#cinder fall is a byronic heroine and it's everybody's problem

[onewomancitadel]

Ok, so I was going through choosing another desktop image because I didn't like my previous one, and I found this Kylo Ren fanart which is - from what I can tell upon searching for the source - a manip of Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, the archetypical Byronic hero brooding painting:

(Link to OP).

My instant thought was, 'This would work so well for Cinder' and in this foggy, dreary, anxious state - because life events - did I finally remember that I already obsess over a CANON SHOT OF HER PAYING HOMAGE TO IT:

Anyway. I love winning all of the time, even when I forget I had won.

[onewomancitadel]

Yeah I agree with you. It’s weird because everyone just sort of treats her as though she’s raven or qrow’s age. Which is funny because during the flashback scenes of Cinder versus Amber- she looked REALLY young. Like, 17 year old kid levels of young. It really goes to show how she artificially makes herself look older. (Is artifically the right word? I can’t tell lmao.) Basically she makes herself look older

She also talks down to Neo and others as though they are younger. She calls mercury and emerald children, and calls Neo “girl.”

Even though realistically- by this point in time they’re like 20 and she’s probably 24 at MOST. So her treating them as foolish children and using their age as a thing is a very interesting concept. It goes to show how she views it.

Yes, Cinder styles herself as being older when she's really not. It's part-and-parcel of the performance and the mask she wears. It distances herself from who she really is, what has really happened to her, and stops her relating to other people her actual age. The question of age, innocence and disillusionment has a lot in common with Ruby (and overall what's explored in the story). Cinder's point of disillusionment is fifteen. Ruby's idealistic journey starts at fifteen.

The Byronic hero is a wounded idealist.

[onewomancitadel]

One of the things I really like about Cinder is she's one of the first female characters I personally saw where it's like-- actually, going through shit would actually make it way harder to connect to people and make friends! Media is so full of female characters who are hurt and end up being very loving people because of that, but for me (and I'm sure for others) being hurt very much shrank the number of people I could care for down to like, single digits, and even then that care was very tenuous. So it was nice to see a reflection of that from someone who was the same gender as me as opposed to like, the millions of edgy male characters.

Yes I totally agree anon, we're on the same wavelength, that's really what makes her special for me. She's uncomfortable and she's messy and she's very loud, and she wants to take what she can in the only way she knows how and make sure she's safe. She's the protagonist who didn't grow righteous under suffering - she was let down by the orphanage, Madame, Rhodes, Salem, Atlas, the whole idea of the Huntsman academies - and even if there were no fantastical, magical backdrop, Cinder Fall Would Be a Problem For Everybody.

I think that sorrow and joy are meaningful and her and Ruby together create a thematic answer to Salem's nihilism. You can't have one without the other. Cinder is exposed-bone suffering, and she thinks that's all she needs to get by on.

I love that complexity about her. She's very unapologetic and she's figured out how to work within her means, and it's really, really painful. I have to say it because I am just like this but like, I'm glad Cinder is a character who is resonant with you, and I'm (in the way I can be here online) very proud of you for getting through what you did. I think that the core of survival in Cinder's character is something that really compels me as well.

I also have a lot of... personal... associations... with Cinder's... character... and I have a similar resonance. She is Everybody's Problem, and like you said, it's not a role very often afforded to female characters, ever. (To a degree I'd even say this is true of Salem and I think Salem will have a sympathetic treatment).

Putting some personal stuff under the cut you can skip if you want.

The 'I refuse to starve' line in V7 drives me crazy. I've had anorexia since I was twelve and I was just like NOOOOO THEY DID THE HUNGER THING WITH HER, THEY DID IT, they pressed THAT button, and I thought it was bad (Cinder fan since the start and now I had that association with her), but then her backstory in V8 was just... too much, too much, too much, I've had really traumatic inpatient experiences (I won't go into it) and being locked up just. Eep. The thorough and consistent dehumanisation I experienced when I was hospitalised was just. And then Cinder is fucking locked up. She's a starving little girl locked up who nobody listens to... that is very... personal... for me... and I mean, I'm not so personally invested that my world would be shattered if they treated her horribly, but I am personally invested in the sense that I know how that story went for me, I know what happens to people who need to shut up and stop talking and taking up space. It's more of the same.

I don't like putting too much of my real self into stories... and the thing most compelling to me generally is Cinder's Byronic heroine characterisation, but I can't deny there is a personal element there. So I empathise with you. I've really loved what we've had so far with her. She's very unique.