Thorns

You can’t put themes of fealty and anti-imperialism in the same narrative box is a really interesting post, discussing the problem in the context of the Vorkosigan saga but generally worth reading.

If you wanted to put them together, and somehow do both of them justice, I think you’d have two choices:

- Positively-presented fealty angle with the Barrayarans (or at least the Vor Barrayarans) but realistically and narratively terrible actions vis-a-vis the Komarrans and the proles. Which is to say, you have created a subset of the Feudal Fantasy register within a larger picture of Realistic Ack. Many, many people will be lovely to those they consider worthy (or Us), and awful to those they consider not (or Them), so this isn’t a stretch at all. You could re-write VS canon into this mold without too much trouble, I think, but you’d need a lot more narrative criticism of the MCs than you get from LMB.

- Fealty angle where the colonized/vassal desperately wants that relationship to actually work as advertised, perhaps to the point of willful blindness, but, of course, it doesn’t. This is Realistic Ack register all the way down, and probably chock full of whump and angst. This is maybe what I was trying to do with Duv, but I’m not sure I can actually manage it.

- I don’t think you can do anti-imperialism in the Feudal Fantasy register at all (since part of the premise is that feudalism, and by extension imperialism, aren’t inherently bad), but I’m open to ideas.

One other approach I’ve enjoyed is Fealty is Fatally Flawed But Tragically Beautiful, set during the inevitable collapse of feudalism, and not saying that collapse shouldn’t happen, but still wallowing in the appeal of what feudalism remains. So vassals still feel that delicious fealty, but the actual power imbalance is in the process of disappearing. You can show how even the Nice Feudal Lords screw up, but since their power is waning it’s easier to forgive them for it, and there’s no way to fall into the Vorkosigan Saga trap of just giving the Nice Feudal Lords all the power and calling that utopia.

EDIT: Ok it has been pointed out to me that this is EXACTLY as romanticising, it's just a SAD romance. FINE.
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