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.

Manpain!

© 2008 Lisa Brewster, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio

In walks the manly, testosterone swelling, mighty male protagonist. Able to take down entire legions of enemies, possibly with only his chest hair (or, as is more often now, the glaring reflection from his waxed pectorals). His firm jaw and clenched teeth (naturally adorned with a light dusting of stubble – and yes, he doesn’t have time to shave but can still keep those pectorals gleaming) show a man with a grim purpose, surely nothing could crack his granite visage?

But he stops, looks down at the savaged remains of his wife/child/side-kick/pet marmot and that stony façade cracks. A single Mantear trickles down his rugged cheek and the music swells dramatically as everyone falls silent as the great hero is brought down by his greatest foe; Manpain.

 

Manpain is not a new phenomenon, but it seems to be growing more common. The manly-male heroes of yore who would never dream of shedding a tear or reacting with more than an angry eye squint in the face of the worst provocation are rapidly becoming extinct. Now, you cannot possibly be a hero without the ability to force out that Mantear and stare in agonised grief at the camera or possibly raising despairing fists to an uncaring sky. Even the most emotionless, removed and untouchable of heroes has to suggest some deep, painful currents running beneath his stoic façade.

There’s certainly some benefit to this – too often men are taught that the only acceptable emotions to express are lust or rage (or, more horrendously, lust and rage) and anything else is deemed a sign of weakness to be mocked and reviled. Allowing men to have a richer emotional palette, to present even the roughest, toughest, hardiest of manly-men to be able to express grief and sorrow and pain, to need help and support, to hurt and need healing are certainly useful things to add to our societal consciousness and media culture

Alas, as in so many things, the execution comes with its own set of problems.

At its most benign, Manpain replaces any real characterisation - and often results in some truly hilarious melodrama. A really good example of this is Will, from Lee Carroll and Carol Goodman’s Black Swan Rising Series. Will is so overcome with the thought of losing Garret he reacts by falling to his knees on the sandy beach, ripping his shirt open and instantly composing the most horrendously bad poetry I have read in a long time. It’s absolutely epic in its overly dramatic Manpain that it becomes hard to choose between rolling one's eyes and laughing out loud.

But not all are so benign (or hilarious). The most obvious we often see is, of course, Fridging. Fridging is a horrendously overused trope whereby a side-character (usually female and usually a love interest) is killed off for the sake of the main character’s story or character development. That (usually female) character is reduced to nothing more than a plot point in the main character’s story which is inherently dehumanising to her while centring his importance

In our quest for Manpain, we’ve filled a whole lot of fridges. Supernatural, perhaps the supreme master of Manpain, has filled an entire frozen food aisle full of fridges so Dean can hone his so-tortured look (Jensen Ackles must be worried his face is going to freeze like that one of these days).

Rick’s epic Manpain on The Walking Dead all relates back to the death of his wife Lori, a character largely lacking in much in the way of development except to be a millstone around Rick’s neck. The whole point of her existence was Rick’s development and Rick’s angst

Even when the women are allowed to live, a large number of these character’s Manpain can be traced back to a female “cause” (not all, certainly, the whole “I have a destiny I don’t want because being special is soooo hard” raises fairly regularly as well – as we see with Alex on Dominion and the massively melodramatic tortured past is a mainstay in paranormal romance series like Black Dagger Brotherhood and the Dark Hunter Series) – as we see on the Leftovers and Justin with his Guilty Remnant wife or Helix’s Alan Farragut stomping and moping around about Julia. These women are not dead, but one of the main roles they serve is as a source of angst and pain - at least in the first season.

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

Converting a book to a film is difficult – far more so than a TV series. A book inevitably has more content, more nuance, more scenes and more development than you can fit into even the longest of films (this film is a little over 2 hours long, though it does feel longer). It’s difficult to decide what to cut and what to keep but almost inevitably something has to be sacrificed. That can be hard, it can be a disaster but it is probably a better idea than doing what Mortal Instruments did:

KEEP IT ALL!

