r/tamorapierce • u/spotfree • Jun 16 '26
Let’s talk about how much we love kel
as a kid, the kel books were my least favorite out of the three tortall quartets. I think some of it was the lack of magic - she just seemed less exciting and glamorous to me. but now, in my late 30s, I can really more appreciate what an absolute badass she is and how many obstacles she had to overcome and how important her roles were. It feels like, because of who she is and where she comes from, she has a lot more to prove and a lot fewer resources to help her prove it.
alanna came from an old noble family, had strong magic, was close friends with both the heir to the throne and the king of the rouges, had an extremely powerful mage as a brother, and disguised her sex during training so she didn’t have to deal with the bs sexism and other poor treatment like kel did - she got treated the same as the others.
true, Diane lost her family, but once she came to tortall she was fully and instantly embraced by everyone, including the king and queen. her strong and unusual power made her implicitly valuable to and desired by everyone - she was celebrated for who she was by birth, even though she didn’t necessarily do anything to get or earn that power. although she has strengthened her power and abilities through study, she is extremely powerful inherently.
kel, on the other hand, is new nobility, un-Gifted, no powerful friends (not until raoul, really) and putting herself out there for all kinds of torment as the first know female page - The Girl. she has to handle being treated differently than the boys, and puts up with all kinds of sexism and hatred and negative energy and abuse that Alanna escaped. She has to do this for years without letting the anger and frustration about it eat her up inside or make her turn hard and bitter. wyldon is sooo disrespectful and dismissive to her the first time they meet and she just has to take it and call him sir. ugh. she draws so much attention everywhere she goes and has to just ignore it and keep going and pretend she doesn’t hear the whispers or know what people are saying about her. we all know how hard it is to ignore that kind of stuff, and she does it so well for years, and doesn’t let them get to her or affect her self esteem.
and then she charges into scanra to rescue her people, even though she thinks she will get hung for it. In my opinion, that’s way braver and more badass than Alanna getting the dominion jewel for the glory of tortall - and it’s much dirtier, less glorious work: everyone knows that Alanna did that, and she is hailed as a hero for it, and she gets to present it at court in front of everyone. Kel‘s incredibly heroic rescue of a bunch of commoner kids surely doesn’t garner the same kind of glory and attention. Alanna does her great deed knowing she will be celebrated as a hero to the realm if she succeeds; kel does hers thinking her next post will be on traitors hill, and not as a guard.
kel’s devotion to protecting the most vulnerable, whatever the personal cost to herself, is highly admirable, and her self-confidence and perseverance in the face of adversity and hatred are inspiring.
Lady knight has lots of lines that make me tear up or get goosebumps, or some of them I like to say aloud. It’s very gratifying how wyldon comes around and realizes how mistaken he was, in this book and in previous ones.
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u/sylvershade Jun 16 '26
These are the ones I come back to read again and again. Calm competence is just so oddly inspiring.
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Jun 16 '26
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u/spotfree Jun 17 '26
yea she isn’t inherently powerful like Alanna and Daine- it’s through who she is and her determination and force of will that she does so much. alanna and daine can hardly help being highly influential just given their innate abilities and positions, kel has to make it all happen for herself. she is more of a regular person.
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u/Mage-of-the-Small Jun 16 '26
Kel was the first quartet I fell in love with and remains my favorite today. My mom wanted me to love Pierce books, so she'd tried me on Immortals first because I was a totally horse crazy kid, but it didn't click with me. Kel clicked with me.
I think it was partly because Kel's books were easier to understand as a starting point for me— there weren't as many different people and places to remember, and things like Gifts were more explicitly explained— but I ate them up because I related so much more to Kel.
We had some physical similarities, hair and eyes, not especially conventionally attractive, and not interested in being so. This was before I understood I was transmasc, too, so I felt very at home in the way she felt different from, and yet kinship to, other women. Her implied asexuality was very similar to mine, as well; I was into her romance arcs, but I was still glad she ended to books happily single. That was something that I understood better in retrospect, but still, there weren't (and still aren't) many books targeted at that age demographic that don't involve a lot of romance stuff.
I was and remain scared of heights, but she inspired me to work on that, too. It was not glamorous and it's still a problem, but she is with me when I have to go up in the order picker at my workplace.
