Thursday, September 19, 2019

The Lay of Lady Percival Countdown Post: Guinevere

Guinevere has almost as many different versions as Merlin.

In some stories there's an attempt to make a feminist "Strong Female Character" Guinevere by casting her as a warrior queen who fights alongside her husband. The most famous example of this is probably King Arthur (2004) which became the lesbian date movie of that year (trust me, it did) likely because of a scantily-dressed Keira Knightley as a Pictish Guinevere.

Guinevere is very seldom portrayed positively, and when she is it tends to be that same warrior queen perspective. She is adulterous and/or bigamous. Sometimes she is outright wicked, in the fairy tale sense. Modern authors sometimes change this...arguing that it's all Lancelot's fault or that she was already in a relationship with him when she met Arthur. The BBC show Merlin has her as a pauper princess who becomes a good queen.

My Guinevere is an antagonist, and not always a nice person, but she is not wicked. She is a devout Christian who wants to convert everyone (and at one point is trying to marry off most of the single men at Camelot). She is a good queen, but she is burdened by childlessness and a loveless, political marriage. And yes, she has affairs...because people who are trapped in loveless, political marriages tend to.

I have always seen Guinevere as a tragic figure, but not a wicked or evil one.

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