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Bonus Podcast: Top Ten Fantasy Royals · Mythmakers

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  Welcome to MythMakers.
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  MythMakers is the podcast for fantasy fans and fantasy creators brought to you by the Oxford
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  Centre for Fantasy.
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  Hello, here at MythMakers we've been thinking of our fantasy top 10s and we're going to start
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  this week with top 10 fantasy royals.
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  In this week, where Oxford, along with the rest of the UK and the Commonwealth, celebrates
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  the extraordinary long reign of Elizabeth II, I thought it would be fun to pick out
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  the top 10 royals to appear in fantasy.
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  Now, I should start with a caveat.
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  I am not going to include fairy stories, as we would be awash in Prince Charmings and
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  Wohick Queens.
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  Instead, I'm going to think of the perennials who feature outside Fairyland.
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  Let's go in reverse order.
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  Coming in at number 10 is the King who rocked our world most recently and changed perceptions
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  in Hollywood as to who should start in fantasy films.
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  I'm talking about Charla, of course, aka the Black Panther.
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  The character had existed in the Marvel comic series since 1966, drenched up by Stan Lee
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  and Jack Kirby, but didn't really hit worldwide fame until the 2018 film starring the much missed
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  Chadwick Boseman.
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  I admit I wasn't a huge fan of the plot, as it seemed a little too close to Lion King
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  and Hamlet in structure, but the real pleasure and originality rested in other aspects of
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  the film.
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  I loved the evocation of an independent African kingdom, Wakanda.
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  It's some seriously kick ass women and amazing design.
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  Boseman was gentle and brave, great qualities for a king, though I also have a huge soft
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  spot for Shuri, played by Latisha Wright, his genius young sister, allowed on this list
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  as she is a princess of Wakanda.
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  However, most of all I and the millions who went to see it adored the fact that finally
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  a film dominated by an excellent black cast had blasted its way to the top of the box
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  office and changed society as a result.
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  That's the power of fantasy right there, allowing us to imagine the world in new ways.
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  Now to number 9.
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  Roelty can also be found in outer space.
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  At 9 on the list is Duke Leto Atredis.
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  I did debate with my husband if he was allowed in, but we decided that this was the equivalent
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  of a royal title as he clearly rules planets as well as his house.
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  After all the British royal princes are dukes, so there is a precedent of royal duchess.
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  He appeared first in Frank Herbert's June series and also on screen in adaptations of
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  the story.
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  Oscar Isaac is the most recent actor to take on the role in 2021.
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  He is a caring family man, tries to be a good and just leader, and ultimately sacrifices
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  all to protect those he loves.
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  He is also a tragic figure, in the mould of the ancient Greek heroes as signaled by his
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  name and the house iconography.
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  He is a modern priam, father and king of Troy, so we will let him stand for all the heroes
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  of that Greek tradition that could have also been on this list.
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  At number 8.
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  Moving back to the more familiar royal title of princess, I am staying in space.
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  My first most remarkable cinema experience was seeing Star Wars in 1977, now called
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  Star Wars 4 a new hope.
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  It might be hard for those born into a digital age to imagine the experience of seeing these
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  massive starships sailing overhead and onto the screen.
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  Don't tell me they were little models and clever lighting.
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  For me, they were the first time that I'd ever seen live action managed to transport the
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  audience somewhere else and believe it real for the duration of the film.
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  The storytelling was excellent in so many ways, with good use of humour to undercut getting
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  too self-important.
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  Here we come to number 8.
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  Princess Leia.
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  From the original posters you would think that she would be the sexy damsel in the tower
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  to be saved by the brave Prince Skywalker.
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  Yet, what does she do and she first meets her rescuers?
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  She tells them that they are short and complains about the lack of planning in the rescue.
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  From the outset, she is a political mover and shaker of the trio, knowing the politics
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  that Luke doesn't understand and hand solo despises.
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  She is the serious adult leader, not a pretty piece of armed candy, though it was a dip
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  in the series when she was used just like that as what looks like a sex slave to jab
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  at the hut in the third film.
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  Okay, teenage boys might have enjoyed the fantasy, but to us teen girls it was a letdown at
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  the time.
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  At least she gets to strangle the bad guy and go back to her white robes.
