Megan Whalen Turner saw the hegemonic patriarchal, traditionally binary stories of old and flipped them around upon their heads. Saw duality and gave us the spectrum of all infinite possibility and Oneness in its place:
-Both the queens are older than their kings.
-Both the queens are more experienced than their kings.
-The female main characters are comfortable in their power while the male main characters are initially hesitant about accepting their power.
-Helen and Irene are predominantly extroverted while Sophos and Eugenides are predominantly introverted.
-The male characters shed far more tears in far more heart-shattering sobs collectively than the female characters across the series although all of them have their emotionally vulnerable moments that cement our love for them.
-Irene is taller than Eugenides.
-The Queen of Eddis carries herself like a soldier, is broad-shouldered and muscular, wears her hair “short like a man’s,” wears trousers most of the time and a soldier’s uniform when she’s fighting a war with her men on the front lines.
-The men AND women of Eddis are trained as soldiers and when they are too old to fight, both men and women also help with the sewing (traditionally a woman’s task).
-Irene hunts in her free time while Eugenides is like “no thanks, I’ve already been hunted in Attolia.”
-The male main characters are more resistant to killing. (with the exception of maybe Costis as a soldier)
-The female main characters’ hands are more covered in blood than the male’s. (They did what needed to be done… with the exception of Kamet, who is male-bodied but on one level is the most effeminate of all, who is not morally resistant to killing but as a slave was forbidden to even look at a butterknife or remotely partake in the traditionally masculine activity of defense.
-Eddis’s female attendants are armed just like her guards are.
-Sophos is as softly effeminate, sensitive, emotional, humble, empathetic and bunny-like as they come while looking like a strapping thug.
-Sophos the heir to the throne is imprisoned in his role and only finds psychological and emotional freedom when physically enslaved.
-Kamet is physically enslaved and yet slated to become one of the most powerful men in the empire.
-The Queen of Attolia who wields so much power is initially one of the most enslaved people in the land.
-The frightening, terrifying, savage, ruthless Queen of Attolia is also one of the most vulnerable, delicate, childlike, shy individuals imaginable.
-Costis spends the entirety of KoA feeling or appearing humiliated, embarrassed, chagrined, bumbling and incompetent and then reappears in TaT as the one of the most skilled, competent, strong, strapping survivalists imaginable. If I had to pick one of the main characters to be stranded on a deserted island with, I would choose Costis for sure.
-The Thief of Eddis’s late MOTHER was just as wild, daring, agile and free as her son and what sounds like it would be a male-dominant “profession” clearly was not.
-Apparently, if you’re a royal thief, you can steal all manner of things without getting arrested.
-”Thief” means so much more than one who steals stuff. A thief is a head spy, a manipulator on behalf of state, a magician, a a master of poker, deceit and cunning, an acrobat, a traceuse, a picture of grace and athleticism,
-In every other story, the thief is the villain, the bad guy. Here, the Thief is the HERO.
-Irene rejects Nahusaresh, portrayed as the “masculine ideal” (tall, handsome, powerful, etc.) in favor of Gen.
-Sophos rejects the “conveniently beautiful, bird-brained” Berrone in favor of the non-traditionally attractive, brilliant Helen.
-The Queen of Eddis can be found more likely sitting on the steps in front of her throne connecting with her court/people than sitting on her throne and yet she “would still be loved as queen even in a burlap sack.”
-The Queen of Eddis is “not beautiful” in the traditional sense and yet she is so freaking beautiful and her people all agree with me.
-The fashionista of a the group is male (Gen) and apparently has better tastes in clothes than the Queen of Eddis.
-The Queen of Eddis’s prisoner of war is also one of her closest friends (the Magus)
-Eugenides foregoes a marriage to someone who has treated him with kindness and respect (Agape) to marry someone who has permanently disabled him and hurt him the most brutal way imaginable.
-Kamet is Costis’s wife. They are two male-bodied people.
-The physically weakest character is male (Kamet).
-The smallest character is male (Kamet).
-The character who has never even touched a weapon is male. (Kamet)
-The most initially violent and aggressive character is female (Irene).
-The bluntest, most direct character is female. (Helen).
-The most humble, submissive, easily embarrassed character is male. (Sophos)
-The slave (Kamet) is “more educated” than the middle/working class free man (Costis).
-The lead protagonist who wins the most beautiful woman in the land is a small man of color.
-The economically poorest of the city-states (Eddis) is the most utopian, functional and abundant in personal integrity, cooperation and loyalty of its citizens.
-The economically richest nation (Mede Empire) is the poorest in terms of integrity. (I realize this we’re no longer talking about defying archetypes, but simply stating universal ironies.
Can you think of anything I am missing?