Nyissa
I don’t often make posts, but this has been really bothering me and I see no one talking about it in the Belgariad fandom? I’ve been rereading the Belgariad series. It’s a guilty pleasure, mostly cause I love Silk. But god I have issues with this series. I just got through the 2nd book, aka Queen of Sorcery. Which means the introduction of the Nyissans as like... a secondary antagonistic force. People have talked about the Angaraks being asian coded, which in light of their role in the story feels honestly disgusting. But like... the Nyissans are so queer coded? They are wearing rainbows everywhere, it’s hard to distinguish men from women, they wear make-up, etc etc. They are feminised or sexualised or both.(I love Sadi with all my heart, but there was no reason to give him the title of “the man who is no man” in the prophecy, Like absolutely zero. Most characters are not named after physical traits in the prophecy)
Also it feels like they’re vilified every time they’re mentioned. Being too sexy isn’t a crime, but they are extremely sexualised and most of the protagonists are against that. Add to that that they do drugs and lots of them, their city is a murder hell hole, and that they trade slaves and you get a pretty clear picture of the matter that Eddings absolutely does not want you to like Nyissans. (I don’t think there was any particular reason to add slavery to this world. It barely has any consequences for the plot and only really serves as yet another reason to make the Nyissans the bad guys) Silk has a roulette wheel for a moral compass and even he doesn’t have good things to say about Nyissans. When the people who we’re supposed to root for are having a casual conversation about basically committing genocide because the Nyissans are bad people, it just feels like a bad comic.
I personally don’t like Salmarissa. Just don’t vibe with her. She’s a good obstacle and antagonist, which I like, but I don’t like her personally. However, I still think they did her dirty. Just like they did the Nyissans dirty. Cause she is the sole ruler of Nyissa. She is the only female ruler in this world. There are other queens, but they either have little to no power or only rule behind the curtains. You get some who come close, but never are they the sole ruler of a queendom without having to add any asterisks. Salmarissa is a queen, but her people are never portrayed as good.
Even Sadi is never completely portrayed as good. Sure he’s on the protagonists’ side, he’s part of the prophecy and he’s useful. But he’s never given the true “redeeming” moment to show us maybe there’s more to Nyissans. He’s never really given the chance to bond with anyone on a deep level, and at the end of it all he goes back to Salmarissa even though she tried to have him killed.
I like making lots of headcanons for this series, to fix things that bother me. Usually these headcanons are about the cultures and the people, to show that they’re not all good and not all bad. I have A LOT of headcanons about Nyissa and its people. Because I care them, even though they are made the villain at every step.
wow I had so much more to say than I thought