!!!!! what is kory & kom’s relationship like? what would you want out of an arc focusing on them?
sorry this is so late, i promised myself id finish this weekend's schoolwork before answering!
my view on their relationship is... aw, man. it's so messed up that i don't know if it can actually be salvaged if we don't retcon everything, and i actually like a lot of the complexity, as it's a depiction of sisters we've never really seen before.
i think i'll analyze this based on how their parents treated them, the individual girls' issues, their issues with each other and how they see the other, and everything that's happened.
were extremely ableist about kom's disability (unlike other tamaraneans, she can't fly), to the extent that she should have been queen as firstborn, but they withdrew her right to the throne explicitly because she was disabled.
their parents pitted the daughters against each other and allowed the rivalry to grow into a very ugly thing. instead of setting boundaries when kom killed kory's pet or even believing kory when she said kom killed it, they fostered a sibling rivalry. despite a gap in age between them, they sent them to the warlords of okaara together, where kory and kom fought on equal footing -- something that evidently was quite brutal and dangerous since kom honestly wanted kory dead. kom was never punished for this, but the reason she was lashing out also was never addressed. kory was routinely shown gentleness and favoritism whereas kom was treated absurdly coldly.
when kory failed at a central coming-of-age ritual, their parents made no big deal about it, even though kom succeeded where kory failed. instead, kory was shown gentleness and "dont worry about it sweetie" that was honestly considered unbecoming of a future leader since this was a critical coming of age ritual for their people and she was their future leader. this must have honestly boiled kom's blood.
the dad was born to a woman who worked out a deal with their routine invaders to willingly sacrifice herself into slavery for their people's freedom. he grew up without a mother and idealized this sacrifice as the most noble thing a leader can do.
bullied, isolated, and removed from the line of succession only for the crime of being born with a disability
despite this, kom worked hard at combat with the warlords of okaara and was able to take kory pretty much toe-to-toe in combat
lashed out at her sister who was shown favoritism and who didn't include her in able-bodied-only games. this did include killing kory's pet however, when kom looked about 8 and kory looked about 4. however, 8 year olds are not intrinsically evil, and we have reason to believe kory might not be a 100% reliable narrator about an event that happened when she was 4.
kom passed a coming of age ritual that kory failed, and in particular it was one that would make them 'truly tamaranean'. additionally, kom is regularly painted in later portrayals as closer to the cultural heart of tamaran, and true to a war-like and resilient spirit than kory is. tamaran accepts kom as their queen relatively easy later on because she specifically speaks to them as one who respects tamaran's right to self-determination and fighting for their own freedom.
iirc, kom schemed to avoid tamaran's invasion by offering to sacrifice kory instead. either their people would rise up and refuse to send an unwilling child into slavery (which, by some retcons seems like it might have been the intended goal, kom later says things like how she thought their planet should always have fought and how their father was weak for selling kory in exchange for tamaran's freedom). whereas if they took the deal, so long as the citadel honored it, it would protect tamaran from invasion. in a way, it was a mark of tactical brilliance for kom's goals. kory was removed from the line of succession, and tamaran would stay out from the citadel's control.
kom did fully torture kory. like wasn't just responsible for it, but in kory's earliest flashbacks it seems kom literally purchased her at times and did some of the torture herself. this is imo the most unforgivable of the crimes.
at some point kom is captured alongside kory for the psion's experiments. kory has compassion for kom, who is about to die from the experiment, and breaks kom out. and kom immediately tries to kill kory. also pretty unforgivable.
i think fundamentally to kom, kory represents everything she wishes she had growing up. and as long as kory is alive, and especially when she is on tamaran, she poses a threat to what kom wants for herself. she wants to humiliate kory as penance for everything kom didn't receive growing up: respect, love, compassion, gentleness. kom also fundamentally views kory as undeserving of all of those things, but especially of the thrown, and sees her as deeply untamaranean, in that kory does not fight for her own self-determination. but kom fails to recognize that this wasn't kory's fault, or her choice, and actively contributes to putting kory in positions where she cannot fight for herself.
the favorite child since birth, raised with not just a sweet, but a truly golden childhood. played with other kids, was a princess, had every wish fulfilled, except when it came to kom. kory never intervened, but also, she was the younger child and her parents were setting the example, and it's pretty hard for a little kid to have the original thought that ableism is wrong and that kom isn't intrinisically evil but lashing out at an unfair system. ableism seems to be baked into tamaranean culture and their particular family dynamic.
kom killed kory's pet when kory looked about 4 and kom looked maybe 8. however: kory was 4. its entirely possible she's an unreliable narrator here, but nevertheless she did believe kom did it.
