Of Moogles.

[auronlu]

While updating the Shrine, I found myself smiling again at muggy_mountain's "?!?". It's so CUTE.

Which brings me back to the thing that threw me off Lulu most back when I started, besides her name, which made me think of a French poodle.



I am not much for cute. The irony of a death-and-brimstone strong female character with a cute squishy doll doesn't escape me, but I am suspicious of cute anime sidekicks anyway (unless in Vampire Princess Miyu, where it's a parody with bloodshot eyes and teensy little fangs), and I am especially suspicious of strong female characters being "defanged". It would be like putting little smiley faces on Auron's sword.

I became somewhat more reconciled to the Moogles when someone pointed out to me that they are like Shinto nature spirits. Totoro and such.

Nevertheless, I gloss over Lulu's Moogles as though they don't exist, when I write. I like the idea that it's her magic, her power, her skill.

A lot of other writers do as well. Yet a few have included Moogles (not least saharasnow, who is an artist when it comes to dolls) to good effect.

I wonder what other folks' thoughts are about the Lu Moogle.

Comments

[owlmoose.livejournal.com]

There's a concept I've heard of elsewhere in magical/fantasy literature about mages having some sort of object through which they focus their power. That's sort of how I always thought of Lulu and her Moogle -- the doll doesn't contain the power, it merely acts as a conduit to help Lulu harness her own innate magic. That's my vague sense of it, anyway.

I haven't written Lulu enough to really deal with the dolls, but when I have I also tend to ignore them. If she was able to choose her own talisman, I do have to wonder why (besides the game designers' need to work a Moogle in there somewhere) she picked something so fluffy.