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aelinbitch-archive · 5 years

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You've probably said this before but what's your favorite aspect of the TOG series? I've only read like ten pages of the first book lol

aaaaa thank u for asking!! this sort of leads into something i’ve been meaning to talk about for a while so i hope you’re prepared for An Essay No One Wanted By Me. anyway this is a two-part answer, read below:

1. Aelin. Celaena. The main bitch, whatever you wanna call her lol. Without her I probably wouldn’t have cared about the series at all and wouldn’t currently be trapped in ToG tumblr hell reluctantly stanning a racist and homophobic series, but unfortunately when I was like twelve years old or whatever and read the first book I literally imprinted on Celaena like a baby duckling. To the extent that she became, like, the default avatar for all my maladaptive daydreaming and If I Don’t Project On Her At All Times I Will Die. It’s not like she’s the only thing I like about the series (I loooove a lot of the other characters, especially the gals, and the writing can be really great and engaging and cinematic) but Aelin has always been the supermassive black hole at the center of it all for me. I wouldn’t know how to even begin untangling her character from my psyche at this point. It’s honestly a little disturbing. Anyway.

2. Part two is a quality of the series that I feel was unprecedented in its strength in the first five books of the series (ToG-QoS plus the prequel novellas) and really really disappointingly weak in the last two books (EoS-KoA). Like I said above, Aelin has always been my main interest in tog so I read and enjoyed the last two anyway, but I definitely felt the loss of this - “this” being the detail and attention paid to all different types of relationships between characters, and how rich and unpredictable those relationships were as a result.

That sounds like kind of a broad, vague thing, but what I mean is that (in my opinion) rarely are romances and friendships and rivalries explored with such nuance, complexity, drama, and realism in most YA as they are in ToG. I remember reading Cassandra Clare’s books (lmao.) as a pre teen and loving those as well, but totally being able to predict who was going to end up with who, and finding the character dynamics to be pretty cut and dry.

In ToG that’s not the case at all. Like, you’ve got Celaena and Sam, a really complex example of enemies to lovers to….. Tragically Dead Boyfriend Whose Demise Fuels My Guilt and Self-Hatred For Seven More Books, Lysandra and Aelin, two girls pitted against each other by their abuser who team up a year later to unlearn their internalized misogyny and kill him, and Aelin and Chaol, who… how do I even describe the ups and downs (and downs. and more downs) of their relationship.

And that’s just three pairs! Pull the names of two characters out of a hat and I can almost guarantee essays worth of material could be written about them. Arobynn and Aelin? Aelin and Nehemia? Chaol and Dorian, as much as I hate both of them and feel that their relationship as been widely mischaracterized? All fascinating!!! No two people in those first few books are just friends, or just lovers, or just enemies. It’s always more complex, there’s always a history or tension or competing agendas or viewpoints that Fuck Shit Up.

And benefit of that is twofold: one, everything that happens between the characters just…. lands so well. The betrayals and triumphs and losses and victories of The Assassin’s Blade and Crown of Midnight and Queen of Shadows (especially TAB) are fucking heart-stopping. It’s great character-driven entertainment!! Gripping and engaging and vivid to the point of being painful.

And two, there’s no way to predict where a relationship is going to go. Aelin and Lysandra teaming up in QoS instead of returning to their rivalry? Who would have thought! Ansel and Celaena’s summer fling (they were in love. fight me.) ending like That? Holy fuck. Nesryn and Chaol breaking up in ToD? Oh shit! I fell for it again! Rowan and Aelin ending up together after everyone swore they were brotp in HoF? Hell yeah! Chaolaena seeming like endgame and then ending forever, with Chaol and Aelin realizing that the rift between them that began in CoM was something that would never sufficiently heal? Unprecedented. Fucking badass for a YA book to curve everyone like that. Tween me was shook out of her mind.