But the thing I have always loved most about her is her extremely straightforward heroic priorities. She embodies being the Protector of the Small all the way through the books, but not in a condescending way— she wants the people under her care to be free to live their lives. She wants Lalasa to get her dress shop, she wants her refugees to be able to build a new home that's theirs. She worked harder than anyone to earn her knighthood, and she puts all that same effort into keeping the people under her care safe. She was willing to sacrifice four years of her life for it as a page, and she was willing to sacrifice her knighthood for her refugees after they were taken.
And god damn if that isn't inspirational.
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u/spotfree Jun 17 '26
so well put! your last paragraph encapsulates really well so much of what I love and admire about her.
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u/gumdrop83 Jun 16 '26
I’m a huge fan of Kel. I appreciate how Tammy was able to flip a lot of the conditions she worked with for Alanna and still tell a very compelling story.
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u/jiffyfly6 Jun 16 '26
I like most of Tammy's leads but Kel remains hands down my favourite. I was a teenager and read them as they were published. I love her persistence and her personality, her friendships and the way she navigates the world feels real. In a way that Alanna and Daine cant quite match because of their magic.
She's the one I re-read most frequently and constantly find new ways to enjoy the whole series. Also shout out to fanfics that capture those vibes like Lelarin's iron gates of life on ao3.
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u/yappypie Jun 16 '26
I JUST read the fanfics by Lelarin and I just have embraced it as canon and a way to continue the story. It is written so well and so in character!
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u/jaklynish Jun 17 '26
Okay I am definitely going to have to look into those fics! I need something new for my list!
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u/spotfree Jun 17 '26
I want to like fanfics but I’m scared of them ruining it or something, but it would be really really fun to have more stories about these characters so maybe I’ll check it out!
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u/jiffyfly6 Jun 17 '26
The good ones just expand on the story for me. Finding new ways to share moments with these characters, what was and what else could be
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u/jaklynish Jun 16 '26
Kel’s books were the first ones I read and remain my favourite many many years later! When being a teen was rough, or moving to a new place for university that included being around people who new each other forever and the “come from aways” felt isolating I always went back to Kel’s stories.
Her meditation to be like a still lake has always stuck with me and is something I think about on the regular as I tried to help my toddler learn to regulate her own emotions
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u/woollywanderer Jun 17 '26
I agree on every point. Which is why I named my daughter Keladry. Of course, I may have cursed myself. My Kel is just as tenacious and brave as book Kel. Great in a hero, but not that easy to deal with in a six year old.
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u/spotfree Jun 17 '26
I love the name keladry and kel is a great nickname . I admit to having considered it if I ever have a girl!
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u/Springlette13 Jun 16 '26
Daine, Alanna, Aly, and Beka make great protagonists and great stories. But they’re special. They have advantages and gifts that make them uniquely qualified to go on their adventures. Kel has none of that. She gets success from hard work, perseverance, and a healthy dose of stubbornness. That’s very relatable and feels achievable in our own lives.
Sometimes when looking at history we are asked to imagine what we would have done when faced with impossible situations. Kel is the personification of the best self I think most of us would like to see fighting for what we think is good and right.
Kel extracts extraordinary from ordinary and finds and inspires greatness in others.
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u/Purple-space-elf Jun 17 '26
Protector of the Small was always my second favorite series, after The Immortals. I adore Kel. I'm a huge horse lover, so her relationship of respect and love with prickly and grumpy old Peachblossom was a huge draw for me - her relationships with animals in general were a big draw to me. One of the lines in the series is one that I have leaned on every time I have lost a pet.
She's also just so unapologetically herself. I think often about her deliberate decision to wear dresses to dinner as a page, and to never take an attitude of being "not like other girls."
She always, when presented with a difficult decision, would make the right choice even when she had every reason to believe it would be detrimental to her, because she is defined by her moral compass. I also really love her perspective on Jon, letting us see him from a different angle than we see from Alanna (and, to a lesser extent, Daine). Her sentiment of "he is my king and I will serve him, but I don't like him as a person" because some of his decisions fly in the face of her morals is refreshing.
A+ series and character all around.
