Did Alexander strike anyone else as kind of a Wuss?

[Sir Perceval of Daventry]

Maybe its just the voice acting but I've always kind of seen Alexander as kind of a wuss, and not nearly as interesting or 'cool' a protagonist as Graham or Rosella. Does anyone else agree Alexander is kinda a wuss?

[Numbers]

Alexander just came across as a lovesick pansy in KQ6. I really don't see how he could appeal to anyone, even if people thought he was good-looking. Then again, there are plenty of so-called "heartthrob" male protagonists in stories that I fail to understand where the appeal comes from. Christian Grey comes to mind...not that I'm comparing Alexander to Christian Grey. Nobody should be compared to Christian Grey.

At least the protagonist for KQ6 wasn't Mike Dawson. I can see it now: Mike has just gotten past Gate and sees Samhain in his throne before him:

"It's him--the Lord of the Dead! I feel like I should bow, but I'm too embarrassed!"

[KatieHal]

Has this been posted here before? The topic sounds familiar.

Anyways, no, not at all. I thought his voice-acting was actually excellent. And even that aside, the guy took out an evil all-powerful wizard, pirates, a three-headed dragon, a minotaur, Death himself, an all-powerful genie, and an evil Vizier.

I'm pretty sure that solidly qualifies him as not remotely a "wuss".

[GrahamRocks!]

You took the words right out of my mouth, Katie.

[Rosella]

I think he's just introverted. He has a quiet strength that manifests itself a lot better in magic and riddles than throwing pies at yetis. Not that there's anything wrong with the more extroverted style that Graham and Rosella share, but Alexander was always pretty cool.

Also, don't you dare diss Robby Benson. That man is a god among men.

[Jack Stryker]

Has this been posted here before? The topic sounds familiar.

Anyways, no, not at all. I thought his voice-acting was actually excellent. And even that aside, the guy took out an evil all-powerful wizard, pirates, a three-headed dragon, a minotaur, Death himself, an all-powerful genie, and an evil Vizier.

I'm pretty sure that solidly qualifies him as not remotely a "wuss".

Not to mention, Alhazred had the advantage of using a lighter and faster sword.  Whereas the only sword Alexander could find was incredbly heavy and bulky.  And yet, Alex was still able to hold his own against Alhazred- dodging all of his attacks and even managing to throw in an occasional punch- long enough for Cassima to cut herself free and stab him.

And yeah, Robby Benson is a great voice actor.  I thought he was perfect for the role.

[Numbers]

I think Alexander is one of those protagonists who doesn't appeal to men--due to being sensitive, lovesick, stalkerish, and not having the raw, unbridled machismo that Graham has--but appeals quite well to women...for the same reasons. Seriously, why do women like it when guys stalk them? As blown out of proportion as the Edward Cullen thing was, it was hardly the first time in fiction a guy has stalked a girl and it was apparently perfectly okay because the guy was just so unbelievably sexy. Same thing here. Why do women like Alexander? I don't get it.

Also, Robby Benson may be a god amongst men, but my jabs at his "acting" will not go unspoken... 

*being dragged into the wicker cage and saying the following line in the whiniest possible way* "WAIT! I must rescue the princess!"

[KatieHal]

Women (and people, in general) do NOT like stalking. And personally, I hate that trend in fiction. If someone has been watching you sleep without you asking them to for some reason? That is not okay. That is f*cking creepy and not romantic!

When I actually first played KQ6, I hadn't played KQ5, so I had no idea Alexander had known Cassima so briefly. I assumed they had some pre-existing friendship that lead him to go visit her. So, that part I had no idea about.

That aside, I like Alexander since he was an intelligent hero as well as brave and willing to face even death itself and go so far for the person he loved, not only rescuing her, but her kingdom and even her murdered parents.

Since learning they knew each other so little beforehand, it got a little more....eeeee. I like to imagine they got to know each other at Mordack's while he was trapped in a bottle and she was forced to be a maid there, conversations while she was cleaning the lab or something like that, maybe trying to hatch a plan to escape, etc. I know that makes it 'fanon' and not 'canon', but, well, it fits the story better.