This was a bad idea. Even with this film being eleventy hours long, the plot didn’t fit. The Simon/Clary/Jace love triangle (the romance at all for that matter, it ate far too much space), the vampire interlude, the side track to Magnus for him to say “don’t worry about it, it wears off” (pretty much the entirety of Magnus there), many many many LONG fight scenes, werewolves thrown in just ‘cos, some weird conflict over Luke which wasn’t even close to developed (thankfully) and even the whole incest thing that absolutely no-one wanted – it’s ALLL THERE. Interspaced with lots of scenes which basically have me picturing the director cackling “we have HOW MUCH BUDGET?! CGI ALL THE THINGS! MOAR PRETTY! MOAR!”

So things suffered. Exposition was just rammed in everywhere, just about any character at any time may feel the need to deliver a quick lecture because we need ALL THE THINGS to be mentioned whether relevant or not and we have zero time to develop any of it. The romance between Jace and Clary was ludicrously fast forwarded (and this isn’t just because I can’t see Jamie Campbell Bower and not think “12 year old” no matter how tall he is which means not only did I have to endure incesty-ness, but 12 year old incestyness. No thanks), to the point of being almost hilarious how deeply passionate these two were about each other despite only knowing each other for… 16 hours?

And when Valentine finally appeared I honestly think if I hadn’t read the book I would have had no idea who he was. So much time was spent on flashy fight scenes, pointless side tracks, more flashy fight scenes, boring romance, more flashy fight scenes and big impressive camera pans with swelling music over pretty pretty CGI that there was no real development of the actual villain, what his motives are or even establishing him as a major threat rather than just another element of the eternal exposition. And when he showed up he spent more time on family drama than actually being a conceivable villain.

I actually almost want to argue that Ysabelle is the protagonist of this movie. While Jace and Clary are angsting romantically with Valentine, she’s running around with a flame thrower getting shit done. Of course it didn’t help that Clary’s sole claim to protagonist-ness is that she is the Keeper of the McGuffin and the super-shiny-power-of-shininess which she did nothing to develop, achieve or earn but just had it because she’s the protagonist. Oh Clary Sue step aside and take Sleeping Mother with you (wow, Lena Headey was under-used on this movie) and let Ysabelle take over.

City of Heavenly Fire (Mortal Instruments #6) by Cassandra Clare

Simon, son of Valentine, is using his Infernal Cup to make war on the Shadowhunters. With this cup he can turn the Shadowhunters into the Endarkened, evil, superlative warriors bound to his will. After a raid on several institutes, he has gathered quite a force, especially with the hidden allies working on his side. The Shadowhunters are unprepared and desperately trying to counter him while continuing their mission.

And the pacts he’s made with Lillith make him almost invulnerable – except to Heavenly fire. The only source of which is currently in Jace and he doesn’t know how to control it.

Throughout the Mortal Instruments Series and, relatedly, The Infernal Devices series we’ve had a major complaint – they are terribly, ridiculously overwritten. This continues massively this book, with lots of unnecessary, excessive description over and over again. Really, we do not need to know what everyone is wearing at every given moment, repeatedly. I don’t need to know about everyone’s hair, the terrain, that someone has put their fingers through the belt loops of their jeans in conversation, what an irrelevant building looks like, whether Maryse likes said building –trim trim trim!

In between the piles of unnecessary description we also have vast lumps of navel gazing from just about every character. Lots of huge internal monologues which didn’t really add anything, especially since they’re repeated over and over. Then reinforced with a dialogue on the same subject saying the same thing which, again, may be repeated

There’s also an unnecessary amount of recapping events – something would happen, someone would react (emotion, naval gaze, monologue) then tell the WHOLE THING to someone else. Not “Clary told Jace what happened”. Nope, we’d have the whole conversation, word by word.

In addition we also have Maia’s story which is… nice, but irrelevant. Frankly, it felt like a short story slotted into the main plot because it didn’t really add anything to the over all book except more padding. In a less padded book it may have worked; but this book was already taking way too damn long to get to the story.

