Working Title: the red sonia:
From YKTTW
Daibhid C: Can anyone whose read the story "Shadow of the Vulture" say if Howard's original Red Son
ya was an example of the trope, or if this was added by Thomas when he relocated her to the Hyborean Age?
fleb: So, why
The Red Sonja and not
The Atalanta? The latter seems much more iconic.
Jordan: Does anyone know the name of the Wodehouse story mentioned?
Peteman: Removed:
- An unfortunate recurring theme in Piers Anthony's works is the idea that a woman can be "tamed" by the love of a much stronger (and good, he has to be good) man. The examples that come to mind are Queen Iris in the Xanth books (terrorized Xanth for her own jollies, until meeting the much stronger Trent); the Gorgon, also of Xanth (fell instantly in love with the man who "defeated" her curse, Humfrey); and Merle from the Apprentice Adept (although hers was more a case of lust than love).
- Odd - I always read those as cases where a powerful man proved that he could force himself on the female in question, then proved his own virtue by not doing so. Especially in cases where the female did not believe in the existence of virtuous men.
- The Gorgon really isn't an example of this, as she wasn't really a powerful woman. She had a rather meek personality and her face just happened to turn people to stone, which Humfrey fixed.
- And that's a misrepresentation of Iris. At the beginning of the Xanth series, by law only the King could rule Xanth, and so being Trent's queen was her best bet - it had nothing to do with her being "tamed", aside from the whole having to behave herself or get divorced and lose her power thing.
While I don't know about Merle of the Apprentice Adept books, the Gorgon and Iris weren't exactly this, since the union between Iris and Trent was a political marriage where cleaning up her behaviour was to her benefit, and Gorgon was a meek, nice person with a devastating curse.
