Precious Things DVD commentary (part 3)
Okay, finally done. It's quite frigtening to look back at your own work and analyse it in any sort of coherent way. I like talking about myself and my work, but this was actually very illuminating, because I've never actually thought about the psycho motivation that drive me to write this wierd shit!
:D
for the lovely kat_lair
( final part of DVD commentary under cut )
:D
for the lovely kat_lair
( final part of DVD commentary under cut )
Yes I agree that must have been a meaningful slip. Still, Marian and Anna aren't all that interchangable really. Anna is more about the bright red, while you've broken pattern successfully with the feminine, reasonable, yet managing to be strong and interesting - Marian. She's much more a historical, 'real' character, and i guess not being quite as aristorcratic and not fighting supernatural evil has a lot to do with it. You don't have to be a semi-deity to fight human wrongs, in fact you get points from being down-to-earth. Two different heroesses in their own respective worlds, making the best of the circumstances they've been given; both rebelling, but also pulling back when there's no point.
It's fascinating how you've managed to make them so alike and yet so different! Marian could easily be mistaken by an outside observer for a sweet obedient young maiden (up to a point in the story anyway), and she does respect her father's will, put the family's inheritage (i.e. tradition) first: She doesn't openly (or at least violently) rebel the system, she's not a revolutionary warrior like Anna, she's more of a patient workman, who's there for her people constantly, working to right small wrongs and make things better by a bit. And yet she is fiercely independent, she has clear boundaries, choices she needs to make for herself.
It is a great feat to put this all into a character, and not contradict yourself. Much more difficult to do shades and subtleness than a Heroess who screams disobedience with her mere posture, someone who is forced clearly outside the system and thus will naturally follow her own rules, someone who will never fit in and has a kind of freedom in her loss of place and belonging: Anna, an exceptional woman, an epic heroess; Marian, blending in, standing out among her peers, a woman who belongs. Anna - a deviation, Marian - a constant. And O, how I love both your girls! And kudos to you for righting the wrongs of mainstream female characters everywhere. Claudia - a creator of Protagonists. ...I do hope I've gone too far :D
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Yes, because I never really saw the whole "warrior" thing with Marian, even if she is shown to be able to fight in the series I always thought that to be secondary to the sense of honor and tradition she has.
He choices are more subtle, and would like you say, from an outsiders perspective seem like nothing, because they are choices made in private, not like Anna, who shouts her choices from the rooftops and forces the men in her life to recon with them. I think Marian is more of a political animal, much like Guy really, and she is more interested in fixing things around her than actually fixing things for herself.
She's much more a historical, 'real' character, and i guess not being quite as aristorcratic and not fighting supernatural evil has a lot to do with it.
With Marian I did try to pay attention to being more historically accurate because the supernatural element was removed. It's like the fantastic lets me get away with the kind of feminism that wasn't suitable for the time, because I'm writing about vampires and werewolves. With Marian it was always about social injustice and she had to fit the time and the themes and the wrongs she was fighting, so she had to be more subdued.
I think with both Anna and Marian the makig of choices is always crucial to their journey, but it's just the degree of privacy that separates them. While Anna flaunts her sexual liberation, because her station gives her protection, while Marian must keep hers a secret because she is protecting other people. She understands that her choice to be "soiled" could hurt people beside her, because she is not an aristrocrat. And I don't think it was anything to do with sexual liberation with Marian, it was more of a act to be performed in rebellion, it had very little to do with her desire (well, atleast in the beginning).
I do hope I do justice to the female characters, because I just can't stand most TV/film characters and I don't want to fall into the trap of either the Mary Sue or the damsell in distress.
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