The same goes for the Blackthorns. They’re a nice addition to the story and would make an interesting short story of their own and are clearly being set up for another series in the same world – but because the story is already badly padded having all these inserts from Emma, the 8 squillion Blackthorn children (including detailed, repeated description of their hair colour. Honestly, I knew every single one of these kid’s hair before they ever appeared in the book – we just had an epic hair info dump) just felt like more padding before we actually got to the plot. And we had Simon and Maureen – and gods know what the point of that was.

This book is nearly 500 pages long and could have been told in 250 easily. I would actually advising skimming this book if you read it because you will miss nothing – everything is just so long winded that reading one word in three will give you a clear idea of what’s going on.

Asian Characters in Cassandra Clare's Shadow Hunters World

Asians are highly underrepresented in the media and speculative fiction is no different. This in part is why I was pleased to see the Asian male characters Magnus Bane and Jem Carstairs in Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series and Infernal Devices Series. The importance of this should not be minimised, though fans of the series have expressed shock that Magnus is Asian and Clare has had to be steadfast about declaring his race. I must give her kudos for her insistence because it certainly would have been easier and perhaps even more expedient to allow the whitewashing to continue unabated. 

We have always said that representation isn’t enough and that for a portrayal to really work, the characters must be real and have an active part in the story. One of the things that I really liked was Jem speaking Mandarin throughout Clockwork Princess. This left the reader no ability to deny that Jem is indeed a character of colour and gave him a sense of culture, which worked to separate him from the White characters that surrounded him. Can we really say that this is enough to declare Clare’s representation of Asian men in her story as good inclusion? We already know that Asian women have to be dressed in sarees during battle to merit even a brief mention.

Let’s consider for a moment that both Jem and Magnus are biracial. When it comes to characters of colour in speculative fiction, it has become rare to find one who isn’t biracial (think Anita Blake, Mercy Thompson, Ivy from Kim Harrison's Hollows Series ) The fact that this happens at such an alarming rate simply cannot be an accident. No, rather I suggest to you that even as it serves as inclusion for many White writers, it represents a historical tendency to uplift those who are seen as closer to Whiteness. This is not to say that biracial people do not constitute people of colour but that speculative fiction has come to use biracial people as representative and in the process purposefully disconnects them from their cultures of colour. At least as far as Jem, this is something Clare has avoided by having a clear connection with Jem’s Chinese culture. The same, however, cannot be said about Magnus. Yes, Clare included obvious references to Magnus’ identity as a biracial man but it only extended to his appearance, and quite honestly, it is highly problematic to make an Asian man’s alien feature his “cat eyes.”

It is rather telling that both Jem and Magnus fit the submissive stereotype that is often associated with Asian males. We keep hearing that Magnus is a super powerful warlock, who doesn’t just give away his services and yet in both series in which he has been featured, he inevitably ends up in a servile position juxtaposed to the White characters.

“Simon rolled his eyes. “It’s a good thing we know the person who’s dating Magnus Bane,” he said. “Otherwise, I get the feeling we’d all just lie around all the time wondering what the hell to do next. Or trying to raise the money to hire him by selling lemonade or something.”

Alec looked merely irritated by this comment. “The only way you could raise enough money to hire Magnus by selling lemonade is if you put meth in it.”

Cassandra Clare, City of Lost Souls

So, Magnus is invaluable to them but by virtue of being a warlock, he will always be seen as an outsider. This of course fails to explore the reality that racial tension would most certainly enter the relationship. The Shadowhunters literally prey upon Magnus’ feelings for Alex and not only is this predatory, it reveals a strong sense of entitlement. It’s never about what is in the best interest of Magnus Bane.

Where The Exceptional Woman Falls Short

A lot of Urban Fantasy has a purported strong female character as a protagonist - though we’ve said before how much that “strength” is often little more than being a weapon. But we have these strong women, they kick arse, they take names, they are as powerful and strong as any of the people around them - in fact, they’re usually better with skills, powers and possess a will that eclipses everyone else. They are super special, immensely powerful and the supreme masters of their own life. They resist all authority, they are in charge, they are dangerous and they are strong.

But are these really showing strong women? We have several doubts about whether a strong woman as protagonist means a book is showing female strength or women as strong.