(Important to note, though, that the downside of this style was that SJM couldn’t tell where ~unpredictable relationships and characters~ ended and fridging began, and as a result, not one but two woc were killed off to make white characters sad and it sucked beyond belief).

Aaaaaand then QoS, the peak of literature, turned into EoS, and SJM just… gave up on all of that. I remember the first time Dorian and Manon met, and I was like oh, okay. So they’re going to end up together. And I was right. I remember that on this site, before EoS came out, before Lorcan and Elide ever fucking MET, people predicted the existence of Elorcan!! And they were right!! Like how fucking boring? Everyone is just paired off into completely predictable heterosexual ships and those are now the only relationships we get to read about (with a few exceptions, like Aelin/Aedion, Aelin/Fenrys, etc.).

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: my least favorite thing about Manorian is not that I find the relationship to be shitty (although I do, I really do). It’s that Dorian is suddenly the only character Manon gets to interact with in any meaningful way.

Like, are you kidding?! I want to read about Manon and Elide, Manon and Asterin, Rowan and Lorcan, Aelin and Lysandra, Aelin and Nesyrn, even if it’s not romantically (although some of them, like Manon and Elide, absolutely should have been, and the fact that not only was that ship very thoroughly sunk, but also they didn’t even get to TALK after QoS, felt like a real slap in the face to gay fans, but I digress), because those pairings previously had hella complexity and drama. But we don��t get to.

And this trend that’s so painfully present in the last two books Sucks for two reasons: one, every relationship that isn’t romantic (which were previously some of the most interesting ones) is abandoned so that more time can be made for The Hets™ and two, the relationships that are romantic, now the only ones left, are totally fucking boring and predictable!! If two characters are interacting at any point (if one is male and the other is female, of course) then you know for a fact that they’re not only love interests, but endgame.

And that makes me not care even when there is drama between them. Elide giving Lorcan the cold-shoulder for three hundred pages, and Manon and Dorian arguing, and Aedion being cruel to Lysandra weren’t compelling narratives to me like they should have been, because the whole time I was just thinking “but it doesn’t matter. I know it’s still endgame. There are no stakes here whatsoever; it’s a done deal.” Whereas Chaol and Celaena’s devestating breakup in CoM felt like (and was) suuuuper Real. An all-in bet on the wrong person. Crazy shit.

And not that I think two characters should never have a happy ending together (I really like rowaelin and nestaq and I would have loved malide!) but imagine how much cooler and subversive and entertaining it would have been if Elorcan, which seemed soooo totally cute and endgamey and borderline like fanfiction throughout all of EoS just ended forever right there and then on the beach, with Elide turning to Lorcan and saying “I hope you spend the rest of your miserable, immortal life suffering. I hope you spend it alone. I hope you live with regret and guilt in your heart and never find a way to endure it” - and BAM. She never speaks to him again. He’s dead to her.

I mean, talk about shock value! (See, Sarah, you can have shock value without killing of a person of color to make a white character sad 🙃). And I totally get that relational twists like that alienate fans more than just going the expected route and having them kiss and make-up does (I mean, the ending of Chaolaena in QoS certainly did, Jesus Christ) but I, Bella aelinbitch, personally live for that shit, and isn’t it only fair that all media cater directly and specifically to me? Lmao. But seriously, I do think it’s objectively more interesting, and that it keeps readers on their toes (I was on my ASS in EoS and KoA. Like. I was flat on my back sinking into the Earth).

And there are still sort of… glimmers of the old way she wrote in the first few books, but it just feels like a tease rather than something that’s really explored and indulged in the way it was before, and it just ends up being more frustrating (like what was the point of Manon and Dorian not getting married at the end of KoA if I would bet my life savings that in World of Tog it’ll be confirmed that they’re either married or still together) and sometimes downright problematic? Like to return to a previous example, I think all the drama between Aedion + Lysandra was a result of Sarah’s previous (good) instincts to shake stuff up and complicate the character dynamics, but it backfires because when they end up together, it’s not ever… worked out? Or addressed? If you create really intense drama between two people, then that needs to show up in their relationship, no matter how happy they end up together. It doesn’t just disappear.

