External and Internal Evil in Monstress

 Miguel Cervantes

10/25/17   

          Reading through Monstress, I’m tempted to envision the following scenario:  Marjorie Liu is working on the antagonists of Monstress, looking at the bad guys and girls of the epic realm she is creating, honing their temperaments, their lusts, their failings and those redeeming qualities too, all in the name of populating Maiki Halfwolf’s sweeping journey with tests and obstacles that will cause us to gasp and swoon as we turn every page. 

She is quite successful in this endeavor – it’s hard for us to pick a side (humans or arcanics) with a clean conscience.  Both factions of this world have committed horrible acts against the other, usually in the name of self-preservation, but we are taken aback nonetheless.  There are no entirely clean hands in this world, and Marjorie is really satisfied with the panoply of villains, half-villains and rogues that traipse about her newly crafted world. 

But then she comes to the question of the ultimate evil.  Left to their own devices, the villains of Monstress present a pretty compelling force.  In order to discover the truth behind her mother’s death and her own origins Maika must confront and overcome a history of animosity between the two races, the politics of power-hungry individuals and her own inner demons. 

And it’s right there that she pauses. 

As things stand, Maika must utilize every tool at her disposal to outwit and outgun her opponents.  It’s a fairly imposing battlefield: standing between Maikia and the truth are centuries of old animosity-laden traditions and legions of strong-arms and sharp blades.  If evil was expressed in this way we’d no doubt walk away quite happy, content to be swept away by the drama, the violence and its ultimate resolution. 

But Marjorie is wondering, ‘What could make things even more dramatic?’ What could take this journey beyond the world of fantasy I’ve created and make things personal, connecting with the reader on a level where the mind is most curious and most vulnerable?’ 

Then it comes to her.  Put the ultimate evil inside her.  Take the twisted, corrupt essence of an old Lovecraft-ian god and put it inside Maika herself, personify it as a mass of dark tendrils brimming with eyeballs and then….let it wreak havoc on the world she’s created.  Let it destroy and consume everything in its path.  Let it become a part of Maika, nearly indistinguishable from our heroine, and leave it up to the reader to decide just how good our heroine really is.  And when all is said and done, regardless of the ending, leave it to the reader to decide just how separate they really are from the evil that lurks within. 

It’s a fantastic way of going about things because when we start to look at the evil inside ourselves - you can think of it as the shadow-self, the alter-ego or our inimical, latent Hydes just waiting to burst forth – you begin to explore an entirely different aspect of the heroes’ journey that reaches beyond the scope of the traditional antagonist, placing a very special quest in front of the hero, who must determine where they stand in the great spectrum of right and wrong.  Are they a steadfast proponent of good, ready to help the needy, the weak and the oppressed?  If so, how will they accomplish these goals – through violence, diplomacy or deception?  Just how far are they willing to go to accomplish their own ends? 

Do things like morality, honor and justice pose hindrances to their quest, or are they more akin to flexible tools, providing just the right amount of leeway in situations that call for a flexible point of view?  These are just some of the questions that Marjorie had to consider when placing the old, awakened god of (presumably) evil inside Maika Halfwolf.  And here’s the brilliant part: just as Marjorie had to consider each and every one of these questions, so to do her readers.  We are horrified at the violence of Maika’s world.  For every ounce magic, wonder and history there are equal parts horror and injustice.  We don’t know quite where we stand at first, and as Maika’s journey unfolds and our sympathies begin to latch on we find the evil inside her forcing her to do horrific things, things that we have to come to terms with, deciding for ourselves just how justified and aligned our sympathies truly are. 

Maika herself is diametrically opposed to the evil emerging from within her.  She runs from it, tears at her own skin, screaming for the evil essence to leave her once and for all.  She considers it a foreign entity through and through, both in its physical and mental presence.  Midway through the story we find Maika running desperately through the forest at night, calling out to the evil that haunts her, “You’re a dream, you’re nothing.  Just leave me -- -- alone!” 

And yet we have to wonder, does Maika really want to be free of this evil thing?  We get to witness many instances where the so-called ‘evil’ actually rescues her from situations that would otherwise result in severe injury or death for her or her friends.  The evil saves her from all manner of tradition evil-doers whose goal is to either capture, torture or kill Maika.  She denies it, calls it out, threatens it, curses it, and yet it does not forsake her.  It empowers her, even as it grows in hunger and a desire for independence. 

Maika can speak with this evil god, she can reason with it, but as her quest continues it becomes clear that the central issue is control.  Even more than figuring out what this evil entity is and how it came to reside in her, Maikia desires control over it.  It is intolerable to have two separate wills inhabiting the same body.  She’d get rid of it if she could, destroy it.  But the more we read, the more we come to realize that Maika must first come to terms with it, recognize in some way, even fleetingly, that this evil is a reflection of herself, that the old God and its immense hunger for destruction is not so separate from Maika as she may think, and that in order to begin to control this power she must acknowledge it as a part of herself.  As a part of everyone. 

Indeed, we can see throughout the world that most of the characters in Monstress wear their evil on their sleeve.  There is death, torture and dismemberment, all of it coming from an open and directly expressed desire for power or dominion.  Maika (as well as a few of her friends) are different in that they want something better for themselves.  They want answers to questions, respite from violence and the reassurance of a safer future.  Most of the characters that Maika and her friends run into don’t hold to the same philosophy, allowing their lust and hatred to shine outwardly.  In most cases this gives them the upper hand, at least initially.  It’s not until Maika has been pushed to the breaking point or is in imminent danger of dying that the evil inside her emerges in force, destroying all opposition around her. 

It’s quite a dynamic, somewhat akin to a ‘get out of jail free’ card that sweeps the board clean each and every time, allowing Maika and her companions to continue their quest.  It is left to Maika to determine how much she’ll embrace this evil, even as she strives to understand and control it.  It becomes the journey itself, one that begins and ends within her.  I have a feeling too, that many who read Monstress will be prompted, as I have, to ponder that darker aspect of ourselves, examining with an open and honest eye the accumulation of thoughts and emotions that swirl around inner ideologies of death and destruction.  If the monster inside of us all is acknowledge and embraced, does it consume us, or do we integrate it back into our entire self, becoming whole once again?