storytellerknight:Thirty Days of Arthurian CharactersDay Twenty-Four: Igraine1. Why you like or don&
storytellerknight:Thirty Days of Arthurian CharactersDay Twenty-Four: Igraine1. Why you like or don’t like the charactersI like Igraine. I feel really bad for her. In the context of her original story, she’s raped, her husband is murdered, her daughters sent away and son taken away from her immediately. We don’t really know how Igraine feels about any of this because early authors didn’t much care for her. Modern authors recognize how problematic this is and generally have Igraine in favor of everything that happens to her— she loves Uther, hates her husband and is disinterested in her children would rather they go away. I don’t much like this. I want to see the tragedies in her live actually be examined as tragedies. I want a real, in-depth look at this character and her life and to see her struggle with all of this. Not necessarily have her disagree or be uncomfortable, but really struggle with whether or not she did the right thing. Or… I’ll be honest. I want to see authors show Uther for the fucker that he was and Arthur’s conception for the tragedy that it was. It makes a good metaphor for Arthur’s struggle to create something glorious out of the heartless, hopeless wreck that’s come before. And Igraine is a perfect character to center that struggle around and to show that even though some things are born of tragedy, death and destruction… I don’t know. It’s never good and it’s never right but maybe it can make the peace, justice and progress that comes next that much more extraordinary and unprecedented. It makes it something worth fighting for and Igraine’s struggle and Arthur’s birth could so that if authors were ever willing to go there and grapple with this. 2. Favorite characterization in novelsShe was actually something fierce in the Crystal Cave, where she’s hot for Uther but recognizes the absolute destruction giving into those feelings could cause and she has no interest in seeing her name attached to that mess. She only agrees to have sex with Uther if Merlin can guarantee that it’s done in secret and no one ever finds out. Of course, Gorlois screwed all that up by attacking Uther’s camp when he really should have just hung out and waited.3. Favorite characterization in TV shows/moviesI really liked Caroline Goodall’s performance in the Mists of Avalon. I felt the film left what happened between Igraine and Uther very ambiguous and I actually came away with the impression that Igraine loved Gorlois and she never really had feelings for Uther. She was just caught up in fate that she had never really fought against in her life that she sorta managed to convince herself that she did lover Uther because her sister said so. But it never rang true to me and I really enjoyed that aspect of the movie. 4. Favorite art/illustration of the characterThis one by Julek Heller is clearly a favorite and I have no cause to argue with that. It looks very much like my headcanon Igraine— older and bitter because of all the shit she’s had to put up with over the years. And she looks something fierce.5. An actor you wished could play the characterI’d happily stay with Caroline Goodall forever and ever as I thought she was perfect in Mists of Avalon. But, as I am really interested in seeing something about a younger Igraine and her life before Uther, Arthur and Merlin… I’d probably go with Emma Stone.6. One headcanon about the characterI talked about it above, but I want the tragedy of her story. I’d prefer a romance between her and Gorlois where he isn’t some old man she was sold to as a child bride. I prefer Uther destroying her perfect life than him being her soul mate. I like to think she was happy and grateful when Uther died on the field because she hated him for everything he did to her.I don’t think she hated Arthur, though. He was her hope. Her hope for a better world where no one would ever have to suffer what she had suffered at the hands of a greedy king. Her daughters are also important and I would love to see a story where she is close to them instead of distant and cold. There’s a lot here and I wish Igraine had some books of her own to explore her character. -- source link
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