Snowflake Challenge #11

[justanorthernlight]

Challenge #11

In your own space, Talk about your favorite trope, cliché, kink, motif, or theme. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Trope: Stranded together via the elements (i.e, stuck in a snowstorm, taking shelter together, etc). I don't know if there is a better name for this, its similar to some other tropes and can include Huddling for Warmth, Tending Each Others' Wounds, and There Was Only One Bed, but those extra tropes aren't necessary to my enjoyment of it.

It's hard for me to articulate exactly what elements make this trope for me, I guess usually the trapped scenario is a lens through which to examine the relationship(s) between the characters who are trapped. There's usually a lot of emotional tension over things-left-unsaid and no escape from each others' company and the feelings it brings up...

Somewhere between Trope and Theme: Found Family. No elaboration necessary.

Theme: I really love stories that engage with characters who are the, hm, collateral damage of somebody else's good cause. It's generally a side-effect of Grey-and-Grey morality, where one side is a significantly darker shade of grey but the lighter side doesn't exactly have clean hands. G'Kar in Babylon 5, Jyn in Rogue One, and basically every character Flint uses as cannon fodder in Black Sails, are all examples that come to mind.

I wrote a whole wall of text on this, but it got too rambling so instead I'm just going to link one of my favorite B5 quotes/scenes on this theme (episode 3x14: Ship of Tears): "'Some must be sacrificed if all are to be saved.' At first I took that as revelation for the future. Now I see that it is as much about how we got here as about where we are going."

Comments

[colls]

I love the stuck-in-a-snowstorm trope! Something about forcing people to face each other in a way that makes truth happen? IDK.

I am very intrigued by your other theme. Characters who are the collateral damage of someone else's good cause. I think there's a lot of gold to mine here, and I can imagine there are perhaps some writers/shows/characters who try to achieve this but fall a bit short? (a specific example isn't coming to mind at the moment, but it's Monday so my brain is weary)

[justanorthernlight]

I wrote a big wall of text on the subject (with more detail on my examples) but deleted it because 1.) it get kind of rambling and incoherent and 2.) my dyslexia is acting up and I wasn't up for rereading it and editing it into comprehensibility (I hope this comment comes out coherent, my reading comprehension is in the toilet right now), but I will say that some shows/writers that try it and fall a bit short tend to have the collateral show up as a one-off episode, or have them show up and almost immediately forgive the protagonists who have wronged them, because their cause is So Incredibly Justified.

I'm having trouble thinking of examples as well, my vague recollection of Star Trek: Voyager is that the Marquis issues (their individual reasons for joining the Marquis, various ways the Federation/Starfleet had failed them, how Federation ideals don't always translate perfectly into the scenarios they'd lived through, etc), were handled very inconsistently.

As I mentioned above, it's an issue with trying to write grey-on-grey morality, having the good guys (have to) do bad things (to people who aren't the bad guys) while still being the good guys. Authors don't want their good guys to actually be bad, so the moral nuances sometimes get wallpapered over.

I mostly liked how it was handled in Rogue One (Jyn being cast out by Saw -who is the only family she has left- through no fault of her own and then being basically blackmailed by the Alliance into working for them, while also being partially blamed for her father's actions), though, and I think Andor is exploring similar themes with how Luthen handles his various operatives.

[colls]

Rambling and incoherent is how I roll these days, so I feel you ;)
This comment might contain some of that - LOL

I did some more thinking on this off and on during work today (because it's much more interesting). Some morally ambiguous characters like Walter White from Breaking Bad would fall into the "done well" sort of camp. I'm going off fannish osmosis, as I've not seen the entire show.
Battlestar Galactica had a lot of characters doing shitty things for good or desperate reasons - Giaus Baltar, Sharon, the list is long. I feel The Expanse touches on this morally grey area at various points, but am unsure if they actually focus on those that are the collateral damage from others? Except for maybe Filip Inaros. An argument could be said that Naomi and Amos and basically the Roci crew are an example - but the damage happens off-screen, in the past.

I think the prequel trilogy tried to show Anakin Skywalker this way. But it didn't really execute well until maybe TCW. This could be my personal bias showing, I felt his character development rushed in the movies, sidelined for CGI.

I think you're right about both Jyn Erso and that Andor is exploring some of these themes. And I'm excited to see how it all plays out.

ETA: I think I'm sort of adjacent to what you're referring to. Not hitting the nail on the head, but hammering in the general vicinity.
I also am bad at metaphors sometimes. ;P

[justanorthernlight]

I always meant to watch Breaking Bad, never quite got around to it.

Most media only engages with this theme on the edges, I just like when it's brought to the forefront. For me it's a very particular thing that not all gray-on-gray morality shows touch, sometimes everyone is just miserable and doing their best (or whatever is in their own self-interest). I wouldn't personally put Anakin in that category, but (from my knowledge of The Expanse which is the first two book, a couple of episodes, and fandom osmosis) I can kind of see at least Naomi's past in the OPA vs people harmed firsthand by OPA violence as an example of it.

In Black Sails Flint is basically trying to bring about a gay pirate revolution (whilst simultaneously getting revenge on those who have wronged him), after being exiled from England- officially for sodomy but also for helping disturb the political landscape with progressive legislative proposals. He wants a better world, but he also murders multiple members of his own crew (including one of his closest friends and supporters), and betrays multiple other allies because he thinks they're standing in the way of his vision, when most of those allies have also been severely harmed by England/the general political establishment. It's all very complicated and messy, but some of the characters he viewed as expendable (Max, Billy Bones) wind up as major players later who are less than impressed with his stated high-minded ideals, considering how he treated them in the past.

[hamsterwoman]

Hell of a scene, that one. (not familiar with your non-B5 examples of that theme, but it's a very interesting theme nevertheless)

[justanorthernlight]

For such a small scene, it's one of my favorites in the series.

I initially wrote a longer ramble that involved how Lyta and the other Telepaths are a similar example of this theme, but I feel like I'd need to do a rewatch before writing that particular essay in the depth it deserve 🙃

[severina]

Ohhh, stranded together is a good one. I also tend to use that a little in disaster fics (eg zombies, which I add to my fics regularly. LOL) Found family is another good one!

[justanorthernlight]

Yes, for me it involves a confined space (cabin, cave, tent, etc), for peak "We're stuck with each other, lets confront (or pointedly ignore) whatever this simmering tension is."

[cornerofmadness]

Thanks for sharing. Ooo stranded and the weather outside is raging, that is fun one

[justanorthernlight]

Thanks!