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  RIP Carrie Fisher, you were a trailblazer.
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  So now to number 7.
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  From princesses I'm turning to princes.
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  Please allow room on this list for the baddest bad guy of them all.
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  No, not Voldemort or Sauron, but Lucifer, the prince of darkness.
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  I'm talking here about his fictional appearances as opposed to religious.
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  You could argue that he appears first in Marlowe's Faust at 1604, but there he is the
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  tempter Mephistopheles rather than the scene stealing main character.
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  The most famous incarnation of this idea is Milton Satan from back in 1667.
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  He is the archetype of brooding hero.
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  He says, which way I fly is hell, myself am hell, and in the lowest deep a lower deep,
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  still threatening to devour me, opens wide to which the hell I suffer seems a heaven.
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  The anti-heroes of Marvel and DC, even a hero like Batman, have taken a page out of
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  this book.
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  His infernal energy threatens to destabilise the conventional religious messages of
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  paradise lost, tempting us to root for the bad guy, just a little.
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  That's why William Blake in the early 19th century said,
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  The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of angels and god, and at liberty,
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  when of devils and hell, is because he was a true poet and of the devil's party without
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  knowing it.
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  Others have borrowed this energy for their own fallen angels.
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  He glimmers in Frankenstein's creature, the gentleman vampires of Brahms Stoker and
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  Successors, even Darth Vader as Anakin Skywalker owes much to the fallen angel story arc.
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  Most recently he has appeared in a more comedic take on the concept, such as in Neil
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  Geiman and Terry Pratchett's Good Omen's, and the TV series Lucifer, which ran from 2016
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  to 2021 starring Tom Ellis, which is based on the DC comic character.
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  Coming in at number 6 is a role from another tradition, Japan.
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  One of the world's oldest systems of monarchy, it is not surprising to find princes and princesses
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  cropping up in Japanese culture.
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  I've picked on an unconventional role for this one, Princess Mononoki, a film from the
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  animation powerhouse Studio Ghibli, and made in 1997.
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  San is not a conventional lady, she was raised by walls and represents the forest fighting
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  back.
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  She is a warrior and forced to be reckoned with.
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  The journey is that of a hater of humankind, to finding love for one among them.
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  The prince Ashitaka, they eventually fight together to break a curse and bring healing
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  to their communities.
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  She is even less conventional than Mulan, having more in spirit to do with Mogli, that's
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  the original jungle book version, not the Disney one, able to unleash the forces of
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  the wild.
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  It is as well to remember that not all fancy royals living castles.
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  It would not be fair to let this list be dominated by movie versions of royals, so I would
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  thought I would bring in a Dutch classic by Paul Beagle, the king of the copper mountains,
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  written in 1964, as my number five.
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  It is a lovely children's storybook with connected tales told by different animal characters, who
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  were trying to keep the eponymous king alive while his doctor goes in search of a cure
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  for his heart condition.
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  Why is it worthy of a place on the list?
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  The king offers a different kind of leadership, loving, patient, welcoming to characters and
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  creatures as diverse as bees and a dragon.
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  It really is extremely charming and highly recommended if you are looking for a non-militaristic
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  king to share with your children.
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  It reminds me also of the little gem of an animation called the King's Beard, made
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  in 2002, written by Tony Collingwood, where, as the title suggests, the monarch's facial
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  hair is the problem for the quester to solve.
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  Unconventional and fun, it had my children singing the title song for years.
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  Let's remember that not all fantasy kings and queens have to be sword fighting heroes.
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  There are other kinds of courage and bravery.
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  So now to my number four.
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  We are remaining in unconventional territory for our fourth pick.
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  The Princess Bride by S. Morgan Stern, or really William Goldman, a 1973 novel, as well
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  as we should mention the film, from 1987, adapted by William Goldman.
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  I suspect many of us can quote lines from this cult film, but what about the Princess herself?
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  Buttercup is the heart of the story and not at all royal.
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  She is only a Princess bride because Prince Humberdink wants to marry her, and she only agrees
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  because she believes her true love is dead.
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  In some ways she is the archetypal Princess, beautiful and needs a lot of saving, but
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  that is the point.
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  The story takes the archetypes and then has ridiculous fun with them, spoofing the things
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  it loves, which is a fairy tale romance.
