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PREAMBLE
Or, why we are here
The recent release of Tales from The Great Below, the direct-to-streaming sequel to JP Brammer’s Legends of the Great Below, has brought renewed interest to the underground kingdom of rats living their best ren-faire-esque existence beneath an oblivious modern day New York City. A rip roaring pi-rat adventure on the high sewers, Tales introduces rascal-thief-with-a-code Captain Pegacious Brown, who spends a good ninety-percent of the film’s scant 88 minutes alternatively saving and confounding our returning heroine Sir Fiona Highrafter. They bicker relentlessly, alternatively betray and save each other, and together defeat the movie’s real big bad before returning home, each changed for the better; it’s a relationship that has launched a thousand fics and to all of you writing Pirate/Knight I say welcome to the fandom! Good job!
But also: you are shipping the wrong rats.
PART ONE:
Or, what exactly we are talking about
The Great Below ‘verse is a multimedia franchise. For the purposes of this manifesto, I will be accepting (and potentially spoiling) the following as canon:
The Movies:
The original Legends of the Great Below (1991) and its sequel Tales from the Great Below (2021).
The TV show:
The three seasons of The Great Below (1996 - 1999) and its two specials (2001, 2004), with some caveats; where the series contradicts the movies, the movies will be taken as the true version of events.
Shorts:
I am not generally a fan of the “our characters advertising someone else’s product” shorts (the McDonalds and Wendy’s promos are particularly terrible) and will be, in the main, ignoring them entirely. That said, I am going to include the Disney+ promos (2020) for their rerelease of The Great Below because they have an actual story unrelated to shilling for the Great Mouse.
Books:
Scholastic’s Young Readers adaptation of Legends, the official colouring book, and the Great Below Puzzle Book.
Comics:
Boom Studios’ Myths of the Great Below. (2008-2016)
I won’t be including any of the games, which either recap the movie, are essentially an unrelated story with rats pasted on, or contradict the rest of canon in ways that are impossible to rectify. Sorry, Highrafter fans. (But not really because level 4-7 is literally evil.)
The general setting of these various series is as follows. The Great Below is a century old sprawling set of underground facultative bipedal* rat colonies under New York City, occupying natural caverns, sewage tunnels, and closed subway lines. The largest and most prominent of these, Metratolis, is a quasi-Arthurian monarchy built around an abandoned 1904 wooden body subway car – except that our Arthur is a Queen and Excalibur is a sharpened clock hand. Everything you would expect from a medieval village around a castle is reproduced here. There are rat homes, streets, shops, markets and taverns. There are rat butchers, bakers, blacksmiths, masons, farmers, cobblers** and, of course, there are knights.
* Which is to say they are mostly on two legs when brandishing swords and mostly on four when doing the parkour sequences this series is inordinately fond of.
** If you just immediately complained “none of them wear shoes”, you are correct, but there are multiple instances of cobbler signs in both movies, TV series and comics. Presumably they are making the other leather goods we see in the series?
Knight applicants generally come from the upper parts of rat society, which geographically also means from the lower parts of the Great Below. The closer you are to the Above Place, the more danger there is, the poorer you are likely to be, and the fewer opportunities you will have to take the knee. However, to actually become knights, applicants must venture all the way into the Above Place and return with a treasure, which gives those familiar with the dangers an advantage if they can just get the opportunity to exploit it.
So that’s what we’re looking at. But who are we looking at?
PART TWO:
Or, our dramatis personae:
Fiona Highrafter
Our esteemed heroine starts out as a small black rat of humble origins. Fiona is born in the “high rafters”, about as close to the Above Place that the rats ever live. Her mother is a casualty of war while Fiona is still a child and Fiona is raised by her father, Arturo. She’s a lively, independent child, a good leader of a group of misfits, but impulsive, temperamental, headstrong and prone to getting into more trouble than she can handle, often only escaping by being smaller, faster, more nimble and acrobatic than her opponents.