And despite the fact that her understanding of that concept (that shit between two people doesn’t just disappear like magic) is one of my absolute favorite things about the first few books, Sarah even went as far as to use the last two books to retcon some of the original complexity away, which makes me want to rip out my hair!! Like Aelin at the end of KoA just going “Love you Chaol and Love you Dorian xoxoxoxoxox best friends forever!!!” instead of having, like, any type of mixed feelings about the way these boys treated her? I mean, come on! 100 pages earlier Chaol was openly saying she should die instead of Dorian! Why is everything just peachy-keen instead of fraught with tension!! (I know why. I know. It’s because she introduced way too many characters/POVs/storylines as the series went on and didn’t know what to do with them all besides sideline the nonromantic ones and pair off everyone else boy-girl boy-girl down the line). Or if it has to be peachy-keen, why is the peachy-keeness never critically examined as, perhaps, a repressive mechanism for Aelin to avoid dealing with painful truths from her past? Now that would be interesting.

(My ideal World of ToG would be just a transcript of the characters’ therapy sessions where Aelin realizes that her insistence that “Chaol and Dorian Are Her Friends!” is actually a way to keep herself safe emotionally and that she has plenty of reasons to hate them, and Lysandra realizes she should divorce Aedion lmao).

Anyway tldr: The variety, complexity, depth, and unpredictability of the relationships in Throne of Glass was simultaneously the most realistic (sometimes relationships of all kinds fall apart or veer off in unexpected directions and love is temporary and the boy you met in the first chapter isn’t actually your soulmate and it doesn’t mean he’s a villain) and the most gripping and dramatic (I would have been totally chill if maeve and erawan weren’t a thing and tog was just like a medieval soap opera, that’s how entertaining the character dynamics were) thing about the series, and to lose that in the last two books because of Heterosexuality (and introducing too many POVs and not knowing what to do with them all)…. kinda devastating.

This ended up being waaaaaay more complaining than it was talking about what I loved, but the only reason it bothers me so much is because it used to be so good!!! So just imagine the inverse of all the frustration I just vomited into this ask and you’ll have a good idea of how much I loved the series when things weren’t this way.

#im SO sorry for how shittily worded/ranty/emotional/long this is but *antoni from queer eye voice* a shitty YA series is actually something #that can be so personal...#greatest hits: hot takes

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calamitycassie · 5 years

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Warning: This Q&A is a little different, involving only one question and basically being an essay on why I made Cassie the way she is. Anyone not particularly interested in the technical aspects of novel writing are advised to skip it. Also, the usual caveat applies–this is only my opinion, but that’s okay since it’s my books I’m discussing.

A question came in for the Q&A, which I decided to answer in detail. That’s partly because I’m sick and taking a day off from my usual writing schedule, not feeling very creative at the moment. So I have the time. But it also happens to be a question that I’m asked regularly in interviews, and I’d like to set the record straight.

I read alot of urban fantasy and love yours, but it seems Cassie is, I don’t know, a little weak? Why did you make her the way you did? I mean, she can’t even shoot a gun!

First, I’m going to be bitchy, because I am always bitchy, and because my head hurts right now. And point out that this:

is an alot. By the way, if any of you aren’t yet familiar with the awesomeness that is Hyperbole and a Half may I suggest you remedy that immediately? You are missing out.

You mean, I assume, that you read a lot of urban fantasy, and I’m glad that mine is a part of that (although probably not now, huh?) Anyway, I used to be confused by questions like yours, since I didn’t view Cassie that way, even in the first few books of the series. But eventually I realized that the question wasn’t referring to personality/backbone but to power.

