#alanna of trebond

[goodgrammaritan]

She also still works as a knight after getting married and having kids. Fights giants and ogres and even sends a kraken packing.

She's also ambidextrous with swordfighting due to an injury when she was learning.

And as ^ said, she's canonically short, in stature and temper.

Battle of the Gingers Bracket G Round 2

Alanna of Trebond (Tortall series by Tamora Pierce) vs ZombieCleo (MCYT)

[faerieriddle]

Me at 12:

Jonathon isn’t it for you bestie. He’s a golden-spoon trust fund kid. You can do so much better.

Alanna:

Bitch you’re right.

[nightmaskart]

Alanna the Lioness

[morphmaker]

Protector of the Small No. 5: main character energy

[rowandriftwood]

In honor of 2023 being the 40th anniversary of Tamora Pierce’s Song of the Lioness quartet, these are the beloved and much-read paperbacks I bought with my allowance money in 1992, when I was 13.

[enter-the-bogman]

Reading through the Tortall books in publication order is funny because you start with Alanna “the village healing woman taught me all she knew” going off to become a knight, and end with Numair “world’s most powerful mage” as young Arram Draper first learning magic at the Carthaki university. Because of the 40 intervening years and five(?) different series further developing the Tortall universe, the magic system is now SO much more complex.  Arram is learning an elementally-based, heavily theory-dependent form of magic where conceptual power is applied to physical objects or energy constructs. His teachers make him develop skills in non-magical areas like juggling, jewelry making, and gardening so eventually they can safely guide him through complicated applications of magic. In comparison, Alanna complains that Duke Roger is spending too much time on theory in order to prevent her and her peers from learning “actual magic” and becoming his rivals. And then she throws purple light at things until they explode or she passes out! We also learn from Arram’s misadventures that most of “magic” is creating methods of applying, storing, and accessing power so the user doesn’t drain their own life force and pass out or die. Alanna uses NONE of these techniques; instead, she pulls her magic directly out of her own life force, thinks about what she wants it to do, and hopes she reaches that goal before draining herself. She even (sometimes) factors in the impact of magically draining herself of energy while attempting tasks that require both magical and physical endurance (such as when deciding how much magic to spend warming herself when making her blizzard hike to claim the Dominion Jewel.)

For one thing, this makes Alanna insanely powerful. In In the Hand of The Goddess, she breaks open Roger’s magically locked door (presumably designed by Roger himself-- an immensely strong and well-trained sorcerer) by shoving her own magic into it until it MELTS. This builds an Alanna who decided magical theory was useless at age 12 because she has an immense access to magical potential energy, and who never learns the basic life-preserving models of magic usage that are taught in intro-level classes. She doesn’t have an interest in learning more sophisticated forms of magic, except in healing, which she cared about enough to learn non-magically. So when she heals, she uses magic as a guide or a supplement, rather than depending on it and then draining herself.  Since she isn’t attempting complex magic, most of the time the limitations of drawing directly from her own life force doesn’t impact her that much. The things she does magically all have much more efficient alternatives, but they require an understanding of magical theory and ability to store energy that Alanna never learned! If she wants to do larger spells, she just keeps feeding energy into it until it breaks or she does. 

The intervening series and Numair’s story makes Alanna’s simultaneously more and less believable. It now makes sense why everyone with even a slight understanding of Alanna’s type of Gift gets angry at times and tells her she’s using magic irresponsibly. (Before, we only understood Alanna’s side of the argument: “Well, I didn’t die and it worked, so calm down.” !!!) The fact that she never actually dies and only rarely is seriously harmed through her own magic use now requires some suspension of disbelief!

[wondereads]

This is about the Bazhir, Daine and Numair, and the entirety of the Trickster’s Duology

[drwho-ess]

10/10 best observation for Alanna is that she’s the ULTIMATE ‘Fake it till you make it’

Like girl was fully relying on her twin not only to be able to hold up on his end while thinking she had to also not lose her shit

[checkoutmybookshelf]

The Quartet That Started It All

As followers of this blog will note, this is not actually the quartet that started it all for me, but it DID launch author Tamora Pierce's career in the 1980s, and Alanna remains absolutely beloved among Pierce's heroines. Let's talk the Song of the Lioness Quartet.