When Fiona is in her early teens* her father begins his own quest into the Above Place to earn his knighthood and never comes back. This motivates Fiona’s own quest a few years later to become a knight, to follow in his glorious footsteps and complete his dream, which turns out to be a problem when Arturo is revealed to be both alive and also the main villain’s top henchman. Heartbroken, Fiona is almost convinced to join him, but her own innate sense of goodness and justice prove stronger. The villain is defeated and Fiona is knighted, having learned a valuable lesson.
* The series is inconsistent with both the ages and life spans of the rats and with the passage of time in general. Horror of the Rat King (from Myths, issues #9 - 12) covers what dialogue makes out to be at least four months but has to have only been two days at most since it’s established to occur between episodes #4 and #5 of TGB, both of which include freshly printed copies of the New York Times with dates visible. Unless those episodes are intended to be a year apart, which still makes no sense. Basically, it’s best not to think about the timeline too much.
Now Sir Fiona Highwater, our heroine remains the smallest of the knights. Throughout her adventures, she earns the respect of her fellows through her kindness and creativity, which get everyone out of the situations her curiosity often gets them into. She once again finds herself a group of misfits and together they help each other become not just better knights, but better rats. As her reputation grows, she starts accompanying the queen on diplomatic missions, including the one that ends up with the queen kidnapped and Fiona forced to accompany Captain Peggy into the Great Unknown to rescue her.
Which she does with acrobatic style, of course.
Queen Elisaveta
By colouring a fancy rat but by action anything but domesticated, Elisaveta is the de facto leader of the Great Below. In theory, she has a council of Knights who help keep order in Metratolis and other colonies are run by various barons, councils, parliaments and that one weird Emperor. In practice, everyone looks up to Elisaveta, who is a calm and steady authoritative presence, known for her wisdom and egalitarian approach. She is often called on to be the peacemaker, not just for her willingness to negotiate but also for her iron will should negotiations fail.
Raised in the royal court by proud but rather distant parents, Elisaveta was an astute student, hard working and conscientious. Only her uncle Bor’s insistence on teaching her to sword fight prevented her from being an all out bookworm. After her parents were killed in the same war that cost Fiona her mother* Uncle Bor became her regent, while Elisaveta pivoted from academics to embracing knighthood. After years of Bor refusing to let her join any knighting quest, Elisaveta researched, made herself a disguise and went alone, returning with the clock hand sword that would become her signature weapon. This convinces Bor that she is ready to rule and, despite her protests, he steps down and she becomes Queen.
* Which means Elisaveta should probably be six or seven years older than Fiona but she can be anywhere from just a couple to ten or more depending on what you are watching/reading. As I said, try not to think about the timeline!
Throughout movies, series and comics, Elisaveta is repeatedly shown to put her people and her duty before herself, and leads a somewhat lonely life. She can be ruthless but she also learns from her mistake and recognises the need for compromise. She seems genuinely interested in helping her people and is willing to listen to advice.
Especially if Fiona is the one giving it.
PART THREE
Or, the evidence for the ship
Fiona and Elisaveta have a lot in common. They both lost parents at an early age. They both had to challenge authority figures to gain respect. They’re both women in occupations that are usually male, even in rat society. They both get very annoyed at other people touching their weapons, which are both ornate, sharpened clock hands. (It is a matter of some debate whether Elisaveta has a minute hand and Fiona an hour hand, based on relative lengths, or whether Fiona’s simply comes from a smaller clock.) They’re both ready and willing to fight for what they believe in and risk themselves for their friends and family. They both get jealous when the other gets a potential love interest, none of whom last long. Fiona’s faith inspires Elisaveta to be a better leader and Elisaveta’s example inspires Fiona to do the same. They both respect people’s actions more than their status, which in Elisaveta’s case includes happily knighting Fiona and in Fiona’s case includes calling out a Duke for being rude right in the middle of court.
