Thoughts on Kylara (and Lessa and Women in DF!Era Pern in General)
I've always thought that Kylara, particularly as she was written in DF, was really interesting and had a lot of potential.
One of my least favorite things about McCaffrey's writing is her tendency towards virgin/whore dichotomies, and Kylara falls afoul of that, hard.
She's introduced in DF as a foil to Lessa, and she's a really good foil for Lessa. I feel like they're kind of dark mirrors of each other. Both of them are very strong-willed women, both of them are survivors, both of them are skilled manipulators, both of them are prideful and ambitious, and honestly both of them are pretty self-centered early in DF. Their biggest differences are that Kylara is hypersexual, having found her looks and her sexuality are her best tool for manipulating men, while Lessa's experiences have caused her to go frigid, that Lessa seems to have something of an innate moral compass that is never shown in Kylara, and that Lessa's experiences prior to Search were pretty uniformly traumatic, whereas Kylara's past was one of being simultaneously spoiled and dehumanized. Their duality has something of a "there but for the grace" quality; there is a certain sense that Kylara is who Lessa could have become - which suggests that Lessa is also who Kylara could have become.
In DF, Kylara is a woman with sufficient good qualities that she is handpicked to be Benden's second goldrider, and her worst sin is being a spoiled brat. There are some hints that that's turning in a sinister direction towards the end of the story, but she's still very much a redeemable character.
And then DQ recasts her as a foil for Brekke. But while Lessa, especially in DF, has quite a bit of darkness to her, Brekke is practically a Purity Sue, and here's where the virgin/whore dichotomy kicks in with a vengeance. In order to contrast with blindingly white Brekke, Kylara is painted as one-dimensionally dark. She is presented as a depraved harlot, irresponsible, spiteful, contemptuous, and without redeeming quality.
(Even then, I cannot see her as wholly unsympathetic. There is enough shown of how she came to be that way that I feel she is more tragic than anything else. She believes that she was shunted off to Southern to keep her out of the way - and she's not wrong - and that festers. She is a spoiled brat given free reign, with access to nearly unchecked power but no real responsibility or purpose, which feeds her self-centered nature. She is a skilled manipulator with no one who can really challenge or stand up to her, which feeds her overconfidence and contempt towards others. She is an ambitious woman with nowhere to go. I cannot condone her beliefs or actions, but I can to a large extent understand them.)
She is also a sexual submissive, and at least a bit of a masochist. (My feeling is that most of the masochism she indulges in comes out of her need for psychological domination being unfulfilled. But then I'm not a masochist; it could certainly be interpreted differently.) In the book that's treated as part of her depravity, but as someone who doesn't think being kinky is sick or wrong, I think it could be reinterpreted as a very interesting dimension to her character.
I think one of the keys to understanding Kylara's character is remembering the position of women on Pern in DF-era, and how that has played out in her life.
Because, at that time, being a woman on Pern was pretty damn sucky. We see this more than anywhere else in Lady Gemma, who had the crapsackiest life of all, but we also see it in the expectations for a Weyrwoman that Lessa has to deal with, and we see it in Kylara's life. Pernese society at the time was a setting where women were generally illiterate, their worth reckoned primarily as marriage pawns and breeders, and really not expected to have much control over their own lives. Kylara, as a high-ranking noblewoman, grows up privileged, pampered, and well-aware of the fact that her fate is going to be being married off to whoever her brother the Lord feels it most advantageous to secure an alliance with. One of her most formative experiences is her mother being cast aside in favor of a younger and shinier model. She knows that's not what she wants her life to be. And she takes two important lessons from it - that what power a woman has is in her influence on the men in her life, and that a woman is only worth anything so long as she is desirable to men.
And Kylara learns, no doubt quite early on, that she is very desirable to men. And Kylara isn't stupid. I don't think she's incredibly intelligent (certainly Lessa is smarter), but she is quick-witted and has a high social IQ. She wants as much control as possible over her life, and she learns that she can use her attractiveness to get it. Kylara's beauty and sexuality become her sword and shield (much as Lessa's projected ugliness and forgettability are hers at Ruatha), and she gets to be very good at using them. I expect a lot of her vanity initially stemmed from this fact.
She starts out focused on survival (which admittedly in her definition means having the position and comforts she is accustomed to having, but that doesn't mean the trauma that fuels it isn't real). But as she realizes how effectively she can manipulate men, I suspect her arrogance and ambition grow considerably.
