I.) Last night I was at the opera. This year, the Munich opera did the entire Ring and last night they showed the final part, the Götterdämmerung. Unfortunately, after the three previous productions were all well sung and imaginatively staged (the first production in which bringing masses of people who aren't in the script on stage actually worked
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Vent away. It all sounds dreadfully familiar from all too many fandoms.
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If I were going to write Merlin fic, which I'm not, I'd want to write about Gwen, precisely because she is underdeveloped and denied agency and power. I have serious issues with the way she's been presented as the sole woman of color on the cast. For me, her character skitters uncomfortably close to a white-dominated society's fantasy of a powerless, non-threatening, nurturing, forgiving woman of color whose main function is to cheerlead or emotionally support the white characters. Perhaps now that she's Queen on the show, that might change. I look forward to finding out, anyway.
But that's a Doylist problem, not a Watsonian one, and it leaves me with no desire to bash Gwen herself. (Her writers, possibly, but that's a different story).
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If I were going to write Merlin fic, which I'm not, I'd want to write about Gwen, precisely because she is underdeveloped and denied agency and power. I have serious issues with the way she's been presented as the sole woman of color on the cast. For me, her character skitters uncomfortably close to a white-dominated society's fantasy of a powerless, non-threatening, nurturing, forgiving woman of color whose main function is to cheerlead or emotionally support the white characters. Perhaps now that she's Queen on the show, that might change. I look forward to finding out, anyway.
But that's a Doylist problem, not a Watsonian one, and it leaves me with no desire to bash Gwen herself. (Her writers, possibly, but that's a different story)I would have a problem with Gwen's character on the show if she weren't the main love interest, written attractively and willing to confront Arthur and call him on his shit. If she wasn't these things she would be a mammy/spiritual negro. As it is she is black woman who also happens to be the damsel in ( ... )
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Because you're right, it is novel! And it is progress, of a limited type, but I still want more. Why can't Gwen be cared for and rescued but still have power and agency and not be perpetually nurturing, serving, listening and forgiving?
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I don't think Gwen's nurturing/forgiving/serving gives her power, though. So far she has no power, except what Arthur feels like giving her at any given moment. Now that she's queen, which is an institutional role that can't be taken away on a whim, that may (and should) change.
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And constantly nurturing and supporting Arthur, and being willing to forgive Uther (and fall in love with the son of her father's murderer). Even her "speaking truth to power," while valuable, is all in the service of Arthur's destiny to be a great King and his own ideals. She gets her outside power by being non-threatening to Arthur, by having no interests that truly clash with his.
I just get queasy when I see the sole female character of color who is not only powerless, but never even seems to want anything at odds with the white males.
I'm totally looking forward to seeing more of her, too. I don't mean to say that you're DOING IT RONG by liking Gwen or anything. :P I like her too, that's actually why the set-up bothers me.
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