Trope Subversion

[Caveat: This post contains spoilers for Fireborn]

Let me start out by saying right off the bat here that Overly Sarcastic Productions is awesome. In particular at this moment, I’m thinking of their regular Trope Talks, in which Red [usually Red] discusses some trope in writing. More specifically, I’m thinking of the recent Trope Talk about living weapons in fiction.

To be completely clear, this is not “living weapons” as in the Fighter who has a sentient sword more intelligent than he is. (Which, in some cases, is a low bar.) This is the trope of a character who has de facto become or been made into a weapon, whether intentionally crafted that way, or because just being a weapon and acting as directed with minimal thought frees the character from the burden of making difficult moral choices. (Of course, one can rightly argue that the latter is itself a difficult moral choice.) Bucky, the Winter Soldier; Darth Vader, to a large extent; Flamesong in the Petal Empire novel of the same title; Nonee in Into The Broken Lands; River, in Serenity; Wolverine in the Marvel universe; the Summer and Winter Knights in The Dresden Files; the Asha’man in Wheel of Time, until Rand al’Thor relents and changes his mind about how to handle them; and a host of others.

Ever since watching that particular Trope Talk, I’ve had a background train of thought pondering how the trope might be subverted. This morning, as I woke up, I realized I already did—in Fireborn. The world itself brought Alrekr Járnhandr from his own world (selecting him for reasons about which the characters can only speculate) in order to create a weapon to destroy the Great Gate, and end the invasion of the Sunlit Land for all time. But thanks to the tireless work and compassion of Healer Katariina and Healer Liisa, he not only retains, but even regains, his humanity even as he grows and evolves into the weapon the world needs him to become.

Yes, Alrekr Járnhandr becomes a living weapon. But he is never just a weapon. Those around him value him too much to let that happen to him… and he ends up so much more.