Because You Love to Hate Me(22)
FROM: LANCE
TO: GWEN
Art has the whole world to love him. He always will.
FROM: GWEN
TO: LANCE
What do we have?
FROM: LANCE
TO: GWEN
Our own screwed-up little kingdom with a broke-down palace where nothing can stop us from being together. And I will stay up here on this ledge, outside the window that you won’t open, while I text with one hand and hold on with the other until you get it through your thick skull. I love you, Gwen. Rich or poor; ugly or fair; young or old; inside and out.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
FROM: GWEN
TO: LANCE
Catch me if I fall
FROM: ART
TO: GWEN
They pushed me onstage.
I’m onstage, Gwen! In my crown!
FROM: GWEN
TO: ART
My beautiful Art
You’re right. I am Hades.
Kidnapping your Persephone.
But one day you’ll look back and see that only someone as pure as you could bring together two broken souls FROM: ART
TO: GWEN
What? Gwen, please
They’re announcing you
I need a queen!
FROM: GWEN
TO: ART
Long live Arthur
All Hail the King
FROM: ART
TO: GWEN
Gwen?
FROM: ART
TO: GWEN
Gwen!
SAMANTHA LANE’S VILLAIN CHALLENGE TO SOMAN CHAINANI:
A Modern-Day Mash-Up of the King Arthur Legend and Persephone-Hades Myth
THE BAD GIRL HALL OF FAME
BY SAMANTHA LANE
dreadpersephone
377 posts 100.8b followers 12 following
Persephone ? lover of pomegranates and winter
The choice was simple. I’d either be a maiden all my life, controlled by my overbearing mother, or I’d take an opportunity to escape to another world. Just didn’t expect to transform myself into a formidable queen, more feared than my husband! #sorrynotsorry
Comments
Samanthalane commented on your post: Coming-of-age tales and villain origins have a lot in common. Teens are fighting for their independence and against familial pressures. Villains are frequently fighting against societal and moral expectations in their origins. One of the reasons I love the Persephone myth is that she combines both. Though I do not view her as a villain, many do, as she is associated with death.
Villains’ backstories are all about opportunities and choices. Throughout, we are shown the various crossroads where they could have turned back and continued to live a life of good. We, the audience, are torn between wanting them to cross over to the dark side and hoping that maybe this time they won’t. Characters with agency are more complex, which is why I love them so much. Villains do horrible things, and we still root for them in spite of that. We are drawn to people who make mistakes, like us. Very few of us are stalwart and true 100 percent of the time. Villains represent what we cannot and will not do in real life.
As I see it, Persephone made a series of choices that led to her becoming one of the most feared goddesses in the pantheon, instead of continuing to live a simple life with her mother. In “Gwen and Art and Lance,” Gwen made the choice to be with someone who her high school society viewed as the wrong choice. Villainy is liberating.
bornwicked
788 posts 500k followers 3k following
The Wicked Witch of the West ? it’s not easy being green
Am I really so wicked? Or did the world paint me that way simply because I am different? And if I am wicked, was I born that way or made wicked by the world’s reaction to me?
Comments
Samanthalane commented on your post: The other route for villains is the view that they are simply victims of circumstance—that they have been tricked into becoming villains, by fate or by those around them. This question has been explored by modern retellings time and time again. Are some people just destined to become villains, and they don’t have a choice in the matter at all? Historically, fairy tales and myths took this route, depicting people as either good or evil for no reason. But modern society has turned away from the view of passive characters and wants characters to be active participants in their destiny.
In “Gwen and Art and Lance,” Gwen takes an active role in what unfolds. She manipulates the situation around her to suit her needs and doesn’t apologize for it. She isn’t simply along for the ride, but is in charge of the entire operation.
killersingers
186 posts 300k followers 0 following
The Sirens ? follow me into the sea
ONCE HANDMAIDENS, WE HAVE BEEN REBORN. NOW WE SERENADE YOU, TEMPTING YOU TO JOIN US.
Comments
Samanthalane commented on your post: Origin stories are all about transformations. In stories of the past, we saw characters being physically transformed into villains or monsters. Medusa was once a beautiful woman. Anakin Skywalker had to be burnt to a crisp and don a mask in order to complete his transformation into Darth Vader. But physical transformations aren’t the only way villains are made. In “Gwen and Art and Lance,” Gwen has transformed herself into the “It Girl” at her school. She has skillfully climbed the social hierarchy of high school and manipulated those around her to get what she wants. Villains’ monstrousness, either physically or through their personalities, provides an excellent mirror for the hero. The better and more complete the transformation into a villain is, the better the hero has to be in order to defeat them.