Firstly, there’s the fact that so many of these women are strong because of their special powers or Chosen One status. One example of the change that having superpower brings can be found in the Anna Strong series by Jeanne C Stein. Anna becomes a vampire through a forced act but then ascends to the “Chosen One,” because we certainly cannot have a female protagonist, who isn’t a super special snowflake. Chosen One status is absolutely necessary to be declared an exceptional woman. It all began with Buffy who was the one slayer in each generation and it has only proceeded to get worse. Whether it’s Rachel Morgan from The Hollows, or Sookie Stackhouse and her very special fairy blood, or Chrysabelle and her glowing white skin and gold tattoos from Kristen Painter’s, House of Comarré series; to be considered an exceptional woman you don’t need to be driven, smart, intelligent, or pretty, you just need to have some sort of woo woo which will make you desirable to others.

When these women decide to accept these powers (yes, I said accept, because there’s always a process of denial for the sake of angst) they need to decide how to move forward. This is where most writers will not only throw the Bechdel test out of the window, they will then drive over it with a steam roller to make sure that it is well and truly dead. We all know that there are no two snowflakes which are ever identical, but just to ensure that there is no competition for the title of Queen of the Woo Woo, exceptional women typically abhor all other women. This means every other woman is either competition, or a villainous “bitch” in some way. It took Anna Strong seven books to find a woman whom she could tolerate, who was not a blood relative. Of course, all of the women she has problems with are in some form of relationship with her male friends - but it’s not jealousy honest. Anita Blake started off with a friend but alas, like all relationships engaged in by exceptional women, it was short lived. Chyrsabelle has female servants and one female acquaintance....I suppose that’s marginally better than being an enemy to all women. Jaye Wells proved it’s possible that an exceptional woman can have a friend in her Sabina Kane Series, but they had better be a demon who is thousands of years old and of course male.

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.

Fangs for the Fantasy Podcast: Episode 66

This week we discuss the season finales of Vampire Diaries and Once Upon a Time and celebrate the demise of Secret Circle! We lament at Alcatraz being cancelled. We also discuss A Game of Thrones

We discuss out book of the week – City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare. And Tami is still reading her porn.

Review: City of Lost Souls, Book 5 of the Mortal Instruments Series

Jace and Sebastian have disappeared – and the Clave has started to reduce the hunt for them. They have other priorities and they just can’t dedicate any more resources to finding them.

Of course, Clary and her friends can’t leave it at that and can’t just let him go. They’re willing to search under every rock for him, leaving no stone unturned until they can find a way to both bring him back and free him from Sebastian’s control. It’s a quest that takes them to the secretive Iron Sisters, to summon mighty and fiercely terrifying demons and even call upon the Angels of heaven themselves and risk their furious wrath.

But, most heartbreaking of all is that Jace doesn’t seem to be unhappy where he is. Captive or willing accomplice seems to be in doubt. And if he is willing then what with clary & Co actually do? And are they willing to sacrifice him to stop Sebastian’s schemes? Or, if Jace trusts him, is there more to Sebastian than they have previously seen?

My first complaint of this book is, sadly, the writing. The series was always atrociously overwritten with a lot of severe Chekhov’s Junkshop issues, a lot of excess description and a great deal of unnecessary literary quotes.  This has always been a major barrier to my enjoyment of the series because it was so mired in pointless verbiage – it made Dickens seem concise. Now this book is much much better than previous books on that score. We have a lot less literary references, the dialogue is tighter, there’s less pointless description and less pointless tangents and maunderings.

Less. Unfortunately “less” here means I’m drowning in a sea rather than an ocean – it’s still overwritten and it’s still overdescriptive and the writing is still clumsy. In the first few chapters I could have started a drinking game based on how many times Clary felt “icy”. I nearly did start a drinking game based ion the number of times Alec’s hair and eye colour were described (they’re black and blue respectively, in case you’ve forgotten. An absolute impossibility if you read the book because they’re described at least twice every time Alec raises his black haired, blue eyed head) but was worried about the consequences of alcohol poisoning.

There were also moments of filler that were, frankly, bemusing. Jordan and Maia are giant filler characters for one – and I sat and gaped when, running to find a cure for Luke dying of demon poisoning, they decide to pull over and make out. Really?

