Necessary Eagle Posted January 6, 2021 Report Share Posted January 6, 2021 Paalm's story seems to me to be a deconstruction of the trope of the Fridged Woman. In AoL, Lessie is presented as your Standardized Fridged Love Interest, in the same way that Steris is the Sitcom Unsuitable Fiancee and Marisi is obviously going to be the Real Love Interest. Lessie gets through all of one prologue before she dies tragically and her purpose in the story is pretty much to drive Wax in the direction of the plot and give him something to angst over. Then comes Shadows of Self, and we find out she was meta-fridged. Writers are often accused of giving female love interests little characterization beyond "she loves the Hero"; "Lessie" (as opposed to Paalm) literally only exists for Wax. When Lessie refuses to get Wax back to Elendel-- in a sense, when she refuses to further the plot-- God himself kills her off to motivate the hero. Except that while Lessie is dead, Paalm is still there to take back her agency. She still has a voice. And she is pissed. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying she's not really a villain or something-- when your business card says "serial killer", it's time to think hard on your life decisions. I'm not even saying Harmony was wrong in the scheme of things. But as awful as Paalm's actions end up being, her rage is very understandable. I don't know if Brandon did this on purpose, or it just came out that way. But every time I read Era Two, I can't help but see Lessie as standing in for fiction's silenced, disposable women. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanLemon Posted January 6, 2021 Report Share Posted January 6, 2021 Brandon seems to be using Era 2 to subvert a lot of common tropes with women in media. Steris with the haughty personality and sitcom unsuitable fiance setup like you said ends up being far more complicated a character and Wax's true love interest. Marasi who seemed set up as the true love interest and a woman in a traditionally male job sticks to her femininity and enjoys feminine things rather than trying to be "tough" and ends up being the decoy love interest. And as you said, Lessie does seem to be a stand in for disposable woman. And turned out to be a character who was furious about themselves and the person they loved being manipulated. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Necessary Eagle Posted January 6, 2021 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2021 13 hours ago, StanLemon said: Brandon seems to be using Era 2 to subvert a lot of common tropes with women in media. Steris with the haughty personality and sitcom unsuitable fiance setup like you said ends up being far more complicated a character and Wax's true love interest. Marasi who seemed set up as the true love interest and a woman in a traditionally male job sticks to her femininity and enjoys feminine things rather than trying to be "tough" and ends up being the decoy love interest. Since AoL was originally conceived of as a standalone, I wonder if Brandon looked over his first draft, saw a bunch of cliches, and decided to play with them instead of throwing them out. Or even "Rusts, I need those plot points!... I'll just give them some depth in the next book." 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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