psocoptera (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
psocoptera) wrote2024-02-09 07:41 pm
psocoptera) wrote2024-02-09 07:41 pm
Entry tags:
fic post
The King at Re Albi. Lebannen, set post-"Firelight", 2800 words.
I have felt like I wanted to write something about Ged and Lebannen since I first read Other Wind more than twenty years ago. It took me a lot of Le Guin book club and a lot of reading and rereading a whole bunch of her works to finally have anything to say. But, here it is, my little thing to say.
When I posted The Coil, back in 2017, I commented on how the end of Silver on the Tree was the fictional thing I had been most upset about the longest, possibly tied with Meg Murry, and said that the runners-up were Emily burning her book, Lyra and Will, and Ged refusing to ever see Lebannen. At that point I had already written about Lyra, back at the very start of the 30fic project (she was number three, and, btw, speaking of 30fic *boy* did I get a kick out of the recent Foxtrot where Jason becomes aware of the time freeze. I've written that story!), and I wrote about Meg after the movie came out. So here's Ged, finally. I mean, here Ged isn't, the whole story is about and structured around his absence.
I can't think of that many stories that I care about where one character I love breaks another character I love's heart. Emily breaks Dean's heart, but I'm not going to deny that he's a dick, and he's kind of been grooming her, even if his behavior about it (seeking marriage, not touching her as a child) is honorable and period-appropriate. Alanna breaks Jon's heart, but she has a really solid point about them wanting different things, and they stay good friends (and, honestly, in my head, they probably still go to bed together sometimes, with the full approval of Thayet and George, who are both occasionally still going to bed themselves with Alanna and Jon respectively. Maybe I should write *that* someday.) There's the end of The Untamed, but do the people who made The Untamed even consider that canon, or just a delicate dance with censorship? Ged and Lebannen fascinate me with Le Guin's refusal to give us a happy ending. Not even Sam going over the sea to see Frodo one more time. It's like the trope inversion of found family, Ged's absolute refusal to see whether he and Lebannen can have some kind of relationship after their life-changing quest. He gets to do that! Does he actually need to? Does he just think he does? How much did Le Guin actually "agree with" Ged? We'll never know. But I wanted to write something that didn't downplay how cruel and difficult this was for Lebannen, while also giving him this little angle on another perspective. (Maybe Ged really doesn't think it's any worse to not see Lebannen than to not see Vetch??)
I have felt like I wanted to write something about Ged and Lebannen since I first read Other Wind more than twenty years ago. It took me a lot of Le Guin book club and a lot of reading and rereading a whole bunch of her works to finally have anything to say. But, here it is, my little thing to say.
When I posted The Coil, back in 2017, I commented on how the end of Silver on the Tree was the fictional thing I had been most upset about the longest, possibly tied with Meg Murry, and said that the runners-up were Emily burning her book, Lyra and Will, and Ged refusing to ever see Lebannen. At that point I had already written about Lyra, back at the very start of the 30fic project (she was number three, and, btw, speaking of 30fic *boy* did I get a kick out of the recent Foxtrot where Jason becomes aware of the time freeze. I've written that story!), and I wrote about Meg after the movie came out. So here's Ged, finally. I mean, here Ged isn't, the whole story is about and structured around his absence.
I can't think of that many stories that I care about where one character I love breaks another character I love's heart. Emily breaks Dean's heart, but I'm not going to deny that he's a dick, and he's kind of been grooming her, even if his behavior about it (seeking marriage, not touching her as a child) is honorable and period-appropriate. Alanna breaks Jon's heart, but she has a really solid point about them wanting different things, and they stay good friends (and, honestly, in my head, they probably still go to bed together sometimes, with the full approval of Thayet and George, who are both occasionally still going to bed themselves with Alanna and Jon respectively. Maybe I should write *that* someday.) There's the end of The Untamed, but do the people who made The Untamed even consider that canon, or just a delicate dance with censorship? Ged and Lebannen fascinate me with Le Guin's refusal to give us a happy ending. Not even Sam going over the sea to see Frodo one more time. It's like the trope inversion of found family, Ged's absolute refusal to see whether he and Lebannen can have some kind of relationship after their life-changing quest. He gets to do that! Does he actually need to? Does he just think he does? How much did Le Guin actually "agree with" Ged? We'll never know. But I wanted to write something that didn't downplay how cruel and difficult this was for Lebannen, while also giving him this little angle on another perspective. (Maybe Ged really doesn't think it's any worse to not see Lebannen than to not see Vetch??)