{"id":7849,"date":"2012-11-27T07:42:16","date_gmt":"2012-11-27T12:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/?p=7849"},"modified":"2012-12-01T05:02:13","modified_gmt":"2012-12-01T10:02:13","slug":"trope-tuesday-space-cossacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/trope-tuesday-space-cossacks\/","title":{"rendered":"Trope Tuesday: Space Cossacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I’m going to take a break from the hero’s journey trope posts for a while, until I have the time to do them justice. \u00a0In the meantime, let’s have a little fun.<\/p>\n

Some of my favorite science fiction stories are the ones about a culture of nomadic starfaring people wandering the universe in search of a new homeworld. \u00a0Earth is usually a half-forgotten legend<\/a>, and their starships have probably seen better days<\/a>. \u00a0On tvtropes, the page for these stories is Space Cossacks, named after a real world culture<\/a>\u00a0in historic Russia\u00a0that basically experienced the same thing, albeit on a terrestrial scale.<\/p>\n

The description of this trope on the tvtropes page is so good, I’m just going to repost it here. \u00a0Seriously, every one of those cross links is worthy of your click.<\/p>\n

There is no hope and\u00a0You Can’t Go Home Again<\/a>.\u00a0The Empire<\/a>\u00a0is spreading out. Even\u00a0The Federation<\/a>\u00a0has too many\u00a0Obstructive Bureaucrats<\/a>. There is no way for free men to get out of the reaches of\u00a0The Government<\/a>\u00a0and even mounting\u00a0La R\u00e9sistance<\/a>\u00a0will be of no avail.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So what do you do? You become\u00a0Space Cossacks<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You flee to the border and live in a tough area where you all\u00a0have to be sharp.<\/a>\u00a0You set up as\u00a0Space Pirates<\/a>\u00a0or as\u00a0Hired Guns<\/a>\u00a0or as\u00a0Intrepid Merchants<\/a>. Or all of these at once.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With you are various dissidents like people who feared being\u00a0Made a Slave<\/a>. There might be a\u00a0Noble Fugitive<\/a>\u00a0or two, perhaps even a\u00a0Defector from Decadence<\/a>. You and your brave band of\u00a0Fire-Forged Friends<\/a>\u00a0will struggle on to survive and maintain your freedom and heed no laws but your own.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One of the things that I think should qualify a story for this trope is that the society of space cossacks is just that: a community of people who share at least a few cultural bonds. \u00a0Battlestar Galactica<\/em> definitely qualifies, but I’m a little on the fence as to Firefly<\/em>, since that story is more or less about a ragtag band<\/a> of failed revolutionaries<\/a>. \u00a0Are the Browncoats all from the same culture, like the Kurds or the Circassians or the Ossetians, or are they just a pologlot group of frontiersmen from all over the settled worlds? \u00a0Does it even matter?<\/p>\n

In the end, I suppose it doesn’t. \u00a0The spirit of this trope is a lot like that of Fighting for a Homeland<\/a>: a bunch of displaced underdogs<\/a>\u00a0on the fringes of civilization trying to make their way in the universe. \u00a0The nature of the conflict is such that by the end, they can’t help but form their own distinct subculture.<\/p>\n

I don’t know why I love this trope so much. \u00a0Maybe it has to do with the way it blends elements from the Western genre in a classic Science Fictional setting. \u00a0Maybe it’s because I was born in the wrong century and naturally dream of settling the frontier<\/a>. \u00a0Maybe it’s because this is one of the best ways to get awesome space battles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Whatever the reason, I can’t get enough of it, as you can probably guess from reading my books. \u00a0In\u00a0Bringing Stella Home<\/strong>, Danica and her band of Tajji mercenaries fit this trope to a T.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Stars of Blood and Glory<\/strong>\u00a0delves quite a bit deeper into their background, with Roman as a major viewpoint character. \u00a0In\u00a0Heart of the Nebula<\/strong>, the people of the Colony basically become Space Cossacks over the course of the novel. \u00a0Both of those novels are currently unpublished, but I hope to put them up in the next year.<\/p>\n

On the subject of roving bands of displaced Eastern Europeans, I listened to this Circassian folk song maybe a dozen times while writing this post:<\/p>\n