#but then Supernova was like Meh she was a hero all along! :)

[motherstone]

OHOHO HMMM... HMMM IM HAVING THOUGHTS.

Ok I read this post and uh it intrigued me so much and it actually made me want to revise some fic ideas.

Look, I don't typically like Chosen One tropes. It reduces agency of the character and if done wrong, can be pretty lazy writing. I can accept how juicy it is sometimes if it's written like. Really, really well. Or if it ends in tragedy.

Mostly I dislike it because it forces a character into a situation because of the Specialness of Who They Are. Not because it's their choice nor at their own ability nor at their inherent goodness or whatnot. And tbh plotlines like that all I could think in my head would inevitably end in tragedy because forcing a character into a path that isn't their choice would not provide them the conviction to actually pull through it.

But that's just me. There's a lot of factors on why or why something befalls a character but that's my opinion and tbh explaining that sort of stuff requires a lot of discussion I don't have the brainpower nor knowledge to do yet.

Like, Emily and Trellis are very much characters who are Chosen Ones. Like book 6 implies on it but book 7-8 kind of? Kinda not? Dropped it.

THE INTERESTING PART ABOUT IT... Is that instead of Trellis embodying the Divine Right of Kings trope... Instead of turning him into an Utmost Specialest Boy... He actually suffers for it?

Ok but like I wanna talk about Emily first. In contrast to Emily, her connection to her grandfather results in her gaining allies and significant power and attention from both friends and enemies alike. Hell, Leon explicitly states she's special because of her blood. But at the same time she also gets unwanted responsibility (which Leon also points the tragedy of). Like we get a repeated reminder that Emily isn't doing this because she wants to. It's because she feels like she has no choice.

And to be honest at first, that is frustrating to me! Emily is barely given moments to be a heroic character, and is even rarer that she does those things by choice. It makes her difficult to root for because she lacks so much agency in her own plot bc of poor writing decisions.

But to be honest, I think that's why book 7 is so compelling to me, introduction of the alien bullcrap aside, is because of how tragic it is? Like that's the culmination of Emily's sorrow and anger at her helplessness from the very prologue of the series and revisitng it again, and in a subversion of her prior lack of agency, Emily was for the first time, is actually active in making choices. And those very choices led to her falling.

And that's amazing! That's fucking tragic! Because Emily despite being surrounded by people is very much a lonely person. She's honestly emotionally neglected. And that makes Supernova so goddamn frustrating because that shit came out of nowhere! She's been having issues for 7 straight books and gets resolved in one?? What!! And even then she's still doing I don't really have a choice but not really, because now I'm taking things to me own hands shtick like wwhaat... Kazu fucking commit to the tragedy pls.

Now on to Trellis. To be honest, Divine Right of Kings trope pisses me off full stop. It just plain fucking sucks. But here I think is where Trellis diverges from Zuko (who very much had power bc of his status, and also the terrible things happening to him isn't bc he's the prince nor is he bc of his blood connection to his father. It's usually due to his own poor choices or schemes of other people. And also his and aang's destiny/prophecy is just real done in general).

Trellis is compelling because instead of gaining great treatment because of it... The narrative actually seems to punish him for it.

And it makes us root for him, because it's well. It is reasonable on a surface level, people were hurt because of his father, but also unreasonable because it's not like he chose his dad. If anything, I don't think most characters In-Universe (except for the incredibly select few) expect him to do good things nor just being great in general. They probably wouldn't be surprised if he fell or if he backstabs everyone or just be pathetic in general. If anything the narrative does show instances that would compel him to do unethical choices.

So unlike Emily, who is expected to do great things, Trellis gets the odds and words stacked against him, and this in turn gives a good reason to have agency to actively work against those obstacles. Yes, he is cliche. Yes, we have kinda have the notion that his arc is gonna be similar to Zuko's but more knock-off. But at least it's there and it works. It's compelling. We root for him. Unlike Emily whose needed to be described but not exhibited, we can actually see Trellis's better nature in his actions and his words. It's not explicit. It's just shown.

Now, it kinda makes me wanna make a fic where Trellis actually rises and succeeds? Like, the narrative punished him enough. It kinda makes me regret making the Broken comic, but at the same time it doesn't (bc that's not the end of Trellis's journey in my head that was just the crux of it, so many chances for Trellis to redeem and rise up again)

Anyways I forgot what I was suppose to say as conclusion. But I think you guys got my point.

tl;dr: Emily feels compelling as a tragedy bc of her lack of agency, Trellis feels compelling as a Rising hero bc of his agency against his obstacles.