And then she is brought to Benden on Search, which in the end is not much more than trading one group of men who want to use her for their own purposes for another. But she doesn't Impress. As a failed Candidate, she is left to make her own place in the Weyr, with no one having an agenda for her or particularly caring what she does. She has more autonomy than she's ever had before, but she's also a nobody, and that doesn't sit well with her. Kylara doesn't just want freedom, she wants power. So she sets about to gain in the Weyr the kinds of comforts and status she had at home, the best way she knows how - by alluring men. And if she hadn't before (because it's never particularly made clear what the expectations of Pernese noblewomen are in regards to premarital sex), she learns then a few other important things about herself, namely that she enjoys sex and has a high sex drive. And so sex becomes one more weapon in her arsenal.
She has developed a worldview in which other women cannot be other than rivals, while men ... well, she has a very complex relationship with men. She hates them for the authority they have over her, for the fact that she has to play these games and work through them in order to have control of her own affairs. She has contempt for them for how easily she can manipulate them. Those who do not succumb to her charms anger her, and yet they are the ones she wants most. The submissive in her craves domination, but she is loathe to yield to anyone she perceives are weaker, which is pretty much everyone. It's a very bitter and unfulfilling way to live.
She's gotten very good at looking out for number one, but she's never had a real purpose. She has ambition in spades, but all she's ever had to turn it to is amassing power for power's sake. She's inspired lust and infatuation in countless men, but never respect.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I think she could have matured past being self-centered if she'd had the chance to work towards something real, to do something that mattered. I think just maybe, if she'd had a chance to win respect (and respect someone else in turn), she would have been compelled to work towards it. And she could have become a much better person than she did.
And I can't help noticing that Kylara in DQ is peculiarly fixated on F'lar. She believes that he is the one man around who has the will to stand up to her. I think she's not wrong in that perception. I also think she doesn't have a clue what she's wishing for. Because she would have met her match in him, and she wasn't in the slightest prepared for what that would mean.
Of course, the way things stand in canon, he's never going to be interested in anyone but Lessa, which is of course only right. And so his way of dealing with her is to refuse to engage.
But if events in DF had played out differently, if F'lar had had reason and desire to engage with Kylara - as he would have, if she were Weyrwoman.... Well, frankly, I think he would have dommed the fuck out of her. And she would have loved it.
More than that, I think he could have been a match for her, and she for him. With her arrogance and self-absorption, she needed someone to take her down a peg or two if she was ever going to grow. With her manipulative nature, she needed to run up against someone she couldn't manipulate so easily, someone who wasn't going to dance to her tune. She needed someone who wouldn't back down from the challenge she set, who wouldn't hesitate to call her on her shit. And she wasn't going to learn respect unless forced to it. I think F'lar could have done that.
And for that matter, for all that he always had noble purposes, F'lar too was damn arrogant and manipulative and in need of someone to take him down a peg or two, someone who wouldn't dance to his tune, someone who wouldn't hesitate to call him on his shit. In canon, Lessa did that. But I think Kylara was capable of it too.
And in a world where women were routinely dismissed, F'lar is honestly one of the most feminist men around. He's the man who recognized that Benden needed a strong Weyrwoman (even if he nevertheless initially made the mistake of assuming he'd be able to manipulate her at will). He doesn't prejudge, doesn't dismiss people out of hand based on things like gender, but rather takes each individual on their own merits. It takes a lot to win his respect, but he gives it fairly to those that earn it. And in a world where they were bound together, I think she could realize that, and respect him, and want to win his respect. And if she did grow and mature past her self-absorption, I believe he would respect her, and that she would find a much more fulfilling life.
The biggest question mark is of course whether she would grow up and come to care for people and things beyond herself. It certainly wouldn't be easy, and it would be a long road. We never see any evidence that Kylara has the internal moral compass that Lessa does, which is one disadvantage. (But then, we see into Kylara's head a lot less than we do Lessa's; I don't think we can say for sure that she absolutely doesn't or never did.) On the other hand, Kylara's worst sins in DF are vanity and self-interest. In contrast, Lessa spent her much of her formative years emotionally frozen and living for nothing but revenge; she was half-feral when she came to the Weyr. I would argue that Lessa at that point was far more psychologically fucked up than Kylara ever was and thus managed to grow more than Kylara would have had to. If it meant the opportunity to have meaningful authority and make a real difference, I think Kylara at that point in her life just might have had the motivation to reach greater maturity. I doubt she would ever have been the kind of self-sacrificing that Lessa was, but I think she could have become a Weyrwoman worthy of respect. And I think she would have found a much more fulfilling life if she had.