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  And of course the story itself is a story within a story.
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  The reading of it is hilarious as the commentator realises he was remembered only the good parts
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  and left out all the commentary and politics.
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  So Buttercup doesn't become a royal, she rides off into the sunset with Wesley.
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  Oh well, so we hope, even here the happy ending is undercut, but she is a wonderful fan
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  to see almost Princess.
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  Now we arrive at the top three.
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  The list would be instantly rejected if it did not find a place for King Arthur.
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  The most enduring are fantasy kings.
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  From the early medieval versions of this mythic King, via Mallory, the Victorian, such as
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  Tennyson, to T.H. White's once and future King, and even the bromance version in the BBC
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  Merlin, Arthur keeps coming back.
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  If you want a discussion of the Arthur legend, do listen to Mythmaker's Season 2, 30th of
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  May, where Dr. Gabriel Shenkenai discuss the literary appearances of Arthur.
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  Do you have a favourite?
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  Arthur himself is usually the royal hub around which the other stories revolve, but I did
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  enjoy his appearance in Merlin, because you saw the friendship grow with the young Merlin,
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  full of banter and adventure.
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  The young Arthur, that's walt, in T.H. White, is also very relatable, taking his training
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  from an eccentric wizard who is growing backwards, like Benjamin Button.
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  This is no Scorum experience, but being transformed into birds and fish to understand
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  the world around him.
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  Arthur represents an ideal of chivalry in a time that never really existed, but is alive
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  and well in fancy worlds.
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  Fancy monarchs wouldn't be the same without him.
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  I debated with myself about first and second place, and decided in the end to rank them
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  by what I once thought was the epitome of kingship, and what I now think might be best.
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  As a child I loved the idea of going into a world where, of course, I would be a king
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  or queen.
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  So at number two, enter Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevansy, once a king or queen of
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  Narnia, always a king or queen of Narnia.
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  They are given their titles by the son of the Emperor over the seas, Aslan, as he is
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  the supreme king in C.S. Lewis's world, and what a king he is, a bane and fur to stroke,
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  a roar that echoes across the land, a breath that can undo evil spells.
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  To be with him is like playing with a thunder storm, or playing with a kitten, according
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  to Lucy.
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  Now, I might wonder why one of the very competent beasts couldn't have sat on the thrones
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  at Care Paravelle, but the fantasy felt right to the eight-year-old who would be playing
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  dressing-up princesses.
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  I imagine Lewis was reflecting on the privilege we have as sons of Adam and daughters of
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  Eve, made in God's image, but still it is a powerful make-believe, and one that is
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  hard to beat.
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  Like any good fantasy, it includes its own end.
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  You come back through the wardrobe from your time as kings and queens to resume ordinary
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  life, but you must keep the Narnian experience alive in your heart so that you act with
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  the values you learned there.
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  Who gets to be number one?
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  No surprises when the Oxford Centre for Fantasy, which is dedicated to Tolkien, that we pick
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  one of his kings and queens.
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  He is not blinkered about the corruption that monarchical power can bring.
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  The ring-race will once lords and kings, but he does give us one perfect king, Aragon.
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  He is the Renaissance ideal of a monarch, learned, cultured, able to fight, fair and just.
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  I think though that for me he makes the spot because he has a sense of humour and doesn't
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  grow too big for his boots.
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  He names his house Tell Conta, which means Strider in Kenya, the name by which he was known
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  somewhat slightly in the north.
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  These qualities were well brought out by Vigo Mortison in his portrayal of this hero king
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  in Peter Jackson's trilogy.
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  Vigo made up his own tunes and sang them to Tolkien's words in honour of the character,
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  something those who have the extended edition will remember.
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  But perhaps above all, Aragon shows the quality of friendship or fellowship.
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  In the appendices we read that it is Mary and Pippin who lie beside him on his deathbed
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  on little beds of their own.
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  He remembered that little folk even to the end of his glorious days.
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  Maybe that is the ultimate fantasy, that there would be such a perfect leader.
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  Knowing real-life characters are more likely to be flawed, I think we should probably stick
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  with democracy and constitutional monarchies, like Lisbon II, rather than hope to find Aragon's
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  to rule us all.
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