"Strong female character test" Lord Yu (An Ominous Book)

 On the next entry to this fun self-assessment writing activity, I have to begin veering towards supporting characters because there isn't a lot of female main characters in the series.

Why is this?

Well, because I love centering a huge portion of the plot around the Äimite Guard which due to its stringent training requirements, has a horrible gender imbalance where only 8% of the guards being female at the most.

So chances are I will start to see plenty of less important characters failing this test.

Lord Yu espouses the kind of nobleelf Lord Spaulding detests because she is living proof the Red Clan's unique Clan Leader selection criteria based on hair color is a terrible idea.

And yet despite garnering little respect in the mainland, her people love and respect her and she seems far smarter than what you'd think.

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1. Does the character shape her own destiny? Does she actively try to change her situation and if not, why not?

Lord Yu knows she is the next in line to inherit leadership of her clan. Her mother Tesra is dying of heart disease and she has pretty much already taken over duties as the clan's official figurehead.

Far less abrasive than Tesra, Yu uses her mother's terminal illness as the perfect excuse not to visit the mainland during the nation's most important ceremony in Book 3. This is with the purpose of training Richard and Vincent without unwanted prying eyes.

In book 1, Lord Spaulding warned her not to open the magical chest and showed the scar tissue on his arms as proof of its inherent danger. Against all common sense, Yu decided to veer inside.

At first sight, one would argue Yu's decisions are done under her free will without coercion. Sadly a spoiler from Book 3 proves this is not entirely true. And so she loses half a point.

Points: 0.5/1

2. Does she have her own goals, beliefs and hobbies? Did she come up with them on her own?

She wants to assist Lord Spaulding and Richard. She helps Spaulding free of charge because she is fond of him (mostly because they are the only clan leaders we meet early in the story that are mortal), whereas she finds Richard to be cute looking and believes he deserves to recover his rightful place as the king of Ayrtain.

Her beliefs are quite straightforward, but as I mention in question 1, her free will is not entirely preserved. There is no way to know if she agreed to any of the things she does in the story outside of taking the magical chest to the Elf King's palace.

We also never discover what she does in her free time.

So...

Points: 0/1

3. Is her character consistent? Do her personality or skills change as the plot demands?

Yu is a master in deceit and takes advantage of being viewed as an obnoxious clown so that King Salman never sees her as a real threat. A lot of this behavior seems to be an act.

Being raised by Tesra likely had an influence. She knows perfectly well she can barter the Elf King's cooperation under the constant threat of letting human armies enter the kingdom's territorial waters and wreak havoc. I doubt Yu would go so far because she doesn't seem to detest Lord Froylan like her mother does, but it's a good way to keep the kingdom from meddling into her personal affairs which helps move the plot forward.

Points: 1/1

4. Can you describe her in one short sentence without mentioning her love life, her physical appearance, or the words ‘strong female character’?

The incessantly loud and boisterous heiress to the obtuse Red Clan that likes to set her own rules.

Points: 1/1

5. Does she make decisions that aren’t influenced by her love life?

Despite the seemingly innapropriate flirting on Spaulding (which was more of a prank than anything serious), she agreed to take the magical chest to the capital as a personal favor to her friend... and to satiate her curiosity because she wanted to confirm whether the artifact was as dangerous as Spaulding claims.

I still have a hunch a lot of the things she did for Richard was because she was attracted to him.

Points: 0.5/1

6. Does she develop over the course of the story?

In this respect, sadly not enough. She proves a veil of increased distrust of the government when she hopelessly watches Spaulding's brutal flogging. Even though she skipped further visits to the capital to protest Spaulding's suffering, by this time in the story, her actions are not fully governed by her willpower, and so I sadly can't give her any points. 😢

Points: 0/1

7. Does she have a weakness?

I would suppose laughing so loud that makes icicles in the ceiling fall to the ground could be counted as that. Add a dabble of being crass and sprinkles of overconfidence when it comes to underestimating dangerous magical artifacts and she is definitely no Mary Sue.

Points: 1/1

8. Does she influence the plot without getting captured or killed?

Yu moves the story forward in book 3. First she trains Richard and his servant Vincent even though she knows she could get arrested if the guard finds out Richard is in the country. She gives both humans money and a map to the place where they will encounter Lord Spaulding. She later on asks her mother to send her phantom beast to the mainland to invite Richard to her city for an important message that drives the plot forward.

And sadly... well. Despite all of her contributions to the plot, she has to get a half point due to a... well, that is a spoiler.

Points: 0.5/1

9. How does she relate to stereotypes about gender?

Yu learned from her mom to make her own rules. She can flirt with anyone she wants (even an underage human! Yikes!), doesn't care what the mainlanders think about her, and still she has a good fashion sense that frequently makes men stutter.

She knows she has curves and is not ashamed to flaunt them. Might go overboard a bit.

Points: 0.5/1

10. How does she relate to other female characters?

Yu seldom visits the mainland due to geographical constraints outside of her duty to the Elf King to be present during the New Year Festival and so she doesn't have a lot of chances to interact with the main cast.

She doesn't spend much time interacting with Nelida and is instead flirting with her brother Richard. Yu found the girl to be cute but most of the scant conversation was surrounded on her frequent taunts directed at poor Spaulding.

Yu has a nice relationship with her mother Tesra albeit due to Tesra's illness, we don't have a lot of chances to see this in action.

Even though Yu knows Seiran pretty well, Seiran has a far stronger relationship with Tesra and thus they are just amicable acquaintances at best.

Points: 0.5/1

**********

The score is in! Yu gets a... 6.5. 😨

Sooo... I guess she barely squirmed into a ⭐⭐⭐ score. It isn't like... terrible given she only appears briefly in the story, but the test sure is enlightening.

Better luck next time, Yu!