In a classic case of "if I can't do this as a girl, then I'll do this as a boy and I have a handy twin brother to go full Twelfth Night with," Alanna of Trebond begins The First Adventure by dressing as a boy to train as a page in Tortall's royal court. This book introduces all our main characters and establishes Alan the page amongst his peers and Alanna as she finds herself and her place in chivalry.

One of the other amazing things about Alanna's story overall is that she begins it absolutely terrified of her own magical gift. Her arc includes learning to work with her magic rather than to fear it, and that's a twist on magic users that I really appreciated. We often get overly confident magic users--indeed, we'll get TWO of them later in the series--but it's rare that we get magic users who are fully aware of their powers and are still absolutely terrified of them. So of course, the story and the world and Pierce herself keep throwing Alanna into situations where she has no choice but to develop and use her gift. It's so, so good. This first book covers Alanna's page years, and we move into her squire years in book two.

In the Hand of the Goddess really expands on Alanna's key relationship with Prince Jon on Conte, Duke Roger of Conte, and Geroge Cooper. Alanna moves into a wider world of adult politics and stakes in this book. From being able to defeat an older, stronger, and more experienced opponent in a duel to developing her healing skills when a wound puts her out of commission during a war, Alanna cements her skills, connections, and position in society. This culminates with unmasking Roger as an attempting regicide and the accidental reveal of her gender.

This book is really, really good, and extends Alanna's childhood fear of magic to her fear of Roger specifically in a really natural, logical way. I could say more about the details, but these two books have an episodic vibe to them, so I won't spend too much time exploring every single key plot event.

The Woman Who Rides Like a Man sees Alanna spending her first year as a knight in the desert, with a Bazhir tribe. She becomes their shaman by way of self-defense; she murders their first shaman when he tries to murder her for "being unnatural." Then it falls to Alanna to train three magic users for the tribe, and this is where we see more nuance into how different magic users relate to their powers, from sheer hubris to fear to "this is just part of me, let's do this." It's a phenomenal experience for Alanna, and she learns as much from her students as they do

Book three also sees Jonathan bitching to hell and back about having to be king, which is not a great look, and it's one Alanna calls him on. He spends most of the book alternating between pitching a hissy fit, begging Alanna to marry him, and training to take over as Voice of the Tribes. The interesting thing here is that Alanna refuses to marry Jon. He is trying to fit Alanna into his own fairy tale, and she very much goes "That isn't our relationship, I can't do that. We aren't meant to be like that, and that's ok." If I could inject that lesson into humanity's collective head, I would. It's well done and it's great.

Lioness Rampant picks up on Alanna's travels after she leaves the Bazhir, and eventually sees her return to Corus with a magical artifact to help secure Jonathan's position as king.

There's also the teeny tiny complication that Alanna's twin brother, Thom, has resurrected Duke Roger. Absolute chaos ensues, and Roger almost manages to take out the entire court during Jonathan's coronation. Nobody should have to kill an evil sorceror twice, but Alanna did.

If you want to dive into Tamora Pierce's Tortall Universe, starting with Alanna is absolutely a good choice. These books hold a very soft spot in my heart, and they're never not engaging.

[katriniac]

Ahhhhh!!!! *happy screaming*

Tamora Pierce's 'Song of the Lioness' Quartet is getting new cover art for its 40th Anniversary printing!

And it's gorgeous:

[queershippingpolls]

Do you ship them?

[its-to-the-death]

Battle of the Gingers Bracket G Round 1

Pippi Longstocking/Pippi Långstrump (Pippi Longstocking) vs Alanna of Trebond (Tortall series by Tamora Pierce)

[oak1985]

Re-reading Alanna: the first adventure and it’s so good! Kel is my favorite because she’s more relatable but the Alanna books are just like a warm mug of cocoa—so comforting.

