RP CONFESSIONS

special affects: 13 dollars and washing a film student’s car for them once every other week so they can do the affects on a microsoft desktop home computer

david tennant’s accent coach: 5 dollars

musical score: 3,000 dollars

ambient light varying in color to bathe billie piper in: 10,000 dollars

So I’m at the bus terminal and this guy (who’d been following me and hovering over me for 10 minutes) comes up to me and says “hey beautiful. Can I talk to you?” So I said “no thank you.” He goes “I just want to speak to you, though.” And I said “yeah I know that and I’m not interested in talking to a strange man at a bus terminal. Please leave me alone.” So he stands there watching me. Finally he says “listen, there’s no need to be difficult. I approached you politely like a gentleman so I don’t see why you’re saying no. Now just let me speak to you.” I said “nobody’s being difficult my guy. You asked a question, I gave an answer so we’re done.” Then he says “yeah but the answer you gave me made no sense. Why don’t you want to talk to me? You don’t know what kind of person I am. You’re judging me before you know me. You’re being ignorant and prejudiced so”- Just then this other guy who’d been sitting close to me said “my nigga shut the fuck up! I saw you following her and stalking her like a fucking animal or some shit, like you didn’t think she didn’t notice? She’s probably scared of your predatory ass and I don’t blame her. Mans need to understand you don’t follow girls and shit. That shits corny.” So the guy goes “yo, mind your fucking business.” And the other dude says “nah because I see you harassing this girl and as a man this becomes my business. You thinking you were polite doesn’t mean a girl has to speak to you. Be nice because you’re nice, don’t use that please and thank you shit and think somebody has to speak to you. You’re not a “gentleman if you don’t respect her. Take the L and go catch your bus you fucking creep.” So the guy starts swearing and then walks away. The guy who’d defended me is like “you okay tho? Like real talk I don’t really like men because of shit like that. They’re fucking predators man. I do what I can when I’m able to for women because you don’t deserve to be hunted.”

Sirens learning sign language so they can communicate without enchanting anyone

Disabled fairies who can’t fly pushing for accessibility

Spirits helping save people from fires and other natural disasters because they can access areas too dangerous for the living

Fae snatching children from abusive homes and raising them in safety while the changeling wreaks havoc

Psychic psychologists and medical doctors who are able to figure out exactly how to help even if their patient is non-verbal, young, or afraid of being honest because they’re with an abuser

Fairy tale dragons? They’re like Smaug. They’re arrogant, talkative, they hoard treasure, they eat virgins. They’re amoral rather than evil, but they are intelligent monsters.

The dragon in Voyage Of The Dawn Treader, the one indirectly responsible for Eustace’s draconic curse is along the same lines.

At that time that is what a dragon was. There was a general consensus in western literature that dragons were, well, that.

In Medieval stories, dragons are to be killed by brave men. Gawain fights “wyrms” - a kind of wingless dragon. St. George slays a dragon. So does Beowulf. So does King Arthur. To be a worthwhile myth hero you have, at some point, to slay a dragon.

Early modern and nineteenth century dragons - we see one counter example - Faustus chariot is drawn by dragons in “Doctor Faustus.” The first really solid “friendly dragon” story is The Reluctant Dragon, which became a 1941 Disney film. That is the first story I can find about a dragon that befriends a human - but it’s friendship, not “human masters dragon.”

The second friendly dragon is E. Nesbit’s “The Last of the Dragons” who decides he’d rather hang out with the princess than fight the prince (the first example of subversion of the dragons eat maidens trope that I can find).

But they’re the minority.

In the 1930s, when Lewis and Tolkien were writing, dragons were the bad guys. The rare exceptions were dragons deciding not to act like dragons.

Then something happened.

That something probably started with a 1948 children’s book called “My Father’s Dragon - about a kid who runs away to Wild Island and rescues a baby dragon. Heard of it? If you’ve studied kid lit, sure, it won a ton of awards. Otherwise…nope, and certainly in Dawn Treader, written in 1950, dragons were still bad.

In the 1960s we start to see a couple more “good” dragons. But it’s almost always the same thing. Dragons are bad, except this one. This is a special dragon.

Then in 1967 John Campbell ran a story in Analog named Weyr Search. Heard of that one? Yup.

It was part of a novel called Dragonsflight, written by Grand Master Anne McCaffrey.

And she completely changed what dragons were.

Anne’s dragons were gentle, genetically engineered protectors who bonded to a human rider at birth and were “mastered” by that rider - the dragons offered instinct, but the reason came from the humans.

Anne McCaffrey was one of the first female authors to write science fiction by women about women - and while she had a number of flaws and was honestly a better worldbuilder than writer she inspired a lot of people.

And changed our view of dragons as a fantasy trope.

Since then most fantasy writers that include dragons have them as friendly and willing to be ridden by humans. Even the “good” dragons in the DragonLance novels.

In other words: In the space between Tolkein and Martin, who’s first short story collection was published in 1976, almost a decade after Weyr Search Anne McCaffrey turned dragons on their head.

Daenerys’ dragons owe more in their lineage to Ramoth than they do to Grendel, the dragon slain by Beowulf.

McCaffrey came from a romance writer background. She brought that ethos with her when she migrated - namely, that plots should revolve around character and relationship development, that people are complicated, and that Real Fantasy™ isn’t giant wars, impossible quests, and morality tales but instead complex and evolving societies and the individuals who try to navigate them. She was also, as jenniferrpovey said, a better worldbuilder than writer in a lot of ways. This helped redefine what parts of a world need to be built to satisfy the audience. Tolkien’s legacy was history and language; McCaffrey’s was society and politics.

You don’t have to stan McCaffrey, MZB, Lackey, Kurtz, Rawn, Kushner, Flewelling, Hobb, and Cherryh to understand the impact that their work had on the concept of what western fantasy is. Most English-language fantasy TV series this decade have been Political (Romantic) Fantasy. A large portion of YA fantasy novels carry at least some of its elements. It makes for good plot and easily latchable characters.

So dragons, yes, but also the very core idea of what a fantasy story should talk about has been impacted by a series of women, often mentoring and supporting each other through cowriting, editing, etc. If anyone watched the Hobbit movies and wondered what was up with all the changes, this was up. The genre has changed; audience expectations have changed. You can’t just write 22 chapters of a fairy tale anymore (unless you’re McKillip or McKinley, and even they dip their toes). People want to know what characters other than the protagonist think and feel, what their motivations are. We want to watch relationships evolve. We want to know what makes the world tick now, not just 4000 years ago.

I cannot stand by while innocent lives are lost. If no one else will defend the world from Ares, then I must. […] I understand enough. That I’m willing to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves.