by C.T. Green
As this Magic Thursday Post is on
Anzac Day I thought I’d write about supernatural soldiers and why paranormal
romance is full of these fearsome heroes.
Black Dagger Brotherhood,
Immortals After Dark, Lords of the Underworld – yep, these are some of my
favourites series, but what I realised when I was writing this post was they
all have heroes who are soldiers in one form or another. Surely this couldn’t
be true? There must be a vampire accountant somewhere…an angelic chef…okay what
about a werewolf florist? But the more I looked the less likely it seemed that
this guy would be delivering flowers…sadly.
As I investigated other
paranormal series, there was a singular lack of CEO’s, farmers or
anaesthetists, but there were more soldiers than you could poke a stick at.
(Not that you’d risk getting your arm taken off). So…ah…why do we love the fighters over the lovers? What’s so good about a bad-ass vampire
solider with a pair of black blades when held up against a vampire who’s invested
in veterinary science and just loves kittens?
Yes, the answer does seem rather
obvious doesn’t it? The vampire soldier who’ll die to protect his race and his
woman is just extremely sexy and swoon-worthy romantic. We want our paranormal
men to embody all the things we see as strengths: physical prowess,
protectiveness, ruthlessness, ferocity and loyalty. Even when they prefer other
guys (as witness to the success of JR Ward’s extremely aptly titled Lover at Last) we find these warriors
fascinating, sexy and dangerously irresistible. These guys are so attractive to us not just because they’re
stone-cold killers, they are also capable of tenderness and love – they’re
lovers and fighters.
I’ve picked on vampires
specifically because I’d like to leave you with this thought. Bram Stoker’s
Dracula was a fighter who’d sacrificed his belief in God to make a pact with
the Devil because he lost the love of his life…
Is it this which is a
subconscious driving force behind the soldiers of paranormal romance or just a
coincidence?
Do we need our
supernatural heroes to be males who live on the edge of violence because it’s
that much closer to love?
