Cimorene did some clever stuff, but my most pronounced memory about the books is frustration with the antagonists. The antagonists are mostly the wizards, whose magical abilities are not only immoral, causing low level destruction everywhere they go by draining magic from their surroundings, but intrinsically sucky. The wizards’ powers are overshadowed by pretty much every other sort of magic user, and they can be melted with soapy lemon water, or by pointing at them and saying the right word.
Although the series wasn’t a work of fanfiction, I felt like it suffered from arming the protagonists with lightsabers, but failing to give the antagonists a Death Star.
The wizards’ powers are overshadowed by pretty much every other sort of magic user
I’m not sure where you’re getting this. Antorell in particular is pretty incompetent, but this is the case even relative to other wizards; he just happens to recur a lot. The wizards are able to assassinate a king (with help), kidnap a subsequent king, and then ultimately create a large long-term problem for a third king and his family. They’re effective at causing trouble, they just don’t win in the end. In a kids’-book sort of way, they fail in straightforward and sometimes almost cartoony ways without trying things an evil villain in an adult’s book would with their powers, but this doesn’t mean that they aren’t powerful, it means that they aren’t being discussed in a context where they can press the advantage.
they can be melted with soapy lemon water, or by pointing at them and saying the right word.
The word didn’t work to start out. That was the more portable alternative to the buckets of water that had to be developed deliberately by Telemain; wizards aren’t just inherently vulnerable to the word “argelfraster”.
arming the protagonists with lightsabers
I don’t think the protagonists are overpowered except maybe Mendanbar (and his book has his magic sword on the fritz for most of the action anyway). By and large they solve their problems by thinking about their resources, going to the correct places, and confronting the bad guys, not by just having ultra-powerful weapons. (Heck, Cimorene got a wish from a genie in book one and used it to get a spell ingredient instead of, like, omnipotence.)
I’m not sure where you’re getting this. Antorell in particular is pretty incompetent, but this is the case even relative to other wizards; he just happens to recur a lot. The wizards are able to assassinate a king (with help), kidnap a subsequent king, and then ultimately create a large long-term problem for a third king and his family. They’re effective at causing trouble, they just don’t win in the end.
They are effective at causing trouble, but they manage to do so despite being pretty heavily disadvantaged magic-wise compared to the protagonists. Zemenar was supposedly a very exceptional wizard, but when he actually takes the stage his abilities never seem particularly impressive. When I first read the first book, I was expecting him to turn out to be subservient to some Bigger Bad, because he just didn’t seem as threatening as I expected from a primary antagonist.
There are certainly stories with villains who accomplish less. In plenty of kids’ media, the antagonists will be implicitly very powerful, but never accomplish much at all. But in the Enchanted Forest series, I felt like it was the reverse, that pretty much everything the wizards pulled off, they did with the odds stacked against them.
The word didn’t work to start out. That was the more portable alternative to the buckets of water that had to be developed deliberately by Telemain; wizards aren’t just inherently vulnerable to the word “argelfraster”.
Even so, I felt like weaknesses of that magnitude really served to trivialize them as antagonists. The fact that they could be defeated with water with lemon and soap was already a demeaning vulnerability which took away a lot of the tension from any encounters with them. I thought that it would have improved their stock as villains if they researched some defense, and at a critical point where the protagonists tried to melt them with water, they revealed, “Hah, that will never work again!” But instead, the protagonists acquired an even more convenient method to defeat them, while the wizards retained their old vulnerability.
I liked the protagonists, but I got the impression that Patricia Wrede didn’t like her own antagonists; it wasn’t enough for them to lose, they had to be demeaned and trodden on.
Cimorene is a rationalist protagonist. The Enchanted Forest Chronicles is good for kids.
:D!
I intend to name my firstborn daughter Cimorene.
Cimorene did some clever stuff, but my most pronounced memory about the books is frustration with the antagonists. The antagonists are mostly the wizards, whose magical abilities are not only immoral, causing low level destruction everywhere they go by draining magic from their surroundings, but intrinsically sucky. The wizards’ powers are overshadowed by pretty much every other sort of magic user, and they can be melted with soapy lemon water, or by pointing at them and saying the right word.
Although the series wasn’t a work of fanfiction, I felt like it suffered from arming the protagonists with lightsabers, but failing to give the antagonists a Death Star.
I’m not sure where you’re getting this. Antorell in particular is pretty incompetent, but this is the case even relative to other wizards; he just happens to recur a lot. The wizards are able to assassinate a king (with help), kidnap a subsequent king, and then ultimately create a large long-term problem for a third king and his family. They’re effective at causing trouble, they just don’t win in the end. In a kids’-book sort of way, they fail in straightforward and sometimes almost cartoony ways without trying things an evil villain in an adult’s book would with their powers, but this doesn’t mean that they aren’t powerful, it means that they aren’t being discussed in a context where they can press the advantage.
The word didn’t work to start out. That was the more portable alternative to the buckets of water that had to be developed deliberately by Telemain; wizards aren’t just inherently vulnerable to the word “argelfraster”.
I don’t think the protagonists are overpowered except maybe Mendanbar (and his book has his magic sword on the fritz for most of the action anyway). By and large they solve their problems by thinking about their resources, going to the correct places, and confronting the bad guys, not by just having ultra-powerful weapons. (Heck, Cimorene got a wish from a genie in book one and used it to get a spell ingredient instead of, like, omnipotence.)
They are effective at causing trouble, but they manage to do so despite being pretty heavily disadvantaged magic-wise compared to the protagonists. Zemenar was supposedly a very exceptional wizard, but when he actually takes the stage his abilities never seem particularly impressive. When I first read the first book, I was expecting him to turn out to be subservient to some Bigger Bad, because he just didn’t seem as threatening as I expected from a primary antagonist.
There are certainly stories with villains who accomplish less. In plenty of kids’ media, the antagonists will be implicitly very powerful, but never accomplish much at all. But in the Enchanted Forest series, I felt like it was the reverse, that pretty much everything the wizards pulled off, they did with the odds stacked against them.
Even so, I felt like weaknesses of that magnitude really served to trivialize them as antagonists. The fact that they could be defeated with water with lemon and soap was already a demeaning vulnerability which took away a lot of the tension from any encounters with them. I thought that it would have improved their stock as villains if they researched some defense, and at a critical point where the protagonists tried to melt them with water, they revealed, “Hah, that will never work again!” But instead, the protagonists acquired an even more convenient method to defeat them, while the wizards retained their old vulnerability.
I liked the protagonists, but I got the impression that Patricia Wrede didn’t like her own antagonists; it wasn’t enough for them to lose, they had to be demeaned and trodden on.