[dontmixpaintinyourcoffee]

Ok there's a lot to be said about the Song of the Lioness Quartet (even as a kid I had issues with it, even though I loved those books) but you know what didn't age poorly or start out as problematic???

These goddamn covers

HELLO???? DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT THIS DID TO MY ELEVEN YEAR OLD MIND?????? THIS WAS STANDARD SETTING, EVERY OTHER COVER OF EVERY FANTASY BOOK GETS SUBCONSCIOUSLY COMPARED TO THIS ONE IN MY MIND

DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT THIS DID TO ME????????? TO MY DEVELOPING LESBIAN MIND????????? I WANTED TO BE HER SO BAD YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND

[morphmaker]

Protector of the Small No. 4: Neal

[starfish-enterprise]

Reasons I think Alanna the Lioness is is autistic:

since realizing I'm autistic, the more I think about it the more Alanna seems autistic to me. the only books I've listened to recently are Tortall books by going through them all then going back to the first one and listening to them all again (Immortals quartet, the Bekka Cooper books, the Song of the Lioness, Protector of the Small quartet, the trickster books, then Tempests and Slaughter.) going through them again and again I notice more things that I didn't when I was a kid (obviously,) and I'm more aware of the signs of autism since realizing I'm autistic. anyway here are my reasons:

is a girl and wants to be a knight, then actually does become a knight which goes against the societal norms of the time

becomes friends with George, and many others in the court of the rogue, who are in a different social class. she does start out believing nobles shouldn't marry commoners but she gets over that. two of her three romantic relationships are with commoners

she also becomes friends with the soldiers she and John are stationed with when they're fighting in the Drell river valley, and she eats with them instead of going to the fort to eat with the other nobles. she thinks it's silly for them to travel so far when it's more convenient to just eat in camp, which illustrates her disregard of social hierarchies. she is also open to learning from people considered to be "below" her

Alanna fights Ralon of Malven over and over even though she keeps losing, which could indicate she has really strong moral beliefs. she also talks a lot about how she hates lying to her friends

she is described as different from her friends, after yelling at them about how she doesn't want to go swimming, Garry (I think) says "you seem to think we won't like you if you don't do what everyone else does, but did you ever think we like you because you're different?" (not an exact quote but basically

most of Alanna's friends are older than her, in The First Adventure when John asks if she can come to Persopolis, the book says she's thought of as more of "a very small squire" than as a page. autistic people often relate better to people who are older or younger than them than to their peers

throughout the series Alanna is distressed by changes in her body like developing breasts and says multiple times she wishes she were born a boy. this is in direct contrast to Kel who states on several occasions she likes being a girl. this could be because she has to pretend to be a boy, but autistics are more likely to be trans or gender nonconforming

she is described as being very uncomfortable at parties and in social settings

autism is highly heritable (1) her father has several autistic traits. he is very focused on his academic pursuits to the point that he neglects everything else, he doesn't have any friends and doesn't seem interested in any kind of social interaction, he has the fixed rigid belief that all magic is bad because it couldn't save the twins' mother. according to Sir Gareth he had been that way since he was a child. (2) Tom seems to share a lot of these traits with his father. he is also very focused on his studies although he is studying magic, he leaves the management of Trebond to Alanna because he is not interested in it just being a mage, he also seems to have no interest in having friends or being social. according to an NIH study that came up when I googled it if one twin is autistic the other is also autistic 96% of the time

Alanna has to very consciously learn the social expectations and rules for being a boy and being a girl

Alanna goes to Miles for advice a lot, in one of the books it literally says she talks to him so he can explain why people act the way they do and for him to explain their motivations

she is known for her temper and saying what's on her mind very bluntly

she has a talking cat who's basically her best friend if that isn't autistic coded idk what is

there are probably more things I can't think of right now so I might add more later who knows. I also wrote most of this post before and it randomly deleted itself so I'm not sure if I remembered all of my points from before unfortunately.