They are also an exercise in contrasts. Fiona often doesn’t plan enough, embarrassing dignitaries in court being a prime example, while Elisaveta is known to sometimes rely too much on her books. Fiona can be loud and brash and awkward. Elisaveta is composed and dryly amused. Fiona will happily leap around at great heights from precarious ledges while Elisaveta is very much of the idea that safety ropes are an excellent and necessary precaution. Elisaveta is surprisingly bad at not being kidnapped and Fiona is excellent at rescues. Fiona drives Elisaveta to live moments to the fullest, while Elisaveta shows Fiona how to step back and look at the big picture. In their worst moments, when Elisaveta’s pragmatism threatens to overwhelm her kindness, it is Fiona who reminds her of the redemptive power of love; and at Fiona’s darkest moment, confronting the rats who killed her mother, it is Elisaveta’s brutal honesty that reaches Fiona and lets her choose mercy. They balance each other’s flaws and fill each other’s gaps.
Not convinced by generalities? Let’s take a look at some specific moments.
Elisaveta and Fiona first meet in the flashback sequences in Myths that gave us the Queen’s backstory. Elisaveta, in disguise for her knight’s quest, runs into trouble in the heights. Fiona, who for convoluted reasons is also in disguise, helps her escape, getting injured in the process. Afterwards, while bandaging Fiona’s wounded leg, Elisaveta asks her why she helped.
“If you can help, and you don’t,” Fiona scoffs, “what’s the point of you?”
This question goes on to haunt the rest of Elisaveta’s quest and, though ostensibly she returns from with her sword as her prize, it’s clear this moment is her actual treasure, just as the treasure Fiona returns from her own quest with is the motivation to be a knight on her own merits instead of blindly following a false ideal of her father. Also, it’s heavily implied that the handkerchief Elisaveta uses to bind Fiona’s wounds becomes her signature scarf for the rest of the series and even though that doesn’t really make sense, I like it too much to let it go.
Their next meeting chronologically is still not a real meeting, because Fiona is once again in disguise, having snuck into the ceremony for knight potentials to get the Queen’s blessing. They don’t even speak really, but it’s worth noting that while every other knight looks down when they are blessed, Fiona alone looks right up at Elisaveta.In fact, throughout it all, not only is Fiona the only one who always meets Elisaveta’s gaze, she consistently looks towards her at all times. Seriously, check this out:
- At the knighting ceremony from Legends, all the knights are looking into the cheering crowd except Fiona, who is looking back at Elisaveta;
- In multiple episodes of TGB, Fiona spots Elisaveta before anyone else: in the crowds after the flood in episode 1.4; when Elisaveta is in disguise at the Raven’s Ball in 1.8; when the gang is arguing over whether there is a traitor in 1.13, Fiona instantly spots Elisaveta has overheard them; she also instantly recognises Elisaveta’s sword in a giant pile of weapons in the Red Army’s lair in 2.3; she’s clearly watching Elisaveta during the holiday parade in 2.7 instead of, y’know, the parade; she finds Elisaveta in the labyrinth in 3.1 in about two seconds; and in 3.6, Fiona literally stops looking for an assassin for almost a minute of screen time to just flat out watch Elisaveta dance!
- In the briefing before the fight with the Rat King (Myths #11), everyone else is looking at the map on which Bor is outlining the battle plan, except Elisaveta who is contemplating her sword and Fiona who is contemplating Elisaveta;
- In Tales, Fiona spots Elisaveta being kidnapped across basically a mile of hall through an entire crowd of people while also dancing;
- It’s even in the puzzle book! I swear I’m not making this up. Check out page 15, where you have to work out which character is connected to which by following the mess of lines. Everyone is looking straight forward, except for Fiona, who is looking right across the page at guess who.
