The most dangerous teacher that Mia Corvere will ever have - Shahiid Aalea - all figured out. Now I need to do a quick color study, transfer the drawing onto a watercolor board and start coloring :). From Nevernight by Jay Kristoff
A couple of days ago I made this point on main. As you can see, it didnât become very popular, BUT itâs still something I feel very strongly about (and yes, Iâve come to the conclusion that maybe Iâm biased), so I decided that I had something to say. (Obviously: HUGE spoilers for Darkdawn). Also, bring with you pop-corns, youâre here for a ride (thereâs a tiny TL;DR at the end btw).Â
Letâs start by saying that I adore backstories in books. Itâs my favorite kind of fanfiction to write and to read, Iâm always glad when an author decides to give us flashbacks about a minor character, and I adore looking for little hints in a characterâs behavior to get to know them better.
The explanation for this is pretty simple: I firmly believe that how we are heavily depends on what experiences weâve come in contact with. I donât think that our identity is solely based on experiences, but I also think that backstories are often more important than someone might think when considering a story.
I love when an author gives a minor character a voice because they are taking into account that everyone is the protagonist of their own story, everyone has had their personal character development, and, even though they canât give a proper place for everyone to shine, they still can make us understand that these characters exist, in some way.
This is one of the reasons why I love the Villains series by V. E. Schwab and this is one of the main reasons why I loved The Nevernight Chronicle: almost (emphasis on almost) every character Mia (and therefore the reader) comes in contact with has a story to tell and Jay Kristoff makes sure we know that. That we know what has brought them to the point they are.
This is especially super important in a story that takes place in a country like Itreya where violence and prevarication seem, most of the time, the only options: if you give me a story that is meant to be super bloody and filled with morally questionable people, but then donât make sure we understand why those people act in that way I wonât be impressed. I will only be extremely bored.
Itreya is a country that deeply influences peopleâs decisions simply because they often lack the opportunity to see that thereâs another way: think about Furian, and how the meeting with the priest changed his life forever. Or about Ashlinn, about how she only knew vengeance before meeting Mia (and her father, how traumatizing had to be for him being imprisoned and tortured all those months). Or about Leona, who is surely deeply flawed and selfish, but is also scarred from an extremely traumatic experience from her childhood. Or about Jessamine, Hush, Carlotta, Corleone all characters we donât really follow for a lot of time, but we have a little window opened for us and we get a small look in why they became who they are. (Ps: we donât know shit about Cassius either and this pisses me off too, especially because we had Eclipse RIGHT THERE but thatâs off the point Iâm trying to make here. Just... if you ever plan to write something about him, let me know, okay?)
And, this is also essential, it doesnât work only for the kids: like Iâve already said, characters like Furian, or Leona, or Corleone, or Ashlinnâs father are essential because weâre shown that this systemic use of violence and injustice isnât something that screwed up only the last generation, but is deeply rooted in the very core of Itreya.
After all, what can you expect from a country born from a father killing his own child?
And then we come to the main antagonists.
Let me say this straight: there are villains, in The Nevernight Chronicles as well as in other stories, that donât need backstories. Not ever single villain in a story needs to be super well developed or super interesting: there are some people who are just... shitty. And thatâs all. Because thatâs how the world works. There are people who are violent, who are cruel, simply because they can. Example: we donât know anything about Leonides or Duomo, we only know how their actions scarred and influenced other characters. Thereâs nothing spectacular about them, nothing stands out: they are two men using their strength and power to abuse vulnerable people close to them. Thereâs nothing interesting, nothing even remotely alluring, nothing that captures my interest in a man beating his wife to death in front of his daughter or in an another man using his power to abuse young children to the point of one of them committing suicide. They are meant to be seen as disgusting. They are meant to be seen as monsters. They are meant to be seen as the embodiment of the extreme privilege that touches so few people in the Republic and causes oh so much damage. I donât want to read about them. I never will. It would be the equivalent of reading about Donald Trump. (You can fight me on this comparison)
And then we come to the actual point of what Iâm trying to say: I was extremely disappointed, up until Darkdawn, that we didnât get any sort of background for the components of the Red Church and I was glad we had little snippets with some information about them (especially, especially Drusilla. She and Mercurio had more chemistry than half of the main couples Iâve encountered in books). We also had some kind of information about Solis too (more or less). But... what about Aalea? Spiderkiller? Mouser? Are we just supposed to believe they appeared out of nowhere, already assassins and murderers and completely corrupted by money and gold?
