A Strong Female Character
Why is Garia no Asteria taking so long?
The Garia no Asteria fan novel, the first of the series, is a novelisation of our friend group's private Ren'py project, started as a joke. Most of the spunk and romance idea came from an anime inspiration, of which was イジらないで、長瀞さん. It follows the storyline of the first album with a, well, Romantic subplot, pun intended.
The story's heroine Asteria is a fan-adapted genderswap of the titular Asterix, with her own quirks in personality and backstory that made sense in-universe. The anime tribute comes from her relentless bullying of Romans. An affectionate type of bullying: not outright cruelty, but relentless poking at insecurities, enjoying the fluster and panic, turning fear into something almost entertaining for her while the victim spirals.
In earlier drafts, what would be written in Chapter 2 later on, ran the encounter as present-tense continuous action in Chapter 1 — straight narration of Asteria cornering the recruit after the ambush. The decision for this change was simple. For one, it's limiting the front-loading too much of Asteria's dominance right after the ambush setup. It was also done to soften perceived sadism quite a bit, in a way that fits the aforementioned anime inspiration without tipping her into outright villain territory.
Strong Female Character as a Trope
Cheers to the one fellow in our group that pointed out the potential flaw of my fan adaptation and characterisation of the titular hero. Yes, Asteria is a strong female character. Undeniably, and if you could reason good enough an ox-trader to trade his own cart, has Mary Sue-ish traits.
However, it does raises flags for "Strong Female Character" trait, and I'm willing to address some issues here.
The potion makes her effortlessly superior in combat and had been treated like the legendary hero the story echoes. Readers could easily spot the hallmarks. As a reader myself, I might find that really annoying. It's the kind of setup that, in YA fantasy or modern blockbusters, often gets slapped with the label: perfect warrior woman who never truly struggles, never doubts her place, never faces a real cost to her strength, the whole checklist.
Do I ever intend to write the heroine ever demean or emasculate all men in this story? No. She doesn't blanket-target Gaulish men with mockery or contempt. It's an enemy-specific ribbing in a comic world where Romans exist to be humiliated, or whatever flavour the villains of the week needing a good roast.
Does she rebel against tradition or her perceived culture for the sake of being a rebel? Again, no. Asteria embraces the core Gaulish identity. Her "rebellion" is the village's collective defiance against Roman occupation — the same as in the originals. And the only personal break from cultural norms was dressing up similarly as the original in manly clothing. Strength comes from thriving within her culture, not smashing it to borrow masculine-coded rebellion tropes. In short, I'd just written her as a tomboy. That's it.
Asteria isn't crafted as an overt feminist character in the way that term often implies a deliberate agenda or symbolic stand against patriarchy. After all, it's a story that's all in lighthearted fun.
But at the end of the day, the reader can get away deciding if she's a feminist character whether I'd like it or not. And if they had, they might not like the upcoming fan-adaptation of and the Secret Weapon (1991) story.
Novel status
I am currently in the editing phase of the Garia no Asteria and took a brief break. All two chapters are done, which happened to be the hardest part of the novel to edit and finalise.
To conclude this blog, might I remind that this story is indeed one of the few titles in the series to have Romantic subplots. Happy Valentines day!
-Hagetafix
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