Even when Elisaveta isn’t around, Fiona is always ready to defend her. The Young Readers’ adaptation of Legends includes a scene deleted from early in the movie where Fiona’s friends try to warn her of the obstacles to becoming a knight and Fiona insists, “That’s just the city guards; they don’t get that their queen is my queen too, and my queen will make me a knight, you’ll see!” Later in the same movie, when Arturo confronts Fiona about the state of the kingdom, Fiona can immediately list improvements Elisaveta both has and is making.
After they have finally met properly, Fiona is even more ready to protect the queen’s honour. When Bor speaks down to Elisaveta in the pilot episode of TGB, it’s Fiona–at this point barely a knight and only in the meeting as a lowly guard–who stands up to remind him that his niece is the queen now, and should be addressed as such. When she realises she is speaking out of turn, Fiona apologises not to Bor but to Elisaveta.
The queen, clearly amused by the whole thing, responds, “Nobody should apologise for the truth.”
“Not for that,” Fiona corrects. “For implying you couldn’t defend yourself, my queen.”
(Bor is significantly nicer to Fiona in every subsequent episode and I know behind the scene interviews have said it was because they decided between pilot and series not to go with Bor being the traitor but I like to think that Fiona standing up for his niece endeared the knight to him.)
Fiona is fairly consistent about addressing Elisaveta respectfully as “Your Majesty”, “Your Highness”, “my Queen” and so on, even when other people are addressing her by name, even when that other person is the queen herself. In Dragon’s Reef (TGB 2.11), Elisaveta tells Fiona, “My friends call me Lyza,” to which Fiona responds “I don’t, your highness”. In the 2001 Summer Storm special, in a moment where Fiona briefly believes Elisaveta to be dead, she finally calls for her by name, only to have Elisaveta appear all, “So you do remember my name; I had wondered”, to which Fiona haughtily responds “My Queen.”
Also the 2004 Winter King special has Kilrogg say “Elisaveta this! Elisaveta that! If she told you to jump off a cliff, would you do that?!” and Fiona immediately says “Yes. Yes, I would. If the Queen thinks jumping is the best thing to do, it’s the best thing to do, and I’d do it.” Of course, at the climax, it’s Fiona who tells the queen to jump and Elisaveta who follows without question down the ice ramp.
As the series goes on, Fiona’s actions earn her promotions. When she is accused in On The Brink (TGB 2.2) of taking advantage of the queen’s generosity for her own advancement, Fiona doesn’t defend herself but Elisaveta, insisting the queen would never let her get away with that. A couple of episodes later, despite it being against her immediate best interests, Fiona still tries to convince the general of the Red Army that Elisaveta is telling him the truth, that the queen will honor any deal she makes.
“Sometimes my queen makes mistakes,” Fiona says. “Sometimes she gets it wrong. But so do you, General. My queen owns her failures, she learns, and she does better; what have you done, but brought pain for pain?”
Fiona’s insistence on respect for the queen even goes as far as refusing to let Elisaveta disrespect herself. She refuses to let Elisaveta brood or downplay her abilities. In Tales, Elisaveta tries to insist rescuing her is hopeless, that she is just one rat, and preventing the invasion is the more important task. Peggy immediately agrees with her. Fiona immediately smacks them both down, insisting that Elisaveta is not any rat but the queen and thus far too smart to not help them come up with a plan to do both things at once. Which, of course they then proceed quite handily to do.
So Fiona is clearly and obviously devoted to her queen. How does Elisaveta feel about her?
In Legends, their first proper conversation happens when Elisaveta discovers Fiona practicing while trying to decide what to do about her father. She is clearly intrigued. Admittedly mostly because of Fiona’s sword. They are both weird about their weapons. Elisaveta offers to spar, starts out not really trying while also giving Fiona advice and then, realising this knight is actually good, goes all out, disarming Fiona easily. Fiona finds this super cool. Elisaveta finds Fiona finding this super cool also super cool. The next time they meet, Elisaveta’s smile is brightest when she knights Fiona.
