Sky Stalwart 2.0

I am really enjoying the process of writing a story about Kirby and Sky Stalwart, Nisa Montrel and Vex Kalar. I have some moments I love, and the whole story is moving in a great direction. However, I have had one big problem; all of my characters are male. I mean, Nisa is not, but I am ending up with the story starting to go in the direction of a love triangle between Sky and Nisa and Vex. And, to be honest, I don't want it to go that way, but that's kind of what would happen. Because, I realized, I'm not writing Sky as a unique character - I'm just writing him as Doc Stalwart. I really love Doc, and I love writing about Doc and writing his character, but I'm already doing that elsewhere. If I want to write a Doc story, I should write a Doc story.

Thinking further, I realized that Sky Stalwart isn't this character, and is not Doc's grandson. Sky Stalwart is Doc's daughter. That is how I originally conceived her, and that is the character I knew she should be the whole time. So, I'm throwing out the design for Sky Stalwart, grandson of Doc Stalwart, and replacing him with Sky Stalwart, daughter of Doc Stalwart. Now, instead of trying to skirt along the edges of some of the more sexist tropes of the genre, I can lean into them and have my main character fundamentally challenge them by her very presence. I change the whole dynamic of all of the characters. I make my other characters more interesting, because now I can frame them even more as foils. I was struggling to find out what made Vex and Sky (boy version) different on a fundamental level. Now, that problem is gone. 

Because this is not just a female version of Doc Stalwart. She is a very different character. Doc is wise and patient, willing to gently bring others along. Sky is smarter than everyone in the room, and struggles to sometimes put up with their stupidity. Kirby wants her to wear fancy dresses and drink champagne, but she's too busy pulling apart the blast engine because she noticed it lags a little upon re-entry, and she thinks there's a problem with the transitional booster. I had my Luke in Vex, I have a Han in Venn Golrik (who will eventually make an appearance I presume), and now I have my Leia who is not a princess at all, except (of course) to her father. But this is her story. 

I think I'm going to love the change.