One of my least favorite things about McCaffrey's writing is her tendency towards virgin/whore dichotomies, and Kylara falls afoul of that, hard.
She's introduced in DF as a foil to Lessa, and she's a really good foil for Lessa. I feel like they're kind of dark mirrors of each other. Both of them are very strong-willed women, both of them are survivors, both of them are skilled manipulators, both of them are prideful and ambitious, and honestly both of them are pretty self-centered early in DF. Their biggest differences are that Kylara is hypersexual, having found her looks and her sexuality are her best tool for manipulating men, while Lessa's experiences have caused her to go frigid, that Lessa seems to have something of an innate moral compass that is never shown in Kylara, and that Lessa's experiences prior to Search were pretty uniformly traumatic, whereas Kylara's past was one of being simultaneously spoiled and dehumanized. Their duality has something of a "there but for the grace" quality; there is a certain sense that Kylara is who Lessa could have become - which suggests that Lessa is also who Kylara could have become.
In DF, Kylara is a woman with sufficient good qualities that she is handpicked to be Benden's second goldrider, and her worst sin is being a spoiled brat. There are some hints that that's turning in a sinister direction towards the end of the story, but she's still very much a redeemable character.
And then DQ recasts her as a foil for Brekke. But while Lessa, especially in DF, has quite a bit of darkness to her, Brekke is practically a Purity Sue, and here's where the virgin/whore dichotomy kicks in with a vengeance. In order to contrast with blindingly white Brekke, Kylara is painted as one-dimensionally dark. She is presented as a depraved harlot, irresponsible, spiteful, contemptuous, and without redeeming quality.
(Even then, I cannot see her as wholly unsympathetic. There is enough shown of how she came to be that way that I feel she is more tragic than anything else. She believes that she was shunted off to Southern to keep her out of the way - and she's not wrong - and that festers. She is a spoiled brat given free reign, with access to nearly unchecked power but no real responsibility or purpose, which feeds her self-centered nature. She is a skilled manipulator with no one who can really challenge or stand up to her, which feeds her overconfidence and contempt towards others. She is an ambitious woman with nowhere to go. I cannot condone her beliefs or actions, but I can to a large extent understand them.)
She is also a sexual submissive, and at least a bit of a masochist. (My feeling is that most of the masochism she indulges in comes out of her need for psychological domination being unfulfilled. But then I'm not a masochist; it could certainly be interpreted differently.) In the book that's treated as part of her depravity, but as someone who doesn't think being kinky is sick or wrong, I think it could be reinterpreted as a very interesting dimension to her character.
I think one of the keys to understanding Kylara's character is remembering the position of women on Pern in DF-era, and how that has played out in her life.
Because, at that time, being a woman on Pern was pretty damn sucky. We see this more than anywhere else in Lady Gemma, who had the crapsackiest life of all, but we also see it in the expectations for a Weyrwoman that Lessa has to deal with, and we see it in Kylara's life. Pernese society at the time was a setting where women were generally illiterate, their worth reckoned primarily as marriage pawns and breeders, and really not expected to have much control over their own lives. Kylara, as a high-ranking noblewoman, grows up privileged, pampered, and well-aware of the fact that her fate is going to be being married off to whoever her brother the Lord feels it most advantageous to secure an alliance with. One of her most formative experiences is her mother being cast aside in favor of a younger and shinier model. She knows that's not what she wants her life to be. And she takes two important lessons from it - that what power a woman has is in her influence on the men in her life, and that a woman is only worth anything so long as she is desirable to men.
And Kylara learns, no doubt quite early on, that she is very desirable to men. And Kylara isn't stupid. I don't think she's incredibly intelligent (certainly Lessa is smarter), but she is quick-witted and has a high social IQ. She wants as much control as possible over her life, and she learns that she can use her attractiveness to get it. Kylara's beauty and sexuality become her sword and shield (much as Lessa's projected ugliness and forgettability are hers at Ruatha), and she gets to be very good at using them. I expect a lot of her vanity initially stemmed from this fact.
She starts out focused on survival (which admittedly in her definition means having the position and comforts she is accustomed to having, but that doesn't mean the trauma that fuels it isn't real). But as she realizes how effectively she can manipulate men, I suspect her arrogance and ambition grow considerably.