kory was given so much favor that despite failing a critically important coming of age ritual, one that would make her 'truly tamaranean', she failed. and while kory is well-rounded and excelled in combat and the arts and humanities and sciences, she ultimately is often depicted as not being fully in line with tamarean customs. some of this is her taking the brunt of unfair deals and always trying to do what's right for tamaran -- but in doing so, and accepting these unfair deals, she is actually not living up to tamaranean ideals of self-determination and fighting for freedom.
make no mistake, kory was tortured for six long years. it seems like this started when she would have been the equivalent of 12-14, and while her father accepted the deal and her mother let it happen, her own sister was the one to set it up. the amount of pain that kory's family has caused her is honestly unthinkable. the physical, emotional, and even sexual abuse she suffered rests entirely at the feet of her family. and all because 1) colonizers decided they would accept tamaran's freedom in exchange for a princess as tribute, which is one of the most extreme versions of misogyny possible, and 2) her sister's grudge against her, borne of ableism and festering under their parents' care.
kory still wanted to show kom compassion, after everything kom put her through, when they were both captured by psions. kory, again, often works against her own best interests. she values gentleness and kindness and compassion in a way her sister never got the chance to, because she used ruthlessness to carve a spot for herself at the table after being denied it. kory lives to regret this, and it does harden her when kom still tries to kill her, after everything.
it is kom that kory hallucinates when she's at her lowest and fighting psychic torture from raven, in the kynasf'rr arc. kory associates kom with torture, obviously, which made this leap easier. but it's interesting that kory associates kom so strongly with liberation from torture, too, by 'becoming tamaranean' and pushing through. in this hallucination, kory gives up love, gives up softness, compassion, gentleness, in order to fight for her freedom and self-determination. but the thing is, this still is not what is best for kory. tamaran, and in particular kom, have hurt kory dearly. and while in the end of this hallucination kom accepts and helps kory, it is still a hallucination. in the end, this is what kory sees her sister as and wants from her: an end to the torture, a way to be ruthless enough to save herself, and a sister who does not abuse her. kory chooses this over a continued life on earth and a relationship with a man who loves her but does not understand her. kory chooses to be on a planet and with a sister that has cast her aside and humiliated her on the hopes that she will become tamaranean enough to fight for herself. that's how i read that choice in the context of everything else, anyway.
i think what i want most from an arc would be an exploration of tamaran's ableism, possibly through kory's relationship to earth ableism. im not against her having to learn and grow from prejudice that tamaran instilled in her. i think this could actually be interesting to explore via vic.
i think an arc where kory's roots as a deeply compassionate and gentle character who had hardened herself for a while is brought back. that compassion is used to forgive kom not for the more brutal things she did -- but to understand that what their parents did was wrong, and the way they were pitted against each other was wrong. but to accept that kom made choices, too, and those can't be undone.
i'd also love for kory to reckon with the difficult truth that tamaran, especially under her father's rule, was not fair to her. the fault was not only with kom -- it was with her father for allowing her to be sold. as king, he had that choice, and tamaran did not want to sell any of its people, let alone a beloved princess, into slavery. they would have fought for her, but their king did not leave them that choice. i want to explore old plots where kory was always on the precipice of accepting that truth, and struggled to get there because it is hard to reconcile the father who saw her as beloved and a golden child with one who would sell her.
however, i don't necessarily want too many more arcs with kory and kom -- there have been so so so so so many, some of which do touch on a few elements of this! but their dynamic has been explored a lot, and i'd love to see kory with other important relationships. namely, i'd love to see more of her relationship with ryand'r, who is in dc limbo hell right now, and is kory's only relative who did not betray her in some way :') i would also love to see kory with entirely new and dynamic, complicated relationships. for example, i would love her to have beef with the green lanterns for never interfering with the citadel or the psions. bringing back gorius karkum would be my dream lol but only if it was well done. for more earth-related arcs, i'd love to see her fight human traffickers and give her some kind of long-running villain on earth, and battling the complex feelings she has regarding what happened to her.
additionally -- while i LOVED her in the recent issues talking about not wanting to intentionally pick at and reopen old wounds... i think some nuance is necessary. i think it would be an injustice to her character to pretend that her backstory doesn't affect her. instead, i want to make sure it's clear that it does -- but she does not seek out things that trigger her. instead, she has a complicated relationship regarding any human trafficking arcs, not always sure if she's the right person for the job as she does not want those wounds reopened, but also cannot abide anyone suffering when she can help. i think it would be an interesting balance for her to strike, and i would hope that any writer doing it would toe the line and respect her interiority and right to have intense and complicated feelings, but also her emotional maturity AND her heroic nature.
thank you for the ask and letting me ramble so much about this topic!!!
