Well, that, and the rape.īut back to alpha heroes, and what’s “too alpha.” One of my clearest lines of demarcation-and it’s really not a question of being alpha so much as exhibiting sociopathic tendencies-involves seducing the heroine out of revenge. Part of what bothered me immensely about Whitney, My Love, for example, is that Whitney breaks down and apologizes to Clayton when I didn’t think she had any particular cause to. She maintains her innocence, despite all the adversity she’s put through, and when Devon finally realizes what he’s done to her, I feel strangely vindicated in my faith in Merry and even more strangely proud that she managed to hold on to her principles so strongly. But again, of key importance is that Merry isn’t in the wrong, and that she doesn’t ever cave on that point. Devon puts Merry through hell, and while she grows stronger (literally and metaphorically) throughout the story, Devon is quite clearly in the position of power through much of the book. My favorite example: Devon and Merry from The Windflower by Laura London.
Laura Kinsale, for example, is the mistress of creating heroines who, for one damn reason or another, get things wrong and otherwise fuck their shit up, but who don’t trigger my ick response.īut a strong power imbalance can be an emotionally and aesthetically satisfying storytelling tool as well. I’m not sure what it says about me, but it makes me deeply uncomfortable when a heroine loses or is the one in the wrong too frequently a large part of it is related to the way people have dismissed women’s opinions and decisions as being inconsequential and/or wrong for such a very long time, though I can tolerate it as long as it’s treated with sensitivity. The two of them are well-suited to each other they’re equally strong, and best of all, they’re equally fun to watch.īut frankly, part of the enjoyment is seeing Jessica get the best of Dain despite his machinations. One of my all-time favorites is Loretta Chase’s Lord of Scoundrels, for example Dain and Jessica are both Type A personalities, and it is a true joy to watch them duke it out.
I enjoy the antagonism and sparring between alpha types as much as anybody else. The vast majority of asshole heroes in Romancelandia do tend to be alpha heroes, though not all alpha heroes are by any means assholes it’s just that some authors and many readers seem to conflate “shouty, angry and impatient” with alpha behavior. What’s too alpha for you? And what hero crossed the line?Īlpha heroes are tricky beasts, and the term has come to be associated with a whole fuckton of baggage-it has, in fact, become shorthand in a lot of ways, though exactly WHAT that shorthand stands for greatly depends on where you draw your lines when it comes to acceptable hero behavior, and how you distinguish assertiveness from arrogance, and firmness from brutality. Sarah e-mailed me this question yesterday as part of a discussion about alpha heroes: