Mind control, "always holding a torch for you"-type love, long-term captivity, brainwashing, andddd heroic sacrifice.
Of all the possible tropes, Iâm flattered you chose to interrogate me about these
No | rather not | I dunno | I guess | Sure | Yes | FUCK yes | Oh god you donât even know |
I gravitate to these characters so much itâs not even funny. Itâs the best kind of power fantasy, not to mention the most sensible: why wouldnât you end a fight before itâs even started? The fact that itâs so often keyed as solely the provenance of the villains makes it even better. Did the mind control kink come first or the villain kink? is the new chicken and egg question.
I especially like it when associated with underdog characters: either those of less social clout and/or people who are physically weaker, to turn them from a complete nonentity into the most terrifying piece on the board. A way to not only even the playing field, but demolish it altogether.
âalways holding a torch for you"-type love
No | rather not | I dunno | I guess | Sure | Yes | FUCK yes | Oh god you donât even know |
Romance is pretty uninteresting to me as a topic, so there isnât really much a canon ship can pull out to make me ooh and aah. I donât hate it though.
The idea of it anyway. So often in media itâs portrayed as this consuming, yearning thing that dominates the whole character and thatâs like. Come on now. Youâve got a whole world to meddle with and youâre worried about pining.
Edited: the implied bit in ACOL where Holland holds a torch for Talya is both interesting about him as a character and makes me crack up. Itâs very telling that a thirty-seven-year-old man counts a flame he had at eighteen as his one true love and suggests a lot (heâs a romantic, heâs sentimental, heâs deeply lonely and starved for love), but also, A THIRTY-SEVEN-YEAR-OLD COUNTS A FLAME AT EIGHTEEN HIS ONE TRUE LOVE. Itâs ludicrous. Especially when she is literally never mentioned once in the seven (?) hundred odd pages that came before. Gotta try harder than that Schwab.
This also suggests Holland does not consider drawing a knife on him while he sleeps a dealbreaker. Which. I like. For reasons.
No | rather not | I dunno | I guess | Sure | Yes | FUCK yes | Oh god you donât even know |
If itâs done well, yes. Which rules out 90% of mainstream media: their way of handling captivity on the page/screen is either gross (meh) or boring (indefensible). One example I do like is Elektra King and Renard in The World Is Not Enough, and itâs probably not a coincidence that it deals entirely with the aftermath of their time together. The scene where she takes off her earring? Delightful.
In fic though, where you can dig into the emotions and the complexity and the gutwrenching horror of it? Fuck yes. Thereâs an astounding Bane/John Blake fic for this, Stiffen the Sinews, that Iâm still not over. I didnât even watch the movie but damn.
No | rather not | I dunno | I guess | Sure | Yes | FUCK yes | Oh god you donât even know |
Rather not if the character is being brainwashed, Yes/Fuck yes if the character is doing the brainwashing.
Rather not: itâs either glossed over if done wrong or else profoundly unnerving to me if the narrative doesnât flinch. I prefer stories where the character knows theyâre doing something wrong and does it anyway, out of love or weariness or whatever, fully aware of the wrongness all the time. Espionage fiction is a huge thing for me as a result of this.
Yes/fuck-yes: itâs mind control, but in the real world. That level of control and delicacy is very alluring.
No | rather not | I dunno | I guess | Sure | Yes | FUCK yes | Oh god you donât even know |
In theory yes. In practice so much of mainstream media uses it as a gotcha for instant emotions that Iâm wary now.
Media: heroic sacrifice! Look! Bittersweet! Turn on the waterworks!
Me: bold of you to assume I have emotions
(I was not a fan of the Kylo Ren ending, even though he was my favorite character and I fully expected him to die)
I donât know. Heroic sacrifice when done well can be catharsis in the purest sense, but itâs so rarely done well.
And you of course know my thoughts on Hollandâs alleged sacrifice, but to sum up again: IT WAS NOT A SACRIFICE because 1) he had no way of knowing his death would have that effect or any kind of effect on the world and 2) the narrative spent three books establishing he wanted to die. Getting exactly what your exhausted, traumatized, despairing psyche wants at the end of the series is not a sacrifice. Itâs a lot of things, most of them shitty, but not a sacrifice.
(I would argue losing his magic isnât a sacrifice either for him)