Pacing was a problem. Clary is quickly separated from the group and spends much of the book following her own plan that doesn’t actually progress very quickly or in much detail – but we spend a lot of time on it to keep up with her emotional issues. Similarly we have a separate plot line with Simon that could be interesting but isn’t developed – so adds to the filler. And then we have the infuriating tangent with Alec sabotaging his relationship with Magnus – there’s a lot of pages written here that don’t advance the main plot or even their own plots significantly. It’s slow, has a lot of dead ends, a lot of irrelevance and takes a long time to actually get on with the plot. for huge amounts of the book all we have are people moping, people making out and people moping about wanting to make out with each other. This is like 2 thirds of the book.

I am actually immensely amused by how much people in this book refer to Clary as reckless, foolish and generally not one who makes the best decisions – it feels vaguely like Cassandra Clare re-read her old books and declared “no sensible person would do these things!” Oh and can someone please explain to me where Clary developed her epic fighting skills? Because she didn't get THAT much training

In some ways, Clary’s decision making is not nearly as bad as it was in previous books. But then, she doesn’t have much chance to make many decisions – she makes one (a horrendous, reckless and deeply foolish decision that Simon considers “suicidal” and is bludgeoned into helping her or she’ll plunge off and do it alone with no support) and keeping to that decision doesn’t really raise many more options. She can’t follow someone around and choose to do many other things. The sad thing is that doesn’t make Clary a better character – it merely means she’s more tolerable when her decision making is kept to a minimum; let’s not forget, the decisions she does make here are described as reckless, foolish and suicidal – and rightly so. They’re also frequently selfish and short-sighted, from leaving in the first place (including arguing that “it’s not fair” with her mother – what is she, 9?) to preventing Jace going to the Clave.

One thing I did like a lot about this book is the way Alec describes micro-aggressions he faces as a gay man in a homophobic society (even if that society keeps changing to fit the story needs, from virulently homophobic, to accepting, to “let’s just not talk about it”). The constant little heteronormative comments that are dehumanising and demeaning – it was really well done.

Face off: Most Blatant Token

As you know one of the things we strongly believe is that inclusion is not enough.  Far too often what we see a cardboard cut outs reifying every trope possible masquerading as characters.  As they live out tropes rather than helping marginalized characters they actually hurt us because they present  prejudices and stereotypes as truth.

There are so many problems with them - not only because of the damaging tropes that these characters represent - but also because, repeatedly, this is seen as ENOUGH. When we complain about erasure, this is presented as the alternative. This is enough for the inclusion cookies - which means we’re not expected to demand more.

So, which pathetic excuse for being inclusive wins as the most blatant token?


Bonnie from The Vampire Diaries:  Bonnie is the classic White girl painted Black for the purposes of inclusion.  In the original books written by L.J Smith, the character Bonnie is White.  There is nothing about Bonnie that reflects her supposed African-American culture.  Though Bonnie is supposedly a strong Bennett witch, she exists solely to serve the protagonist Elena.  Whenever she is not need to perform said woo woo, Bonnie is thrust back into the plot box, not to be seen or heard from.  We know very little about her home life as her father is always out of town.  Her grandmother was killed in season one like the good Black witch that she was, and her mother disappeared again after being turned into a vampire.


Melissa from the Secret Circle: Oh, Melissa. Out of all of the witches, she is the one who is the least integral to the plot. In fact she’s the only witch who can actually disappear entirely for several episodes at a time - I assume she’s dumped into a plot box until she is needed, then she’s dusted off to help serve Faye, or Diana or the endlessly special Cassie. Which is, of course, all that Melissa does - serve. She has had one plot line only (the victim of a very pointless Voodoo priest) which turned her into a drug user. Other than that she serves - she’s Fay’s best friend, she’s Diana’s best friend, she’s everyone’s damn best friend. Need someone to help find a crystal? Ask Melissa to help. Need to help Diana run one of her endless parties? Call Melissa. Faye need a wingwoman? Call Melissa. Most telling of all this blatant addition is that she is the only character who seems to have no family at all. We’ve seen a grandparent and/or a parent from each of the other witches (except Jake whose parents are dead) and we don’t even know what family Melissa has left!

Face Off: Worst Idea Ever.

So, one of the most common things we’ve complained about from Urban Fantasy protagonists is that they don’t always act in an entirely sensible fashion. In fact, sometimes we have run the risk of damaging our e-readers throwing them at the wall in sheer disgust.

After much debate we just can’t decide which protagonist has had the worst possible idea - so we have to face off some of the finalists! Honestly we looked at a list of many many many Spunky protagonists but they just didn’t compare with these 4 - these are the Elite Spunkies


Elena from CW The Vampire Diaries

Elena spent most of the summer searching for Stefan her vampire boyfriend who had gone rogue.  After much hand twisting she learns that he is on top of a mountain where the werewolves have gathered to shift and hunt as a group during full moon. Elena could have waited until after the full moon to go but no. That would have involved far too much common sense and so she dragged Alaric, and Damon up the mountain. Would you believe that they were actually attacked by werewolves? I'm shocked, really.

Of course, a particularly bad element of this foolishness is that it drags others along with her - they can’t abandon her and are forced to follow her silly self into ridiculous peril.


Rose from The Vampire Academy Series

Rose is absolutely destroyed after the man that she loves Dimitri  is turned into a strigoi.  She is desperate to free him from his fate and decides to travel to Russia to find him.  She knows that he is from a very small town somewhere in Siberia. She takes off for Russia and somehow despite the size of the country she not only manages to find his family, but Dimitiri himself.  She must have stopped by the Palin house for directions, because with being able to see Russia from her house she must have intimate knowledge of Russian geography.

In fact, this whole situation can be summed up with this wonderful drawing from Chai Latte

Spunky Agency: Fake Empowerment and not-so-strong Female Protagonists

Spunky Agency is a term that we use quite often on this site.  We have included a cursory definition in the Fangs Lexicon, but because it is in such regular usage, we thought that it would be appropriate to create a post clearly defining what we mean by this term, with an example of some characters that represent Spunky Agency..

A character possessed of Spunky Agency, is one who makes extremely impulsive decisions that often are reckless and put her in ridiculous danger. This, of course, is meant to frame said protagonist as a person of action. Quite often you see the term "strong" used to describe this kind of action when in fact a better descriptor would probably be, “does not have the sense that God gave cabbage.“

These protagonists use their agency in such ridiculous ways that it actually undermines it. Their decisions are so poor we wish they wouldn’t make them at all - these characters aren’t strong because their “strength” is so misapplied. We have so many classic examples in the genre - Sookie Stackhouse has made some incredibly poor decisions, starting with deciding to investigate a serial killing in vampire bars and just getting worse from there. Clary from the Mortal Instruments virtually embodies this trope with her clueless portal jumping without knowing what’s on the other side. Claire from the Morganville Vampires constantly makes decisions that make my head ache (checking out the curious, locked, lightproof room in the library in a town filled with vampires? Really? What did you think was hiding in there? Mushrooms?)

Of course, bad plans are not the only element of Spunky Agency. How many times have we seen a group make a plan and then the Spunky Agent decides she’s going to sneak off and do her own thing instead? Yes, I`m looking at you Elena from the Otherworld series. How many times will she pretend to agree then go against everything decided? The Spunky Agent decides she knows better than her fellows and feels she can discard their input on a whim.

Similarly, the Spunky Agent will often refuse to accept any other input. She presents a fait accompli, a “my way or the highway”. Her agency is only realised by dictating to the others - even when they are often more experienced and knowledgeable than she is. Elena from Vampire Diaries frequently forces Stefan and Damon to accept her ridiculous plans. Jayne (oh thee of faux french names) from the Blacksun’s Daughter Series knows she should not be in command and yet still leads around the experts; making reckless plans that needlessly risking other people’s lives.

Another common element of Spunky Agency is poor impulse control - or outright random violence. Keillie Riviere from The Hoodoo Series so epitomises this that we’ve actually named the trope after her. To prove how strong and confident and determined she is, she punches people. She even punches Augustin, the leader of an international police and governing body. While she may be the most in need of anger-management therapy or some jail time, she’s hardly alone. How many times has Anita Blake got up in someone’s face at the slightest provocation?