And I appreciated, in Rosella's games, that she turned down Edgar, and that he learned from it and later only asked if he could court her as opposed to proposing.

[Numbers]

People in general may not like stalking, but you wouldn't know it from the thousands of disturbing posts made online about Edward from tweens and lonely adult women the world over. I'm glad that it's blown over for the most part; it seems like the Twilight fans have mostly moved on to Hunger Games, which has a much better role model in its protagonist than Bella could ever hope to be. I also like the contrast between Kristen Stewart...



...who cares way too much about her self-image to the point that she appears cold as a stone, compared with Jennifer Lawrence...



...who makes such derpy facial expressions in her interviews that she doesn't appear to know or care that millions of people are watching her every move, and will surely make dozens of gif files out of what they're seeing.

Also with Rosella, I like that they didn't make her some Amazon warrior who's tougher than the men around her, which is so often the case in fiction. In the process of getting rid of the whole damsel in distress cliche, people have gone the other extreme and made the female characters way too powerful in their stories, creating a whole new cliche. Frankly, I'm sick of it. What's wrong with having a protagonist in a story that just happens to be female--think Sarah Connor from the Terminator--as opposed to a character that is the epitome of female empowerment, outclassing all the male characters around her? It simply doesn't happen in real life. That's why, sex appeal notwithstanding, Black Widow is my least favorite Avenger. She's too unemotional, too tough, and by extension, too masculine. She's not feminine anymore. She looks female, but she may as well be just another guy character in every other respect.

Anyway, the whole "guy saves the girl and then marries her" thing got turned on its head in KQ7, in which the girl saved the guy and, for all we know, had a brief fling with him before moving on. Before the KQ series proper was cancelled, Roberta expressed interest in having a love triangle with Connor, Rosella and Sarah...just the latest in a long list of awful ideas that put KQ six feet under, it looks like. Good thing TSL did away with that idea and just had Rosella stay with Edgar, albeit after they've had time to get to know each other.

[balrog9]

Maybe its just the voice acting but I've always kind of seen Alexander as kind of a wuss, and not nearly as interesting or 'cool' a protagonist as Graham or Rosella. Does anyone else agree Alexander is kinda a wuss?

I always thought he was. Too bad we'll never get a chance to find out how the game was supposed to end. Maybe he would have been interesting in the future.

[Numbers]

Too bad we'll never get a chance to find out how the game was supposed to end. Maybe he would have been interesting in the future.

We already know how the game ends. It ends with Alexander marrying Cassima. Unless you're referring to the games, in the plural. Given what the promotional screenshots of the actual King's Quest 9 looked like, it wouldn't have gone into a direction the fans wanted anyways--it would have been more Mask-like gameplay, but with even fewer puzzle-solving and more beating the snot out of monsters. Also, it appears that Roberta wanted Connor to be the next big protagonist, so I doubt much time would have been spent on Alexander regardless.

[Deloria]

I think Alexander is one of those protagonists who doesn't appeal to men--due to being sensitive, lovesick, stalkerish, and not having the raw, unbridled machismo that Graham has--but appeals quite well to women...for the same reasons. Seriously, why do women like it when guys stalk them? As blown out of proportion as the Edward Cullen thing was, it was hardly the first time in fiction a guy has stalked a girl and it was apparently perfectly okay because the guy was just so unbelievably sexy. Same thing here. Why do women like Alexander? I don't get it.

It's interesting but it's actually a result of cultural indoctrination that tells us that the more social rules a guy is willing to break to seem interested, the more devoted he is, and  therefore the luckier you are to have such a nice, caring guy, rather than someone who's going to use and then dump you. It's completely objectifying in that the only thing that matters within this paradigm are his feelings, not hers. This also lets really horrible people label themselves "nice guys" and get away with treating people like this because there's this notion that it's so romantic for them to put themselves out there and be emotionally vulnerable by acting in ways that are not socially appropriate.

Women grow up being told that they is going to be the more emotionally invested partner in a relationship and that guys don't have as many feels and are only after sex, and so if she does get someone to show a genuine interest in her as a person, even to the point of obsession and stalking, then she's one of the really lucky few special snowflakes and gets all the validation that that entails. She's going to misconstrue the entire situation as romantic rather than correctly identifying it as creepy and predatorial behaviour that will inevitably lead to the violation of other boundaries and loss of personal agency. Society often makes women define themselves by their relationships to males, rather than based on their own achievements and accomplishments. I can't tell you how many times I've phoned up my grandparents in rural Colorado to tell them that I had exciting news (usually academic stuff) and they would immediately assume that I was getting engaged, because as a woman, of course that must be the only exciting news I could ever have to share. These myths are part of rape culture and they are deeply damaging, but it's not fair to say that you don't understand why "women feel this is romantic" when you, having male privilege, are completely unaware of the system in which something like this is made out to be romantic by society and the media that we consume. This is not the fault of women, but the patriarchal system in which women exist.

We're absorbing the messages that predatorial people are putting out there to their own advantage. You can help combat this by informing people that this media is unhealthy or making different media or not violating boundaries, but not by complaining that women's unhealthy desires are the problem here.

[Numbers]

I guess it isn't as simple as I made it sound, then...

[Deloria]

Cultural messages never are.

[snabbott]

It's not really stalking - he saw in the Magic Mirror that she wanted him there.

[KatieHal]

That is very true and worth mentioning. And Cassima did also tell him he was welcome to visit her at the end of KQ5.

[Jack Stryker]

And he wasn't exactly being discreet either, as he mentions to Jollo at one point.  If he were stalking her, he'd want to keep his presence unknown.

[Numbers]

It's not really stalking - he saw in the Magic Mirror that she wanted him there.

Yep, Alexander's not the only lovesick person in KQ6.

It's also worth mentioning that nobody brings up Graham taking Valanice from the tower in KQ2 as stalker-like behavior, probably because the game was so much more simple that it was viewed as just a typical fairy-tale story, rather than a romance. KQ2+ reasons that, like in KQ6, the subject in the magic mirror wanted to be found by the person looking into it, and that Valanice had been watching Graham throughout the entire game, coming to love him before he even saw her in person.

OTOH, Edgar's behavior towards Rosella in KQ7 was pretty inexcusable, regardless of the circumstances. TSL's portrayal of him (so far) is not helping.

[KatieHal]

How so, re: Edgar? I'm curious.

I don't completely love Edgar's finished product presence either. There was much more planned for him in the longer story that was cut. But in cutting it down, some things had to go (Rosella's reduced role is another thing I wish we could've kept, alas).

[Numbers]

My biggest problem with Edgar in KQ7--besides the retcon of his origins, and the fact that he can't stay out of trouble for one day without getting captured and brainwashed again--was...well, never mind. That WAS my biggest problem with him. But also we have the fact that he basically lured Rosella into the pool in the first place so he could snatch her away and create a forced marriage between himself and her (although your mileage may vary on how much of this plan was there all along and how much was made up as he went). Either way, he lets himself get pushed around again and stupidly activates a volcano even when he knew he shouldn't. He is then very quickly forgiven for all this when he regains his true form, even though he obviously retained enough of himself to go after Rosella in the first place. What a punk.

And, of course, we have TSL Edgar, who is way too mopey. I'm a bit concerned that his story arc won't go anywhere in the finished TSL product, given that Graham and Valanice are the only ones who are given any real focus thus far, and everyone else spends most of their time off-screen for one reason or another. When he offered to go with Graham at the beginning of the first episode, I expected Graham to say something along the lines of "Edgar, your life is a living hell already. Get some sleep."

Speaking of story arcs, didn't someone offer to write a novelization for TSL way back when?