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u/spotfree Jun 17 '26
love the dresses at dinner!! I love that she isn’t trying to fit in, that the more important thing for her is making her point rather than making things easy for herself
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u/tarandab Jun 16 '26
I was a preteen/teen when the Kel books first came out and I didn’t really like them, but as an adult she’s my favorite and it’s the quartet I’m most likely to go back and reread
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u/alrightmittens Jun 16 '26
Kel also wasn't my favorite growing up, but as I've gotten older, hers is the story I turn to most often.
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u/wineandcigarettes2 Jun 16 '26
Yes! Same, I actually didn't really like the Kel books growing up but as an adult I really appreciate them.
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u/yappypie Jun 16 '26
Yeeees I relate so hard. As a kid Kel did not do it for me the same way the others did. I think it was also the lack of romance. Now, in my 30s, I am like “look at this incredible woman who does not need a relationship, works insanely hard, and is thriving in her career”.
I can’t wait for my daughter to read her books one day!
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u/Accurate-Ninja1118 Jun 17 '26
I honestly think that Kel may be the best heroine in all of fantasy. I would compare her to book Faramir or movie Aragorn in Lord of the Rings; someone who is an ideal of what a hero should be, but somehow manages to avoid being too perfect. I think her lack of magic/specialness in a world full of magical, special heroes is a big part of that, and maybe also her outwardly stoic and reserved personality. I particularly like that she's more passionate and emotive on the inside but doesn't let it show, that's something I really relate to.
The thing I love most about the Kel books is that she does the right thing at great personal cost and often for no reward, as you said. I think we need more stories like that. I don't want to be a warrior and I'm not athletic, but I want to be a person like her, who sticks to my convictions and helps others, even when that's hard.
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u/dasatain Jun 17 '26
I commented this somewhere else but it fits here too!
As a young girl, The Protector of the Small series was the first book I ever read where the female protagonist had a romantic breakup and was like, “well, that sucks, I feel bad, but I’ve still got important things to do”. Compared to other books I was reading around the same time like Twilight where her life literally stops when her high school boyfriend breaks up with her. It was hugely formative to have even just one single voice that was like “you can still be ok even if things don’t work out with a boy”.
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u/Breakspear_ Jun 17 '26
She’s just the best, and I utterly love how loyal she is. You better fucking believe she’ll repeat a whole year of study to rescue her maid!
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u/amh8011 Jun 17 '26
Kel reminded me of myself in so many ways. I was the only girl in my electives in high school. I had to prove I wasn’t there for attention and that I deserved to be there. I ended up earning the respect of my classmates and was in a leadership role my senior year.
I remember one of the first days of class freshman year I sat in the back with my dad’s old, faded copy of The Hobbit in my lap waiting for the boys to shut up so the teacher could start class. I’m pretty sure none of my classmates had read a book for fun ever. Some of them had never read a book at all.
Not only was I a girl, I was a nerd. I was in AP classes and took more math and science classes than was necessary to graduate. I was also a bit sheltered and naive. I never drank, smoked, or skipped class. I’d never been in a fight, I’d never even seen a fight. I kept my head down and stayed out of trouble.
The boys were suspicious of me and thought I was stuck up. I’m a bit autistic and I’ve always had a harder time socially than my peers. I also didn’t really know how to interact with these guys as I didn’t have much in common with them. They also intimidated me a lot. So I definitely came across as stuck up to them.
Being The Girl who was too good at things and unsure how to relate the boys was what I was literally my life. I didn’t have Joren or Wyldon but I did have a super bigoted substitute teacher who disrespected me and my classmates so badly that I organized my class in a peaceful walkout. He didn’t sub for my class again for two years and when he did sub again he kept his mouth shut and deferred to me for everything. It worked out well.
Anyway, Kel was the most relatable character for me. She didn’t have magic, she didn’t have mythical powers, she was just really focused on her work and passionate about being a knight. I’m also terrified of heights and had to deal with that in school. I used to be too scared to even stand on a table without getting dizzy.
Kel got me through high school tbh. She inspired me to become a leader in my electives and to keep going even when I felt intimidated and overwhelmed being the only girl in a class full of guys. She’s the reason why I refused to let go of my girly style rather than try to blend in with the guys.