In the Disney+ promos, set between the end of Legends and the first episode of TGB, when Bor interrupts a meeting, Elisaveta immediately shuts him down; when Fiona interrupts a meeting, Elisaveta immediately stops the meeting to listen to her. After Fiona manages to cause a mix up with the mail that ends up with an important message being lost until it’s almost too late, Elisaveta seems more amused by Fiona’s recounting of all the steps she took to try and fix it than by the diplomatic incident itself. She is also the first to insist Fiona has a second chance, although she does follow that up by making Fiona a mailrat for a month.
This pattern continues in The Great Below, where Elisaveta both indulges Fiona’s wild schemes and gives her more leeway than she affords other characters, but also teases, teaches, encourages and even punishes Fiona where it will drive a lesson home. When there are social occasions, Elisaveta always seeks out Fiona. When there are diplomatic occasions, Elisaveta seeks out Fiona. When things start exploding, Elisaveta seeks out Fiona.
After learning about the return of the Red Army at the end of the first season, Elisaveta orders everyone out of the room and everyone except Fiona goes. Not only does Elisaveta not complain about this, it quickly becomes clear that she expects it, as she uses the opportunity to seek Fiona’s advice.
As the General gets closer and closer to winning, Fiona gets harsher and harsher in her own counter plans. It seems like Elisaveta will support this. After all, Fiona’s revenge would in her sense be her own revenge. The first invasion was as responsible for her own parents’ deaths as it was Fiona’s mother. But Elisaveta puts that aside because she knows Fiona wouldn’t be able to live with herself afterwards, and preventing Fiona’s further pain is more important to her than her own. While they’re both temporarily in prison together after, Elisaveta makes Fiona lean on her to sleep because “You wouldn’t refuse an order from your queen.” Fiona mumbles “Never” and Elisaveta basically makes heart eyes at her the entire time she’s sleeping.
In Winter King, Elisaveta goes from making the hard decision to leave troops behind as the ice encroaches to not just having a highly risky rescue attempt made but mounting it herself the instant she realises Fiona is one of them. This special also includes huddling for warmth and it’s worth noting that we see Elisaveta hug only three people ever and two of them are Fiona and Fiona in disguise. (If you are into disguises, this is a great fandom for you!)
In Tales, Elisaveta basically sets the entire plot in motion by picking Fiona to be her personal bodyguard on the trip to Port Royal and the Undersea. She jokes that Fiona looks like she needs a break and when Fiona points out she will be working the whole time as the queen’s guard, Elisaveta says Fiona will be working the whole time at a beach which is entirely different and thus a break. Which is to say: they go on holiday together! And then kidnapping and pirates happen, but still.
Elisaveta adores Fiona. She values her advice. She appreciates and values Fiona’s skills. She enjoys and seeks out her company. She teases Fiona but always kindly. She’s not afraid to put her foot down when she thinks that Fiona’s reckless streak is going to be an issue and at the same time she trusts Fiona to give her the leeway sometimes needed for that same reckless streak to solve their current predicament.
Also on page nine of the colouring book, they are using each other's swords. Just an art error? Or evidence of a trust between them shared by no other, and an unexplained situation that deserves a thousand fics of context? You decide. (It’s the latter. It is 100% the latter. Please write weapon swapping fic for me!!)
PART FOUR
Or, the wrap up
In conclusion:
- Fiona and Elisaveta are each other’s formative influence;
- Fiona is never less than devoted to Elisaveta, attentive, supportive, and respectful in a way she is with no other character;
- Elisaveta in turn repeatedly demonstrates that Fiona is her favourite, always paying attention to her, challenging her, allowing her unprecedented leeway and generally reacting to Fiona’s social missteps with adoring amusement;
- They basically spend all their time rescuing each other, challenging each other, and generally helping each other become better people;
- They have matching swords. And what could be more conclusive than that?*
* Though, if you’re still not convinced and pirates are your thing, please join me here next time when I explore the possible solution to all our problems: the Queen/Pirate/Knight threesome!