply because it is one dimensional.   A truly great protagonist is one that is complex and examines the world around her, rather than letting events simply happen to her and then reacting. So, though Katniss could certainly kill Tessa several times over, we will put it aside.

So let’s look at who these characters are.

Katniss

Katniss is born to extreme adversity, having to risk her life to feed her family from a young age and living in severe poverty and oppression. She volunteered to participate in the Hunger Games to replace her younger sister, where she fought desperately to survive and then to keep Peeta alive as well. Despite having so little hope, she defied the capital and ensured both she and Peeta lived. Her act of defiance became iconic and she became the symbol of resistance, through all of the oppressed districts and  integral in the propaganda war against the Capital. Despite this, she recognised the oppression of her captors, kept her humanity, kept her ideal on moral lines that must not be crossed and, in the end, having lost nearly everything, she put an arrow through her own leader’s heart. I think it is important to note that for Katniss not becoming the oppressor even as she fought for freedom was absolutely imperative.

Review: Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare, book 2 of the Infernal Devices series

After the last book, Clockwork Angel, Mortmain is still at large. He may be only human, but with considerable supernatural contacts Mortmain aims to capture Tessa and destroy the Shadowhunters - and who knows what else - with his army of clockwork automatoms. He is a threat to the Clave and all it stands for.

But things are not so simple - politics in the Clave threaten Charlotte’s position in the institute. Capturing Mortmain becomes not only a matter to protect themselves, but also to hold onto the London Institue. The quest for Mortmain takes them across the country, all the while wary of his agents and subtle, long term schemes.  And, more, Mortmain’s subtle conspiracy continues, with his friends and allies in the most unlikely places.

As if the threat to life as they know it wasn’t enough, Tessa is still ignorant of exactly what she is and what it means, as well as her brother’s betrayal and, of course, her conflicted and powerful feelings about Jem and Will. Made all the more fraught by the grave revelations of Will’s past.

This book felt padded. I’m not saying that’s intention, it could be the author’s writing style (I suspect so given the other books I’ve read). There is an awful lot of excess words here that you have to dredge through, There are specific issues but the basic is that 1 word isn’t used if 10 could possibly fit. It’s long winded, when things are described, they’re described in excessive detail and we have a lot of descriptions that are, frankly, unnecessary. Someone can walk across a room without us knowing how they do it, their surroundings, their gait or anything else. We can have a conversation without internal monologue, a blow-by-blow description of facial expressions or random irrelevant things the speakers are doing at the same time. If a character has been described it’s unnecessary to repeatedly re-describe them in later scenes.

And speaking of long winded - literary quotes. Maybe there are people who enjoy having the characters constantly refer to and quote classic literature and poetry, but to me it got very old - and very pretentious - very fast. In fact, not to be cruel, it felt like the author trying to impress us.

Fangs For the Fantasy Give Away: Cassandra Clare's Clockwork Angel

We have written several reviews of Cassandra Clare's work on this blog (here, and here).  On a recent post we discussed the ongoing homophobia in her work.  We know that it is quite possible to enjoy a piece of literature, even when it is problematic, and that is why this month we are giving away one hardcover copy of:

 

Clockwork Angel is the first novel in the Infernal Devices series and is a prequel to her Immortal Instruments series.  The second novel in Clare's Infernal Devices series, Clockwork Prince is due out in December, so if you are interested in reading this series, winning a chance to own Clockwork Angel is a good place to start. 

This contest is open to Americans and Canadians.  All you have to do is follow us (not like) on Facebook (underneath the word networked blogs, there's a big blue button marked "follow"), Goodreads  or Blogger.  If  you already follow us, on one of the aforementioned sites, simply send us a short to note to let us know that you would like to enter and where you already follow us.  When you are done, leave your email address in the comment section of this post, along with where you have chosen to follow us, or send us an email at fangsforthefantasy (at) gmail (dot) com. Without contact information, your entry will be deemed invalid.  This contest closes September 30, 2011 and we allow only one entry per person. The winner will have 48 hours after being selected to contact us, or a new winner will be selected.  Good luck everyone and stay tuned for our next exciting give away. 

Contest is now closed.

Cassandra Clare Owes Me Money For Clockwork Angel

Having read all of the Mortal Instruments series, I decided to pick up Clockwork Angel.  Though some feel that Clare writes like a drunken monkey, with the exception of the last book City of Angels, I thought that she had an interesting world and story.  Yes, yes, I know that Clary is irritating, but is she really any worse than Bella Swan, Rose Hathaway, Elena Gilbert, Sookie Stackhouse or Merit?  I have come to expect the desire to see a house fall on female protagonists in this genre.

From the very beginning I did not like Tessa Grey.  How is it that you can know someone for five minutes and then decide that they should tell you why they are an orphan and their personal painful life history?

In this book for the first time, Clare decided to introduce a disabled character.  The disableism throughout the story was disgusting.  Jem was actively told that no one blamed him for his disability.  Really?  No, I mean Really? Basically, he was forced into the role of super crip and still was not accepted by his community. Outside of Will, the paternalism with which he is treated is ignored, and the reader is expected to pity him as a tragic hero.This of course proves my theory that unless you have an ism, or are intimately connected with someone who does, research is vital.  I think that Clare was so committed to printing quotes from Dickens and the like that she could not be bothered to read anything else.