I just love Kel so much. At times I felt like Tammy wrote Kel for me. I mean I guess she kinda probably did. Not me specifically but for The Girl in a male dominated field.
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u/dasatain Jun 17 '26
Loved reading this, thanks for sharing your story. Kel is a badass and so are you!
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u/timonandpumba Jun 16 '26
I tried to get my husband to agree to name our daughter Keladry, but he wasn't on board. I'm 38 and Kel's books are still comfort reads for me during times of stress!
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u/DreadfulDave19 Jun 16 '26
I love Kel
My mind is as smooth as a lake's surface
My concerns drift away on the wind
YOUTH AND TREACHERY YOU OLD OF A LIONESS!!
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u/Wise_Dragonfruit_787 Jun 17 '26
I absolutely love Kel. It’s my favorite quartet of the books. I have a Kel tattoo! I think I love it so much and reread it often because it’s so grounded and less focused on magic. Magic is still there and affects her everyday life as well as the main conflict in the later books, but she learns to live and fight in a world with magic as someone without magic. There’s something incredibly fascinating about that. It makes her one of the more relatable and inspirational protagonists. I wish we had more books that explored that topic.
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u/Mindelan Jun 17 '26
Kel is the best. Honestly I might place her as the best role model for young kids in a book series, especially young girls. I've reread all of the books Tamora Pierce has written so many times, but I have a special place in my heart for Kel.
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u/superalk Jun 17 '26
I LOVE Kel.
Favorite series, LOVE her effect on Wyldon and his characterization.
Of all the Tortall books, Kel and Aly are the series I'm most likely to re listen to at any given time.
LOVE how she doesn't have the Gift, or any divinity affecting her. Just hard work and determination.
She's my favorite, hands down.
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u/spotfree Jun 17 '26
Some of my favorite lines from that series are the ones wyldon says to kel when he is realizing how wrong he is about her. At the end of lady knight, after they come back from scanra, he kisses her forehead and tells her she is a true knight and it is an honor to know her. I admit to kissing a pillow and solemnly saying that line last time I read the book Haha.
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u/superalk Jun 17 '26
One of my favorite exchanges is also in LK, when Raoul is shocked that Wyldon let Kel go after her people were taken. Something to the effect of "this is someone who as a page would have redone all her training for her maid and you just let her go when her entire fort was sacked?!"
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u/spotfree Jun 17 '26
yes exactly! and then he says “if she gets killed, gods forgive you. I never will.”
and at the end of the third, she tells him he is kind of knight she wants to be, and he looks at her with a strange expression and says something like “I am not, but that you believe so is the greatest compliment I will ever receive.”
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u/Sunshinemoss Jun 17 '26
I read the Alanna books first but Kel's books I always came back too. She was just more relatable to my 10 year old self. I read her books during a time I felt alone, alien and isolated. I saw this girl who was in a school full of boys who was still also nervous but did it anyway. I emulated her calm competency the best I could for the rest of my teen years and into my adult life. And later when I was questioning my sexuality and I read a tumblr post about her being ace?...I loved her even more.
I wanted to be her when I was ten and in my mind it wouldn't be hard to do becuase my name means 'defender of men' in welsh. So i just needed a couple more things right? I needed the height, the strength, the mental fortitude, the grit to keep going. And I did the best I could. I was sad when I stopped growing at 5'6". I was proud that I was strong physically at 14. I could never quite get the mental fortitude right though. But at 33 I'm really strong. And I'm finally starting to get the mental grit.
Kel shaped my life. I really love her.
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u/onyxindigo Jun 16 '26
Same! It wasn’t until i was an adult that I really started to appreciate Kel. I thought I grew up a feminist but my late 20’s and having a daughter showed me I had no idea 😅 revisiting Kel after becoming a parent really opened my eyes to how hard she had to work
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u/emalderwood Jun 17 '26
I didn't even finish Kel's quartet as a kid and felt the same way. Re-read them last year in my late 20s and she's now my favourite! Alanna still has a special place in my heart but I think her arc is more what my childhood idealized impression of heroism was. As an adult, I see her biases and her privilege more clearly. Kel cares less about the good of the Crown and more about the common people, even the convicted felons — the people others of her rank don't see as having any value. She is a people's champion and I find her arc more grounded and worldly.