And then she is brought to Benden on Search, which in the end is not much more than trading one group of men who want to use her for their own purposes for another. But she doesn't Impress. As a failed Candidate, she is left to make her own place in the Weyr, with no one having an agenda for her or particularly caring what she does. She has more autonomy than she's ever had before, but she's also a nobody, and that doesn't sit well with her. Kylara doesn't just want freedom, she wants power. So she sets about to gain in the Weyr the kinds of comforts and status she had at home, the best way she knows how - by alluring men. And if she hadn't before (because it's never particularly made clear what the expectations of Pernese noblewomen are in regards to premarital sex), she learns then a few other important things about herself, namely that she enjoys sex and has a high sex drive. And so sex becomes one more weapon in her arsenal.
She has developed a worldview in which other women cannot be other than rivals, while men ... well, she has a very complex relationship with men. She hates them for the authority they have over her, for the fact that she has to play these games and work through them in order to have control of her own affairs. She has contempt for them for how easily she can manipulate them. Those who do not succumb to her charms anger her, and yet they are the ones she wants most. The submissive in her craves domination, but she is loathe to yield to anyone she perceives are weaker, which is pretty much everyone. It's a very bitter and unfulfilling way to live.
She's gotten very good at looking out for number one, but she's never had a real purpose. She has ambition in spades, but all she's ever had to turn it to is amassing power for power's sake. She's inspired lust and infatuation in countless men, but never respect.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I think she could have matured past being self-centered if she'd had the chance to work towards something real, to do something that mattered. I think just maybe, if she'd had a chance to win respect (and respect someone else in turn), she would have been compelled to work towards it. And she could have become a much better person than she did.
And I can't help noticing that Kylara in DQ is peculiarly fixated on F'lar. She believes that he is the one man around who has the will to stand up to her. I think she's not wrong in that perception. I also think she doesn't have a clue what she's wishing for. Because she would have met her match in him, and she wasn't in the slightest prepared for what that would mean.
Of course, the way things stand in canon, he's never going to be interested in anyone but Lessa, which is of course only right. And so his way of dealing with her is to refuse to engage.
But if events in DF had played out differently, if F'lar had had reason and desire to engage with Kylara - as he would have, if she were Weyrwoman.... Well, frankly, I think he would have dommed the fuck out of her. And she would have loved it.
More than that, I think he could have been a match for her, and she for him. With her arrogance and self-absorption, she needed someone to take her down a peg or two if she was ever going to grow. With her manipulative nature, she needed to run up against someone she couldn't manipulate so easily, someone who wasn't going to dance to her tune. She needed someone who wouldn't back down from the challenge she set, who wouldn't hesitate to call her on her shit. And she wasn't going to learn respect unless forced to it. I think F'lar could have done that.
And for that matter, for all that he always had noble purposes, F'lar too was damn arrogant and manipulative and in need of someone to take him down a peg or two, someone who wouldn't dance to his tune, someone who wouldn't hesitate to call him on his shit. In canon, Lessa did that. But I think Kylara was capable of it too.
And in a world where women were routinely dismissed, F'lar is honestly one of the most feminist men around. He's the man who recognized that Benden needed a strong Weyrwoman (even if he nevertheless initially made the mistake of assuming he'd be able to manipulate her at will). He doesn't prejudge, doesn't dismiss people out of hand based on things like gender, but rather takes each individual on their own merits. It takes a lot to win his respect, but he gives it fairly to those that earn it. And in a world where they were bound together, I think she could realize that, and respect him, and want to win his respect. And if she did grow and mature past her self-absorption, I believe he would respect her, and that she would find a much more fulfilling life.
The biggest question mark is of course whether she would grow up and come to care for people and things beyond herself. It certainly wouldn't be easy, and it would be a long road. We never see any evidence that Kylara has the internal moral compass that Lessa does, which is one disadvantage. (But then, we see into Kylara's head a lot less than we do Lessa's; I don't think we can say for sure that she absolutely doesn't or never did.) On the other hand, Kylara's worst sins in DF are vanity and self-interest. In contrast, Lessa spent her much of her formative years emotionally frozen and living for nothing but revenge; she was half-feral when she came to the Weyr. I would argue that Lessa at that point was far more psychologically fucked up than Kylara ever was and thus managed to grow more than Kylara would have had to. If it meant the opportunity to have meaningful authority and make a real difference, I think Kylara at that point in her life just might have had the motivation to reach greater maturity. I doubt she would ever have been the kind of self-sacrificing that Lessa was, but I think she could have become a Weyrwoman worthy of respect. And I think she would have found a much more fulfilling life if she had.