In Kairos, French graphic novelist Ulysse Malassagne turns the typical damsel-in-distress narrative on its head. With stunning art, epic battle scenes, and unexpected plot twists, Kairos forces you to question where to draw the line between hero and antihero.
Nills and Anaelle are looking forward to their first night in their rustic cabin in the woods. But the couple’s idyllic vacation is suddenly thrown into turmoil when a strange flash of light bursts from the fireplace. A portal appears, and out of it spill dragon-like creatures that are armed to the teeth. They grab Anaelle and flee back through the portal, leaving a distraught Nills with a sudden decision: stay behind, or leap through after her?
He leaps. And that’s when things get really weird.
Kairos: A time when conditions are right for the accomplishment of a crucial action; the opportune and decisive moment.
Merriam-Webster
This one really threw me through a loop. The way it was described, with an amazing picture of Anaelle stopping a sword with her bare hands, led me to believe that “turns the typical damsel-in-distress narrative on its head” was meaning that our female lead was going to be some rad warrior. I was mistaken.
If you’re looking for a mood, this is much like the classic Bone. The art has whimsy and beauty to it, but it’s a serious story framed in the fantastical. It edges on tragedy and ends up being an ideological clash from beginning to end.
This is told from two perspectives: Nills and Anaelle. Nills loves Anaelle terribly and wishes for a long-term future with her, first step being that they move in together. Anaelle states she wishes to live in the moment and maintain her independence, no matter what.
After the kidnapping, Nills follows, beginning a rage-fueled quest to save Anaelle from the dragon kingdom. His humanity trickles away until he becomes a dragon himself, killing in order to get to the princess’ tower. Along the way he ends up heading a revolution bent on overthrowing a tyrannical monarchy, where he kills the entire royal family keeping his fiancee prisoner.
And then Anaelle’s perspective.
She ran away from home in order to escape a marriage with her father arranged in order to continue the royal family line. As her family’s extended branches died out due to illness, there were no candidates for a regular royal marriage that could potentially inherit the power of the throne. And of course, that passes through consummation. Ick.
So she ran to the human world, hiding in a shack until her form became human. She contemplated her life and wished for a life of independence and freedom.
One wonders why she went back to the little cabin in the woods.
She is stolen back to her kingdom, and she is subsequently pressured to proceed with the marriage. It’s stomach-churning, the discussion of marrying her father, and in the end she chooses to accept and use the power of the position as Queen to put an end to the ruling family. Her wedding dress is armored, and she declares that no child would ever come from her, and the monarchy will end there. She will focus on the people, and while her father chides her, she remains firm.
Then her former boyfriend— she never actually said she would be his fiancee. He never even asked. He simply decided this, and simply decided that coming after her and killing all the people in his way would mean that he can bring her home and they could live the life he dreamed up.
It echoes in part the discussion they had at the beginning of the book:
Anaelle: “I’m not like you. You live in the future. You focus on long-term plans. You’ve already planned out our entire life together. I want to live in the present.”
Nills: “But if you want to accomplish anything, you have to plan ahead—”
Both worlds, for Anaelle, are the same. She is expected to marry and follow a plan that someone else has come up with. She wants to make her own decisions, but each time she makes a decision, she is met with the same ending. In the end, she decides to accept the position with higher responsibility. She wants to stop running away and start a revolution.
And then that choice is taken from her as well. She is looked upon as selfish and uncaring by a lot of readers (trust me, Goodreads hates her), but she literally made her fighting declaration, vows to better her world through her own power, and then her entire family is massacred and half the kingdom has been slaughtered by the man she had said she loved. He pursues her with the idea that if he tries hard enough, if he loves her hard enough, she will acquiesce to his wishes. She admonishes him for being short-sighted, for not taking the consequences of his actions into account, and he stumbles away, forced to face what he has done in the single-minded pursuit of someone he loved and yet didn’t love him in the same way that he needed.
They break up. He goes home. He slowly recovers. But he’s different now.