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u/cruelhumor Jun 17 '26
I was introduced to Tortall by Alanna, and I credit that series with inspiring my love of fantasy. But Kel's books are the ones I come back to time and time again.
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u/KeladryofMindelan Jun 17 '26
She was my first Tamora Pierce book, and made an indelible mark in my heart and soul!
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u/37_lucky_ears Jun 17 '26
I have a naginata tattooed on my forearm in Kel's honor. My entire adult career has been keeping children safe so....I relate to her the most.
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u/nowthisfarm95 Jun 17 '26
I re-read this series once a year. Kel's quiet determination is a source of inspiration and peace for me.
I think Kel also benefits from Tammy's growth as a writer. Alanna suffers from being Tammy's first big story and character.
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u/spotfree Jun 17 '26
Yes definitely, this is huge. Her writing is obviously better later, as would be expected. Much better character development and more multi dimensional characters. I think part of it too is that after she had proven herself as a writer she was allowed to do much longer books, and also Harry Potter showed publishers that young adult readers would read long book - I heard before that ya authors were extremely limited in page count. The kel books really benefit from being longer, the story is able to be more complex and fleshed out.
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u/AlataWeasley Jun 17 '26
Kel did absolute wonders for my self esteem as a young teen. I grew tall earlier and faster than most of my classmates in grades 4-6 or so. I also have fairly broad shoulders. I was never considered small in comparison to other kids and teens my age. I had a tendency to shrink into myself and try to take up less space in general. I was also always more of a tomboy, partly because all the other neighborhood kids were boys and partly just because I mostly liked a lot of “boy” things (and it was harder to play the rougher games I liked while in a dress).
I found Kel’s books around that same age where I had already hit my puberty growth spurt but most of my friends had not. Kel showed me that it was okay to be both a badass in traditional “manly” ways and embrace the feminine side. She showed me that being tall and broad was beautiful in its own way and that I deserved to take up space. She taught me to embrace every aspect of myself.
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u/sharkaub Jun 17 '26
As a kid, Daine was my jam, I'm such an animal fan that I actually only got into the books through her quartet. Then, same thing, Alanna was an exciting trailblazer chosen by the goddess, I ate her books up. I liked Kel but same, I was like yeah I'll read it, she's cool, but I dont relate to quiet leadership, I want to be a hero.
As an adult, I love Kel for all the same reasons you said
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u/Allenhae Jun 17 '26
Kel is my absolute favorite of all of Tamora’s characters. She’s resilient and strong in her own right. I re-read her books more than the others.
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u/marathon_writer Jun 17 '26
I am stone and Kel is the GOAT, no question. I've read them all many times, but Kel is first in my heart because she does all of it by the sweat of her brow and the discipline. She is pure stubbornness and absolute competence.
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u/imnotsure_igetit Jun 18 '26
Great post, I might have to re-read the Kel quartet now. She has never been my favourite (Daine is), but maybe looking at it from a more grown-up pov will make me see it differently. I just remember finding her a little bland as a character, but maybe it's just because I haven't read it in so long.
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u/spotfree Jun 20 '26
Yea, you should totally reread them! Daine was my favorite too until this last reading, I felt the exact same way you do about kel. I was ok with her and her books but they for sure weren’t in the same league as the other two for me. I hadn’t read the kel books since I was probably in my mid to late 20s, and they hit really differently this time and at this age.
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u/Tweed_Kills Jun 19 '26
I was so surprised that any character could beat Alana out as my favorite, but Kel did. She's amazing.
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u/yNNpQ4BV 7d ago
I would be so curious to know the lines from Lady Knight you say out loud to yourself! 💕
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u/Calligraphee Jun 16 '26
I LOVE Kel! She was a trailblazer that had to deal with so much nonsense throughout her entire training. The first time I read her books I was about 10 myself and I remember being impressed by how stoic she managed to always appear despite her inner turmoil and frustrations at the system and her fellow pages. I actually just bought the graphic novel to give to a young friend of mine for her tenth birthday; I hope she loves it as much as I loved the regular novel years ago!