Cassie starts the series as a clairvoyant who stumbles into time-travel abilities once she becomes Pythia, the chief seer of the supernatural world. Now, that doesn’t seem like a bad skill set to me (sometimes, especially near a deadline, I’d love to be able to turn the clock back!) But compared to the usual gun-toting, wisecracking, blow-’em-up-and-sort-’em-out-later types that populate much of urban fantasy, I suppose her attributes do appear a little “softer.”

My answer to this question was usually to point out that Cassie is the lead character, but that the Cassandra Palmer series is an ensemble effort (think Avengers Assemble rather than The Hulk). And that Cassie’s abilities were designed to complement those of the other characters. So she didn’t need to be all things to all people and do every single thing herself, which I always found stretching credulity anyway.

Now, that wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t exactly the truth, either. At least, not the whole truth. I just didn’t think that the bloggers who asked me for a short Q&A really wanted a novel on character creation. But you asked and I’m bored, so here goes.

Have you ever noticed that many urban fantasy series are fairly short-lived? In some cases, maybe the books just didn’t resonate with readers and they got the old corporate ax. But in many more, it was the author who chose to end them after only three to five books. Now, maybe some of those authors just like writing shorter story arcs, which is absolutely their prerogative. But that often seemed like kind of a waste to me, since a good portion of the space in most fantasy series’ early books is devoted to world-building. Ending a series early therefore doesn’t leave a lot of time to explore the characters’ personalities, or provide much room for a story arc.

That’s particularly true since, unlike epic fantasy, urban fantasy tends to have a limited page count. My publisher prefers nothing over 120,000 words, and ideally would like the books to come in at closer to 100,000. It’s simple economics: it costs more to edit, print and ship longer books, and while e-books are making those distinctions less important, they’re still there. I know because I frequently go over that maximum!

So, why have such short series? I think the reason has to do with where some authors choose to start their characters. Of course, few these days are going to go Dicken’s route and start a character off at birth, but every author has to decide whether to begin the story earlier or later in their character’s development. And most choose later. Why? Because it plays well with readers.

There’s little that most fantasy fans like more than an ass-kicking, name-taking, alpha lead character to drive a series. That’s why the rows of urban fantasy books tend to be dominated by leather-wearing protagonists, usually in scary surroundings and carrying one or more deadly weapons. And hey, there’s nothing wrong with that. And going that route does have some pretty big advantages.

For one, a lot of readers are not known for patience (don’t look at me like that–you know it’s true), and if you want them to get past book one, you have to hook them early. And the easiest way to do that is to give them what they want. So if they want the traditional butt-kicking hero, why not just give it to them?

For another, it’s just plain easier to write a hero who is at the top of his or her skill set. You don’t have to come up with explanations for why your lead is heading boldly out to confront the bad guys. Why wouldn’t he? He’s Iron Man! Or the Hulk! Or Captain America! He can handle himself. But, of course, if your hero is a normal gal in a happy face T-shirt who couldn’t hit the side of a barn with a gun even if she threw it, AKA Cassie when my series begins, then you have to work much harder to get her into a believable set of circumstances where she must confront the villain. You also have to manage to find a way for her to beat him when the opposite would seem far more likely.

It’s not surprising, then, that many urban fantasies choose to start their hero out either at or near the top of her game. And for a few books, that works great. The series is dynamic, villains are falling left and right, quips are being quipped and fun is being had. But then comes book number four, or possibly five if the writer is especially skilled. And the wall is hit.

The problem is that, even in fantasy–or maybe especially in fantasy–characters have to act in a way that is believable. When you’re demanding so much suspension of disbelief where your universe is concerned, something has to ground your story and that something is usually going to be your characters. And what is not believable is to have a character who never changes.

Change, whether good or bad, is part of human life, and a static character therefore starts to feel unreal after a while. The problem is, if you’ve started a character out near the top of her arc, where are you going to take her? Yes, it is possible for people to change in emotional ways: to work through a problem they’ve had with someone or something in their past (AKA the Inigo Montoya approach). Or to find true love (AKA the Harlequin approach), although that’s more often found in the realms of paranormal romance. Or to fulfill a destiny in some way. And all of those are legitimate story arcs. However, they also tend to be short ones.