Official City of Bones Film Synopsis

Okay, Cassandra Clare fans, I know that you have been chomping at the bit to learn more about the upcoming City of Bones film.  The official movie synopsis has been released.

'CLARY FRAY (Lily Collins) is an ordinary Brooklyn teenager until the night she meets the mysteriously tattooed JACE, who turns out to be a half-angel warrior known as a Shadowhunter. When Clary finds out her mother JOCELYN has been abducted, she desperately hopes Jace will be able to help. After a whirling golden portal transports her across time and space in a heartbeat, Clary realizes she too has the powers of the Shadowhunters. But can she harness them in time to save her mother?

Clary, Jace and their fellow Shadowhunters endure one breathtaking battle after another against vampire, warlocks and demons—only to discover Jocelyn hid a terrible secret from the fiercest warrior of all: VALENTINE. Cast out from the world of Shadowhunters, Valentine abducted Jocelyn believing she had a powerful tool known as the Mortal Cup. Using her newfound gifts, Clary finds the Cup, only to be brutally betrayed and forced to relinquish it.

Still reeling from this setback and racing to save Jocelyn before it’s too late, Clary finds herself caught in a battle between forces she barely understands. Based on the best-selling series by Cassandra Clare, THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONES is a magnificent urban fantasy rich in detail and suspense, about a girl’s journey to the darkest corners of the underworld to save those she loves.' (source)

The Mortal Instruments Series: Clary's Sketch Book

Regular readers know that The Fangs for the Fantasy crew are not large fans of Cassandra Clare's work' however, we do recognize that she has a large stable of fanpoodles.  Those that are familiar with Clare's Mortal Instruments series are well aware that Clary, the protagonist, loves to sketch.  Have you ever wondered what's inside Clary's sketchbook?  Well, now is your chance to find out.

 

Here's the link, for those who want to see more. 

Cassandra Clare proves that all Inclusion isn't Good

There are two problems we see a lot in looking at Urban Fantasy from a social justice mindset. One is the defenders of books and series rushing in to decry any criticism of their precious - and I can understand that. We fanpoodle in Kevin Hearne’s name after all. But when fanpoodles deny that there are problematic and prejudiced elements in their favourite works, they diminish and demean the damage these portrayals can cause and internalise them without thinking

The second is the repeated acceptance of token characters - even high problematic token characters - as being proof of inclusivity. Just having a POC/GBLT/Disabled/Female character is proof that the book/programme is inclusive and wonderful. Would that it were true, but as we’ve discussed before sometimes erasure is better than some inclusion.

Which brings us to Cassandra Clare’s novels that are repeatedly hailed for their gay inclusion and any questioning of the portrayals has been vehemently opposed. And as we did with similar sentiments expressed about Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake, we have to speak on this. Because this inclusion? This is not all good.

Alec exists to serve the straight people around him. Despite being older, he has far less kills than Issy or Jace (and Clary mocks him about this as a sign of him being weaker) and it is said this is because he exists to protect them - gay people existing to protect and serve straight people is no less problematic than gay people being weaker than straight people. There are at least 2 occasions in the books where he severely risks his own life to protect Jace. On top of that, Alec being gay is used as a reason for him to fawn after Jace - be jealous of Clary and desperate for Jace's attention - the gay man pining pathetically after a straight guy is an old trope and it’s a dull one that needs to end.

While Alec is portrayed as self-effacing, whiny and weak - especially compared to Jace and Issy, Magnus embodies different tropes. For a start, if Magnus were portrayed as any more flamboyant he’d wear rainbows and shoot unicorns. And, like Alec, he is there to serve. We are told repeatedly that Magnus is an extremely powerful being but. when the straight people call (Jace and Clary) he is quick to not only respond to their requests, but comply obediently. Like Alec, he exists to serve the straight people even though he normally charges a considerable amount for his services. The only time he is portrayed as dominant is when he is juxtaposed to Alec, thus making fulfilling the endless trope of having him the top and Alec the bottom.