Are we supposed not to have sympathy for them just because they are villains?
Because, if thatâs the case, it pisses me off to no end.
And I wouldnât even be mad about this, like I said, if it hadnât been made clear that backstories ARE IMPORTANT to make us understand whatâs going on in the Republic. I mean, we know stuff about The Falcons that serves no purpose other than that, right?
But okay, o.k.a.y., Jay Kristoff, there are characters who maybe have too little on-page time to talk about them in depth (even though Iâd argue on the fact that there was no time for them to actually have a proper backstory), or, maybe, you here were trying to, once again, like with Leonides and Duomo, make us see how richness and power slowly corrupt and destroy, and if you had given us backstories the message wouldnât have been as effective as it was.
If I consider those characters to be more symbols than, in fact, characters, then Iâm ready to look past their lack of background.
And then we come to Scaeva.
Now, if you havenât already guessed by the url of my blog, or by its aesthetic, or by my main blog, Julius Scaeva is, by far, my favorite character in the trilogy. Which is saying a lot, because I loved almost everyone there (emphasis on âalmostâ). What can I say? I love me a great villain.
Up until the end of Godsgrave, I was interested in him, but, his character not being in basically two books, I hadnât enough material to really consider him (even though his dialogue with Alinne made a lasting impression on me) and I wasnât really sure how I would feel about him by the end of the series.Â
And then, then, the last pages of Godsgrave and the first of Darkdawn happened and I suddenly knew I wasnât reading about âa villainâ like, for example, Leonides or Duomo, or even Spiderkiller: I was reading about a well-rounded character.
What makes the difference, you might ask. Well, apart from the number of pages dedicated to him, Scaeva has a well rounded personality, interesting relationships with other people, especially Mia and Jonnen (please, tell me something about Spiderkiller apart from her liking gold and being good at making poisons) and is, undoubtedly, the most charismatic character in the whole thing. I feel like what really made his character, btw, are the glimpses of the past relationship he had with Alinne (the Nevernight wiki says that it was only sexual but it clearly wasnât and Iâm working on another analysis just to prove my point) and, most of all, the interactions with Jonnen. Especially, ESPECIALLY, the scene with them and Adonai (aka: one of my absolute favorites sequences in the entire trilogy).
Kristoff wants us to feel strong emotions towards Scaeva: negative emotions, of course (he totally failed in that with me, btw), but you canât help a subtle hint of admiration for what he managed to do. It makes a lot of sense, since Iâve been confirmed that his figure was, as I thought, inspired by Caesar (aka: one of my favorite historical figures of all time, and kind of crush when I was a child)---I have to thank @kavinskhhyâ for telling me that Kristoff actually confirmed he was based off Caesar, which is.
The thing is: for characters that are half as complex as him (because he is a complex character, you can fight me on that too) we are given pages and pages that explain how they became the way they are (*cough cough* Maggot *cough cough*). And then we come to the main antagonist. The man Mia has despised all her life. The man that *shocking* is also her father. The man that alone has brought a State on its metaphorical knees. And we discover that heâs actually a well-defined and alluring figure. And...Â
We get absolutely nothing about him.
And when I say nothing, I really do mean nothing.
Before he became consul, we are left in the complete dark.
