Mundie Moms

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Reason #101 Why I Love Cassie!

Early this week there was a firestorm over the reasoning why behind Tessa's win the Heronine Tournament vs Katniss. I'm not going to post links, but the girls who run YA Sisterhood, who created the tournament even came out and posted about it, which is sad that drama was caused over something that's supposed to be fun (yes I would have said that regardless of the outcome of that tournament).

Tonight while reading through Twitter I found a Q&A from Cassie via Tumblr and I just wanted to share what the question was and Cassie's well written response.

I noticed that more fans (based on the comments section anyway), voted for your "heroines" not because of the qualities they possess that actually might make them heroines, but because they like the one male character over another. Or because they want to see a kissing scene from one boy's point of view over another. Kinda cheapens the whole, "Clary's a true heroine" thing, doesn't it? Next time, maybe offer an incentive that's actually about the heroine, and not her boyfriend, SVP.

If that’s the case, perhaps you’d like to explain to me why Clary (who won the tournament) also got the most votes in the nominations round of the tournament when no incentive, spoilers, or free content was offered? Is it really all that much of a shock that the character that won more nominations that any other character when nominations were opened went on to win the tournament? If you look at the order of the nominations, they play out almost exactly how the tournament played out, incentives or not.

As for the rest — “heroines”? Yes, they are. Because of that, the books are primarily told from their points of view — these are, after all, Tessa and Clary’s stories — which is why the hero’s point of view is a change and an opportunity to see these smart, strong, powerful girls from the point of view of the men who love them; to see the reasons they love them at an emotionally charged and significant moment for their development.

I don’t think it has nothing to do with the heroine; I don’t think romance cheapens what it means to be a heroine, and — for instance — I would have jumped at the chance to see a scene about Katniss from Peeta’s point of view written by Suzanne because those books are told in first person from Katniss’ viewpoint and I’d love to see her from outside. Are you really telling me you wouldn’t?

“Next time, maybe offer an incentive that’s actually about the heroine, and not her boyfriend, SVP.”

There isn’t going to be a next time. As has been made clear already by the YA Sisterhood, characters who win one tournament are not eligible for the next one. While certainly Tessa will be eligible next time, she will have to fight it out without me, because if this round of events has been anything to go by, involving myself will subject me and my fans to harassment over an tournament whose prize is … an invisible internet pony? There’s no money or benefit at stake here; I made the offer to write the scenes because I liked the idea of celebrating heroines —they mean a lot to me — and because my readers mean a lot to me, too! And because they do, I have no real desire to see them get treated like punching bags for following the rules of a tournament as they were set out. I’ll find another way of involving them in games to pass the time and giving them free content. Suggestions welcome. :)

And now back to writing the greenhouse scene.


I'm turning the comments off with this post, because there's nothing more to say about it. Cassie said all there needs to be said about it. And GREENHOUSE SCENE! I can't wait to read that!!!

Speaking of tournaments, who did you vote for in the Clary vs Tessa one? I honestly coped out and didn't vote. I couldn't choose between the two of them.

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