Tess Harding
| Character | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Tess Harding Ava (former life) |
| Occupation: | Queen of Antar (former life); formerly a student at Roswell High |
| Relationships: | Jolene Skarrstin (genetic template) Nasedo/Ed Harding (father figure) Zan (son with Max) Max Evans (love interest, former life's husband) Isabel Evans (friend), Michael Guerin (friend), Jim Valenti (guardian), Kyle Valenti (friend/very brief love interest Liz Parker (rival) |
| Fandom: | Roswell |
| Other: | Wikipedia |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Tess Harding is a character in the Roswell series. She is portrayed by Emilie de Ravin.
Canon
Tess came to Earth with the other alien-human hybrids, Max Evans, Isabel Evans and Michael Guerin, but she was left in her pod after they left theirs. She was raised by another alien, Nasedo, who had found her and had apparently been sent there to help them.
In Season 1 and 2, Tess appears to be obsessed with Max and fulfilling her destiny by being with him. This is in part because of Nasedo's deal with Kivar which is leads her to become pregnant with Max's child. In season 2, Tess ends up causing Alex Whitman to die due to her mindwarping him too many times, causing friction between the humans and hybrids of the pod squad. Max allows her to leave Earth with his child.
Tess returns in Season 3, after Kivar reject Zan (her and Max's son) because he's completely human. Due to their landing and killing FBI agents, she sets out for help from the gang in order to protect Zan. She uses herself as bait for the FBI and sacrifices herself and killing everyone in the process.
Tess is the most powerful of the Royal Four because she has used her powers from the beginning, and with Nasedo's help, she improves her abilities. She tries to teach the other hybrids how to use their own powers. Her unique ability is mindwarping, the ability to create illusions which allow people to temporary see whatever she wants them to see.
Fandom
This article or section needs expansion. |
Tess Harding fans are known as "Hussies".
Dreamers aka Max/Liz fans started hating on Tess when spoilers of the character emerged in February 2000, which led to them creating many fics to explain and deal with Tess. Candy aka Maria/Michael fans seem to have generally liked or supported Tess. When the spoilers of Tess/Max having sex (and having a child in result) was announced and later became canon, it caused quite an uproar in the Dreamer fandom at Fan Forum. The resulting fics made the sex a mindwarp (which is what it had been spoiled as being) and Tess being killed. A LiveJournal community in support of Tess, tess_fans was created in November 2003[1]. The Anti-Tess LiveJournal community was created in February 2004[2].
Redeeming Tess fics are common elements in denialfic or fix-it fics set in Season 2: where writers ignore the bad stuff or they try to explain why she did what she did. This trend in fanfiction seem to have started after the series ended and the initial hate seemed to die off for the character led by Stargazers and Lamptrimmers as explained by cardinalgirl in response to the "A History of Roswell Fanfic" meta:
"Because most canon-based Gazer takes off before Alex was killed on the show (obviously) it follows suit that it takes off before Tess is revealed to be his murderer, so while a few Gazer stories have Tess outed anyways and then taken out..., many instead opt to erase her wrongs and put her safely with Kyle where so many people had wanted her to end up.The latter have been around ... where we got looks into Tess' past and miserable life growing up with Nasedo, but those were generally pre-Alex, and don't really cover her S2 crimes.... These fics don't absolve Tess of the things she's done, but are honest and heart-wrenching acknowledgments that this was a character we (and usually Kyle) loved, who betrayed our trust, and at the same time they present us with a Tess who, like the show hinted, was in over her head and had no way out.
A third faction of Tess-redeeming fics that are really only just now appearing, are stories which present Tess on the precipice of following through with Nasedo's plan and the steps that would ultimately lead to Alex's death, but instead we see Tess choosing not to follow through. ...These stories are fascinating because they really examine Tess' strengths and weaknesses, and by showing her struggling to do the right thing, we can understand more clearly why she did what she did on the show in the first place."[3]
Pairings
- Tess/Kyle known as "Lamptrimmers" and "Rebounders"
- Tess/Max known as "Rebel Alliance" for "Rebels" short
- Tess/Alex known as "Fifth Wheeler"
- Tess/Isabel known as "Mindwarper"
- Tess/Liz known as "Catfighter"
- Tess/Michael known as "Mental Vibrator"
- Tess/Ava known as "Cats' Eyes"
- Tess/Lonnie known as "Icestorm"
- Tess/Courtney known as "Hussy Lover"
- Tess/Maria known as "Lifesavers"
Crossover pairings with Tess appeared in Dark Angel, Smallville, Supernatural, and Stargate Universe crossovers.
Fanworks
| Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. |
- "You're the king, baby, I'm your queen", a gifset of Tess showcasing Taylor Swift's lyrics to Blank Space
Archives & Fannish Links
LiveJournal Communities
References
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