So after a few books, when much of the world building is done and the characters are set and the hero has completed her arc, the author starts to wonder…now what? Or sometimes the audience does, when it seems like a bunch of otherwise good characters are wandering around in search of a storyline. The reason they don’t have one is that their story has been told. It’s done, it’s over, and all that’s left is to ride off into the sunset. And so the series folds.

At least, ideally it does. Since the only other option is to morph the character out of all recognition, AKA the weird approach, and essentially give yourself a new character to work with. And therefore a new arc, for a few books anyway. This has been done successfully on occasion, but it’s risky, since it can cause a backlash from readers when they see a favorite character change to the point of no longer being recognizable.

Which brings us back to Cassie–or Frodo at Bag End, or Harry Potter in his closet. Having heroes start at a much earlier point in their arc often makes an author work harder at the beginning, because there’s not as many bells and whistles to keep people entertained, and because their character can come off looking weak even in comparison to her own supporting cast! But it pays dividends in the long run. A lot of dividends.

Dividend 1: It makes the series longer, since your character needs time to change from Harry Potter to Harry Freaking Potter, which in turns allows you more books with which to explore his psyche and flesh him out. When your story starts before everything gets crazy (or at least before it gets as crazy as it inevitably will), the reader gets to grow along with your hero. They get taken on the journey, too, instead of just being shown this character that is already fully formed before the first scene opens. Also, if your main character’s arc is longer, it gives an opportunity to flesh out side characters as well, leading to a more well-rounded cast.

Dividend #2: It is wonderful for building tension. Nothing takes the wind out of a story’s sails faster than having overpowered heroes. You want the protagonist to have to work and struggle to overcome the odds against him or her. You want to have readers on the edge of their seats, wondering how your hero is going to get out of it this time. You want readers to identify with the character, to worry along with him, to bite their nails and be glued to the page, thinking that maybe this is the end because ohmyGodnowaywesurvivethis! And you don’t get that with an overpowered hero.

Dividend #3: You get to help with genre diversity. Urban fantasy is still a relatively young genre, which means it’s a bit more dynamic and less set in its ways than some. But there are already signs of tropes, clichés and stock characters developing. And let’s face it, if every hero is a super-powered, suave, take-no-prisoners type, things get boring fast. Personally, I like to play against type.

That’s why even my other heroine, Dorina Basarab, who is a lot more traditionally butt-kicking than Cassie, has elements that make her very unusual for the genre. She’s a dhampir, half-vampire/half-human, with something of a split personality thing going on, since her two halves never really merged all that well. In a sense, she’s two people in one, and at least one of them is as crazy as a bed bug. But that’s half the fun! Longer series give you a chance to do some pretty unusual things with your characters, and that’s only healthy for the genre overall.

Dividend #4: For the reader, your world and characters start to feel like home. Because, seriously, how many people read Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe stories for the mystery? I’m a mystery buff, and I love me some Rex Stout. But I’ll be the first to admit that his ability to put together a compelling mystery was, er, somewhat limited. But it didn’t matter, because nobody read them for the mysteries anyway. We read them for the characters.

We wanted to know what Fritz was cooking that day and what Wolfe was reading and what girl Archie was pursuing and how the orchids on the roof were doing. And we wanted to know these things because we cared about the characters, and because that old brownstone had become a second home for us, one where we felt completely at ease and yet suitably tingly, because a body could drop out of a closet at any second. It was our second home because we’d visited so many times over such a long period, that it began to feel like we’d actually lived there, too. But you don’t get that feeling out of a one-off book, no matter how good it is. For that, it takes a series and a long one. And a long series takes a special kind of protagonist.

#cassie palmer #karen chance #cassie palmer series #q&as #txt

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