Crane Clan Letter

[Doji Azai]

You gents and ladies read the new Clan Letter?

[Kakita Shiro]

SO SAD QQ

EDIT: What's official policy on discussing IA content?

[Kakita Ijiwaru]

Lovely albeit brief. Adds some depth to our champion through my new favorite heroes. Hearing of our champion through secondhand sources shows the elevated nature of his station. Very well done in my opinion.

[Asahina Dreamspoiler]

I let my IA subscription lapse (let's not open that can of worms), and I can read the letter, so I would assume anyone can read it and it is open for discussions.

The fiction is sad, and raises several questions.

[Hendrick]

This fiction does make the end of the Opening acts Day 5 fiction make sense.

[Daidoji Tacticus]

And now, it seems, it's time for me to be negative again

The good first, I suppose. I enjoyed Shinichi's letter - it was frivolous, and the man himself remains a prat, but he was entertaining about it, and chose a good target for it. We talked a while back about Tony Stark as an example of a "strutting Crane", and I think one of the key things about Stark is that his Stark-ness is usually directed at people that we are happy to see taken down some pegs.

And then... Daitsu's letter. Not that it was badly-written, per se, but - we have never met Makoto's wife or his sister before now. I didn't even know he had a sister. They are finally mentioned here, and - neither of them has a name, neither appears as a character. All we learn about them is that they were pregnant, they had sons, and then they died, and that made Makoto a sad panda.

Was this really necessary? Does the world need more female characters whose only reason for being is to die and be the cause of angst to a male character? If the larger story required their deaths in some unavoidable way, could we not have at the very least had the opportunity to get to know them as characters so that we can grieve for them as themselves rather than as appendages to Doji Makoto?

(I also liked the Day 5 Kotei fiction better when I could read it as Makoto grieving for his dead vassals, FWIW. I felt it added more depth and humanity to him, and would have been consistent with his prior characterisation during the Crane-Mantis war.)

[Doji Satevis]

[Doji Azai]

A thing to consider is the size constraint on the Letters and the nature of L5R writing in general.

I can't put all the detail I would like in a thing that needs to be 500 words or less. And L5R is a continuing story that allows itself to be told in pieces. Don't get me wrong, I would have preferred to elaborate on the women and give them full stories, but there are too many characters in the game to detail them all in great length.

They, like many of the other once mentioned, serve more of a story or literary purpose.

Doesn't mean they won't get mentioned again.

As for the specific focus on female characters we have been and will continue to use both genders and to specifically try to make up for any lack. There is also already a daughter and she WILL be seen later. You'll note the Scorpion champion's cold is also a daughter. I can understand the accusation of perceived bias, but I wholeheartedly assure you that where I exist, gender bias does not.

Existing and future fictions will also show that the trope of women dying in childbirth isn't likely the cause here. There are other factors at play.

I appreciate the comments, positive and negative, as always.

[Daidoji Tacticus]

I realise that establishing those two characters in the course of the same 500-word piece that killed them off would have been impossible. But was it necessary to kill them off in this letter? Could it not have waited until a later story, to be covered properly? Even a brief coverage to establish them as people with names, personalities, and identity of their own would have been better than nothing.

You say "they serve more of a story or literary purpose", and I get that - but "dead background woman => sad foreground man" is a literary device that's been done to death, and dehumanises women in a very unpleasant way.

I also feel that it's bad form to tease us with "you'll find out more about Makoto's wife in the Clan letter" when what we learn is... she's dead. And that's all.

L5R generally does pretty well with female characters and making them non-stereotypes, though not perfectly (hi, Kachiko!). And it's one of the things I appreciate about it. But this problem is prevalent enough in fiction in general that as far as I'm concerned, one is too many. Fiction does not need more women whose only story role is to die. We have enough of those to last... forever, really.

[Doji Azai]

Characters, male and female, show up only to due quite often. I get your point but don't agree in this case.

The death of his wife and sister are supposed to push Makoto's story not their own. For my own writing, I'll let it soak for itself as far as developing female characters go. Just not with these two.