Feathers of resistance: avian networks and interspecies agency in Tamora Pierce’s Trickster Duology

Abstract

This paper examines how Tamora Pierce's Trickster duology reimagines avian agency, arguing that crows function not as magical familiars or symbolic figures but as political and cultural agents within a multispecies world shaped by colonial power. Drawing on multispecies studies, feminist fantasy criticism, and young adult scholarship, the paper develops an explicit distinction between agency and instrumentality — defining agency as the capacity to alter political conditions through species-specific practices rather than through approximation of human intention. Where much YA fantasy treats animals as metaphors or instruments, Pierce's crows choose whom to report to, define the terms of their own participation, and sustain the emotional infrastructure of rebellion.

Focusing on crows aligned with the trickster god Kyprioth, the paper demonstrates how avian networks operate as infrastructural systems of communication, mobility, and care, extending the political reach of protagonist Alianne ("Aly") Cooper. The duology inverts traditional power dynamics: Kyprioth does not compel the crows but relies on their voluntary participation, positioning avian agency as the condition for divine power — not its product. The novels further differentiate crow actors by location, access, and relational history, embedding them in distinct spatial and political contexts that shape their risk exposure and proximity to power.

The paper also complicates this account by tracing how avian capacities are reshaped under imperial conditions of surveillance and administrative governance. Through the concept of enrollment, it shows how the same capacities that enable insurgent coordination can be redirected within systems of control, demonstrating that multispecies agency is politically consequential without being inherently liberatory. By attending to how crows traverse restricted spaces, relay intelligence, and sustain emotional endurance, the paper argues that resistance in the Trickster duology is a collaborative, multispecies achievement — and that YA fantasy is a productive site for theorizing distributed political life.