World Of TEOTE #7: Too Special to Die
Welcome to World of The Essence of the Equinox, a series exploring the worldbuilding, influences and ideas behind my completed gothic fantasy trilogy.
In this seventh instalment, we deconstruct the damsel in distress—and how I play with this trope as it pertains to the leading women in my series.
This essay was originally published for Ko-fi members and has been revised and expanded for the completed Essence of the Equinox series.
Recently, I was thinking how Laila and Serafina’s narratives are in direct conversation with each other. Not least because Serafina creates Laila’s narrative as she births Darius and catalyses the events that lead to When the Stars Alight. But also because of the complementary ways their stories converge to drive home a deconstruction of a long-loathed trope of mine.
I have never been one to care for the damsel in distress trope. I feel far more empowered by the much lambasted ‘Girl Power’ plotlines where women are encouraged to save themselves. There are reasons for this. Ones I consider valid. First, because I feel genuine discomfort at having my life in another’s hands. I think that’s natural. Experiences have taught me that people are not that trustworthy and that their judgements on others are prone to fault. Second, because the dynamics are often involve being saved as a woman by a man and I don’t want to entrust my safety to the ones most often responsible for compromising it. Again, I think that’s natural.
Serafina’s narrative is shaped by the way the men in her life have failed her. Failed to protect her. Failed to deem her safety as being worth any value. The first time when her father bargains her body to Cassius. The second when Alexius and his passivity forces her to seek refuge in the woods. Stripped of any male protective figure, Serafina must take destiny into her own hands if she is to survive to the end of her story. And she does.
My entire life I had been led to think I’d been treated as a treasure. That I was of value. My father would tell me to keep my legs crossed, for many might seek to steal the pearl of my maidenhead hidden between my thighs. That was until I realised he treated gemstones with far more care and delicacy than he ever did his daughter’s purity. The truth was this: if we were meant to be precious they wouldn’t treat us like we’re tools. Yet despite it all, they do. Shamelessly. Thanklessly. And without recompense.
This is an interesting contrast to Laila, for whom male protection plays such a pivotal role for her in When The Stars Alight. That isn’t to take away from her merits. Laila did a lot of work to make herself seem indispensable to both Dominus and Darius. And that social cunning was able to save her life. But as seen with Dominus, that sort of hold on someone is not impenetrable. It is always at the whims of the man in question not deciding to change his opinion about her.
“My entire life I’ve been a bastard,” he said. “I’d known my life to have no meaning and thus sought to detach meaning from the lives of others as well. I’d committed numerous grave ills with no remorse, and yet I could not do the same to her. Her life, to me, held meaning.” He glanced up to meet Amira’s gaze. “I couldn’t simply snuff it.”
“How noble of you to infuse meaning into the life of one victim!”
“I never implied my motivation to be of virtuous cause,” Darius replied, his forehead wrinkled, “but my motivation it was.”
Laila looked away from him, head and heart too burdened by his declaration. She couldn’t understand how a sentiment so polluted by his soot-stained psyche could almost be considered sweet.
I think about the scene of Darius confessing his guilt before Amira about why he decided to spare her life. One criticism I’ve seen recurring for Laila and Darius is that their relationship felt “rushed” and didn’t have enough substance. They didn’t see why Darius felt so strongly about her. And to be perfectly honest… there is no reason why. Darius may have reasons for becoming fascinated by Laila, but there is no objective reason her life should be worth more than the lives of his other victims. His attachment doesn’t confer moral value upon her; it merely reveals his own arbitrary hierarchy of human worth.
Darius’s precarious affections for Laila is a jarring contrast to the cruelty and indifference Serafina received. Which makes it all the more interesting that she herself capitalises on this in an attempt to manipulate her son. Serafina is not the righteous sort. She is someone who has learned to see and observe weakness and exploit it before she gets exploited. And I think seeing Darius and his twisted devotion to Laila is intriguing for her as someone who knows how mercenary men can be regarding the women in their lives.
Much of the early animosity Serafina has for Laila is because she thinks of her—at first—as removed from the sphere of male violence due to Darius’s protection. She makes a useful and expendable pawn because she is so highly valued by the most influential man in any given room. Her privileged and pampered background only contributes to this untouchable aura. Serafina knows there exist women who happily comply with male hegemony as long as they get their cushy seat on a pedestal. So why should she hold any care for them? They are in her way just as much as the men. If not more.
It’s not until Serafina gets to see this unravel that she realises Laila is more like her than she isn’t. Someone who is not immune to being exploited, manipulated and harmed as she was. That show of recognition of oneself, female solidarity, and decentring of male opinion is what will help them both get to a better place than before.
In the end they will realise neither of them were Too Special To Die, because no one is. But regardless, they were always Valuable Enough To Live.
Ready to enter Vysteria?
When the Stars Alight is the first novel in The Essence of the Equinox, my completed gothic fantasy trilogy about a star-born princess, the future king of demons and a love affair that collides with politics, power and the fate of their worlds.
Start with When the Stars Alight →
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Previous: #6 — Toxic Motherhood in Fantasy: Mothers, Daughters and Female Power in The Essence of the Equinox
Next: #8 — Writing Female Desire: Why Sex Matters in The Essence of the Equinox
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