Things I Like
Jul. 23rd, 2018 02:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
butterflydreamingThere's a new anime that has caught my interest, Kakuriyo no Yadomeshi, translated as "Bed and Breakfast for Spirits." (Who wouldn't be intrigued by that?) Watching it has highlighted again for me that there are certain things I really like. It has monsters, folklore, and a plot that presents a conflict at first that is not what's really going on.
But the real gold star is this particular trope: ingenue protagonist inherits the problems of a whimsical, trouble making ancestor. In this case, Aoi has to pay off a debt left by her grandfather, a kind of person who had a large turnout at his funeral because some people missed him and others wanted to satisfy themselves that he was dead. In Natsume Yuujincho (Natsume's Book of Friends), the troublemaker is the main character's grandmother, a social outcast who made the only kind of "friends" that she could -- monsters -- by beating them at games to win their names. In Cardcaptor Sakura, the troublemaker is an overly powerful magician that is pretty much the reason for everything that happens, as well as the antagonist for an entire arc of the story.
So now I'm wondering, where does this trope appear in Western works? We tend not to like addressing death, which is a big part of the appeal of this trope, especially in the way the inhuman characters react when they find out that the troublemaker, being mortal, has died. It's inspiring, and has given me some plot carrots for the second book of the magic girl duology. (And that thing is pretty much, me writing the story I want to read, for the purpose of it existing for me to read.)
But the real gold star is this particular trope: ingenue protagonist inherits the problems of a whimsical, trouble making ancestor. In this case, Aoi has to pay off a debt left by her grandfather, a kind of person who had a large turnout at his funeral because some people missed him and others wanted to satisfy themselves that he was dead. In Natsume Yuujincho (Natsume's Book of Friends), the troublemaker is the main character's grandmother, a social outcast who made the only kind of "friends" that she could -- monsters -- by beating them at games to win their names. In Cardcaptor Sakura, the troublemaker is an overly powerful magician that is pretty much the reason for everything that happens, as well as the antagonist for an entire arc of the story.
So now I'm wondering, where does this trope appear in Western works? We tend not to like addressing death, which is a big part of the appeal of this trope, especially in the way the inhuman characters react when they find out that the troublemaker, being mortal, has died. It's inspiring, and has given me some plot carrots for the second book of the magic girl duology. (And that thing is pretty much, me writing the story I want to read, for the purpose of it existing for me to read.)
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Date: 2018-07-23 09:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-07-23 09:34 pm (UTC)Thinking about it a but more, the Harry Potter series has some aspects of this trope I like, in that a the crew have to fix problems that the adults caused and there is a lot of backstory that is alluded to. (Or, say, has become a new film series). James Potter is dead, and he was a bully as a schoolkid. HP is chock full of folklore creatures.
What tends to be more common in Western fantasy is a lineage theme, such as inherited power or artifacts. Hero's Journey and Coming of Age pop up in a lot of Modern fantasy. Modern Western stories also move away from the classic fairytale concept of the protagonist succeeding because (s)he has a pure heart, generous nature, and good manners. I suppose we just don't value kindness as much as we could.
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Date: 2018-07-23 09:36 pm (UTC)HP strikes me as much more of a lineage story; James being a bully doesn't come out until fairly late, right?
I'm seeing more stories about kindness being pitched and sold, but it's not "exciting" so it's hard to get out into an action-focused market.
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Date: 2018-07-23 09:51 pm (UTC)HP isn't what I think of as a lineage story because what makes Harry famous is that he's the Boy Who Lived, rather than being the Son of James & Lily, and that's a slight perspective shift that is, I think, what makes HP different. But him being an important person at all is also what keeps HP from fitting my trope in any more than a passing way. I sometimes wonder what HP would have been like if Hermione had been our central character. (It would be a lot more like an anime plot.)
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Date: 2018-07-24 12:11 am (UTC)Most of the stories I'm thinking of have the relatives still alive (some are trapped somewhere, some are just grown up and want their children/next generation to have some unnatural adventures too)-- now I'll have to look around my bookroom and see if anything jumps out at me.