âHeâs probably only another of those characters born in privilegeâ you might say. âKristoff doesnât say anything because thereâs nothing to say!â
Had this been the case, him being born as a Darkin in a family of mellowborn and having to come to terms with that would have been pretty interesting to see nonetheless, considering the reputation Darkins have in canon (may I remind you that Alinne, in her madness, was terrified of Mia, telling her that she was not her daughter, just because âHe was inside of herâ? Like I said. Interesting.). But then, let me ask you: are you sure he was born in absolute privilege?
Leaving the comparison with Caesar (born in a very ancient family, but also... not really wealthy nor powerful, to use an euphemism) aside: are you sure that someone as Leonides and Duomo would have developed an obsession (I donât feel any other word is fitting, here) with the concept of âwillâ? Would someone who thinks everything he has is well deserved just because he was born in the right family refer to what heâs doing as âa gameâ? Would someone who has never had to struggle his whole life care to develop a partial immunity to the Everseeingâs symbol, even thought it must have costed him an immense amount of pain?Â
But now youâve proven yourself my daughter true. Possessed by the same will as I: not only to survive, but to prosper. To carve your name with bloody fingernails into this earth.
Look me in the eye and tell me that this man came from the same background as Duomo and Leonides.
âBut maybe Kristoff only wanted us to hate him!â
No, he didn't. Because:
1) a villain youâre able to despise without any second thought isnât a great villain (and you need a worthy opponent when you create a main character such as Mia): if youâre giving us a story filled with morally gray character, the MAIN villain has to be, in my opinion, as interesting as the others.
2) there are in the story characters you have no problem hating and Iâve analyzed why Scaeva is different from them.Â
3) there is a moment (only one moment, thatâs true, but itâs enough for me to conclude that Kristoff wanted us to see Scaeva as a well rounded character) where you canât help feeling the tiniest bit of positive emotion towards him. And thatâs where he uses his own body as a shield to protect his son.Â
And even if he wanted us to hate him, that would defy one of the main messages of the book: everyone (or almost everyone: see the examples above) is a product of the environment they grew up in. Violence causes violence. And Itreya was literally founded over a murder.
So, to sum up: we know how important backstories are in the Nevernight world, to the point of even side characters getting a couple of flashbacks here and there. We have differentiated between characters seen as âsymbolsâ and characters with their own depth. Weâve come to the conclusion that Scaeva is as (if not more) interesting as the majority of the characters who got their own backstory.
And youâre really really telling me that he is the only one out of them all we donât get to know better?
Why?
Because heâs the villain? (Like Iâve stated up until now, this would make a TERRIBLE excuse)
Because there was no time?
What the hell should I conclude finishing this book? âOh yes, everyone is a product of society and has therefore a story to tell except that one guy because fuck him, heâs a dick, we donât careâ?
If we take into accounts Spiderkiller, Aalea and Mouser the thing becomes even worse, because it really seems that everyone but the villain has a sad story behind them that makes them act the way they do.
âOh, shit, something terrible happened to me when I was a child so now Iâm a bad person, BUT NOT AS BAD AS THE BAD GUYS, WHO HAVE NO REASON WHATSOEVER TO BE THE WAY THEY ARE. OR MAYBE THEY HAVE, WHO KNOWS? WHO CARES? NOT ME!â
See? SEE? It doesnât make sense!!!
And maybe you didnât even notice that, maybe you donât even care, but since I was little Iâve always took the vilainsâ side, analyzed their actions and spent all my time wondering what their side of the picture might be, because almost no one ever cares for backstories of the side characters, let alone the ones of the guys youâre supposed to hate.
And when I come in contact with a story that almost makes mandatory to inform us of every single characterâs background, because the author finally acknowledges the importance of what youâve been through in defining who you are, because if youâve only seen blood and violence throughout your whole life OF FUCKING COURSE youâre going to believe thereâs no other way--when an author does all of this and then systematically leaves out the villains (even the most complex ones) from this mentality
THIS is when I snap.
TL;DR in case you got bored halfway through: if you use backstories in your works to inform us how a violent and cruel environment systematically fucks up everyone, no matter their social status, and then purposefully leave out the antagonists because they are antagonists, Iâm not going to take it lightly.
