There's a certain trope that shows up a lot in spy thrillers and action movies involving a retired badass who only gets back into the game because of a threat to his family. Movies like _Taken_ exemplify the trend, although I generally prefer movies like _The 355_ where the badass is at least allowed to have a family and they're only threatened at the end (sigh). Stuff like the Bechdel Test focuses on how many women show up in the story and whether they talk about anything other than a man. It's important for our society to tell stories that are by women, for women, and involve things women care about — in addition to those for men. Personally, though, I tend to be more aware of what our media says about relationships, particularly long-term relationships. I've written before about [heroes and parenting](https://newsletter.eleanorkonik.com/heroes-and-parenting/) %% ( [[2016-07-18 Heroes and Parenting]] ) %% and why Hawkeye was historically my favorite Avenger, but when writing _Bind_ I was mostly thinking about how in many stories women just weren't around, at least not in meaningful numbers. Or if they were, they weren't significant. It's not ahistorical, of course. For every [whaling ship in the arctic that travelled with families aboard](https://www.ctinsider.com/connecticutmagazine/article/Dramatic-Discovery-of-Two-Whaleships-Lost-in-17039612.php), there's [a Polynesian ship where the women stayed on shore](https://theconversation.com/the-viral-wellerman-sea-shanty-is-also-a-window-into-the-remarkable-cross-cultural-whaling-history-of-aotearoa-new-zealand-153634) farming and handling the other half of the business necessary to allow their menfolk to hunt. For every king whose wife went on campaign — [Isabella, she-wolf of France](https://thefreelancehistorywriter.com/2022/04/15/isabella-of-france-queen-of-england/), [Catherine of Aragon casually stomping Scotland while her husband was off galivanting across the channel](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/when-catherine-aragon-led-englands-armies-victory-over-scotland-180975982/) — there are many more whose royal wives stayed home and managed affairs of state in their castle. It's something I'm always _aware_ of, though, in a way that many narratives just never bother to pay attention to. Perhaps because the Western philosophical tradition owes a lot to Athens, and [Athenian philosophers were pretty terrible husbands](https://classicalwisdom.com/people/philosophers/five-reasons-socrates-terrible-husband/), which I'm given to understand was pretty [common among the Athenian upper-crust](http://www.womenintheancientworld.com/whatathenianmensaid.htm) in general. Especially since getting married and having a kid, I try to pay special attention to when reading stories (historical *or* fictional) about soldiers and sailors and raiders and, well, anyone, is the impact of familial relationships on their lives. It's really given me a new perspective on comparing philosophers like Kant & John Stuart Mill, or rulers like the Emperors [Justinian](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_2E0RxVHH4&list=PLhyKYa0YJ_5Aq7g4bil7bnGi0A8gTsawu&index=28) (whose actually listened to his surprisingly awesome wife, Theodora) versus Marcus Aurelius (last of the Five Good Emperors, and the first one to appoint his actual blood soon as his heir, which I bet are related phenomena...). %% [[arctic whalers traveled with their families]] & [[The Viral ‘Wellerman’ Sea Shanty Is Also a Window Into the Remarkable Cross-Cultural Whaling History of Aotearoa New Zealand by Kate Stevens]] %% Being honest, _Bind_ isn't really any better in that regard — certainly the Alpha's wife doesn't make an appearance. I think it means something to me that Camfelder at least _tried_ to prioritize his family over duty. That's the trope I'm a real sucker for, and I think it's one of the reasons I really love stories where people colonize a new world — the narrative usually considers building a functioning family to be a critical component of that goal, instead of a threat to it being the inciting incident, or the wedding being the _end_ of the story. Unfortunately, since I wrote [The Impossible Knife](https://newsletter.eleanorkonik.com/the-impossible-knife/) %% ( [[2021-11-03 The Impossible Knife (DRAFT)]] ) %% before _Bind,_ Camfelder's story does not have a happy ending. I think he'd be happy to know, though, that his daughter does eventually manage to escape the clutches of the mage-counselors, even if he himself could not.