Art by zeldyn
Sometimes, a character will really get under your skin. You can’t make up your mind whether you love or hate them. Your feelings can be narrowly divided by the blade of a sword. I have always had mixed feelings about this character. Every time I read the books I equally admire and hate her. Maybe one of these days I will make up my mind about her.
Warning: spoilers ahead!
Stats:
Full Name: Melisande Shahrizai de la Courcel
Age: 23 when we first meet her
Occupation: Villain, biggest traitor in Terre D’Ange
Who is She?
Melisande is the main antagonist in the first two books in the Kushiel’s Legacy series by Jacqueline Carey. The next four books see her a bereft mother and then a shadowy character haunting the existence of her son Imriel. Melisande is a woman without morals and for the sheer pleasure of playing games she wants to rule the kingdom. The words beautiful and deadly can be used to best describe the character. Her evil plots are often foiled by Phèdre and Joscelin.
“Oh, love and hate are two sides of the same blade… and an edge finer honed than yon Cassiline’s blade divides them.” – Melisande Shahrizai, Kushiel’s Dart
Art by FloraTasartir
Why So Crushworthy?
Melisande is the woman everyone wanted. She even has a Prince going against his family to be with her. She’s smart, beautiful, and cunning. She can match wits with anyone. She’s often one move ahead in her schemes of betrayal. I admire how much intelligence she has. She isn’t one just to rely on her looks. Melisande has whatever the female equivalent of swag is. She would capture the attention of everyone she meets. People want to do things for her. Melisande has the amorality that every good villain needs. She doesn’t have any hangups about using blackmail and assassins. Melisande wants to takeover Terre D’Ange for the mere reason just to see if she can. “Hate the game, not the player” would be her motto.
Why So Cringeworthy?
I think one my biggest reasons for not liking her is how Phèdre loses her brains when Melisande is around. Phèdre turns into a puddle of ooze when she’s around Melisande. I didn’t like her effect on Phèdre. I know Phèdre is her foil and they have some deep, god-bound connection but I still didn’t like the dynamic sometimes. Another point against Melisande is that she never gets her hands dirty. She uses other people to do her dirty deeds for her. She just stands behind the scenes and controls the action from there. I think if you are going to be a villain you have to be willing to play in the mud. Still, she’s smart enough to not have to. She never got her comeuppance either. Some would argue that Imriel getting kidnapped was divine punishment. I would have liked to have seen her pay a little for her crimes. I mean, the woman lived out the rest of her days in a beautiful, Mediterranean island. There is no justice!
While I agree with pretty much all you have to say about Melisande, she does kind of redeem herself at the end (to an extent, no one will ever forget that she DID try to have Ysandre assassinated), in assisting Imriel in his quest to save Sidonie from Astegal of Carthage and Bodeshmun’s spells. Imriel comes to her ready to take her back to Terre D’Ange in chains to be executed, and still she helps him, knowing it could still mean her death in the end.
I vote totally crushworthy. In the same way that many women are said to fall for men that they hope to “fix”, I see Melisande as the same. I’d expect the same outcome but, being a strong willed man, it seems a challenge of worth. She is so awe-inspiring and capable of achieving anything, which is only accentuated by how deeply broken she is. It’s very difficult to view her and not long for what she could offer, and as you get to know her, you can see more and more how a few changes in perspective could help her achieve the loftiest of her goals. You see how part of her longs to learn temperance. How she fails to realize what it takes to travel the longer route when it leads to more compassion. How those that bend, can never break. How losing is sometimes winning. How love can be worth the cost and how love can be the better reward. She teeters on the edge of learning and knowing all these things, but always succumbs to weaknesses she can never accept. This is partly why she longs for Phedre, who could teach her these values, but in her arrogance, she instead always tries to teach Phedre her own perspective and thus loses every time. To me, she has never been the villain but a victim of her own making.
@Erebus
Melisande is not a victim. She made her own choices fully according to her own values and lack there off. I think this wanting to fix her is more fantasy than anything you can logically reason out. She will never be what you want her to be just because it’s what you would need in order to have a relationship with her. You can argue she is wrong, but it doesn’t make her a child who’s actions you can excuse as being “she doesn’t know any better.”