In Focus: Hani Foonmall

Making up half of the core and (sub)titular duo, Hani Foonmall is certainly one of the key characters within Beyond the Tree. Described in my notes as “a simple woman with very complex problems”, Hani could be considered the one cast member in Beyond the Tree the most badly in need of a psychiatrist. Very much paradox, Hani is calm but impulsive, at ease and yet troubled, seeking guidance yet intent on going her own way.

Conceptually, Hani is the doer, the Action Girl, with several elements of her design – in particular her visual one – intentionally aiming towards what we (but not necessarily Night elves) would consider tomboyish. Her progression is by large mental and social rather than physical – she’s already a highly skilled warrior (albeit a rather poor soldier), she has no quest for a magic sword or armour or any of the sort – what I find interesting about her is not the ease with which she fights, but the difficulty she has with dealing with her own problems. The most notable example being in spite of how much confusion and frustration she carries with her regarding her dismissal from the Sentinels and in spite of how we’ve seen her take this out on her surroundings, she has never once raised her hand or even her voice towards either the High Priestess or the Sentinels themselves.

Hani started off as something of a caricature of my long term World of Warcraft character – ancient night elven priestess Nhani Moonfall. I’ve sometimes described her as “Nhani unhinged” – lacking most if not all of the self-awareness and restraint of her namesake and instead largely acting on instinct and impulse, following what seems right at the time. Hani has grown far beyond those origins by now and at this point in time, Hani Foonmall and Nhani Moonfall have only a few things left in common.

Hani is a warrior, and an exceptional one at that. Her aptitude for combat is an inherent and very natural part of her – it’s not something she thinks about, it’s just something she does, and very well. It has flip sides though – beside the implication that she might not really understand how exceptional she is and thus not clue into that not everyone finds things nearly as simple, it’s also implied that with how quickly she took to the actual fighting.. she never really had to learn the discipline most need first.

Stan Lee expressed it as “With great power comes great responsibility.” – one of the interesting things with Hani is that she doesn’t have that responsibility, but may yet learn it.

While I definitely think Hani is an inherently good person, I don’t think she’s necessarily all that nice. Distant and aloof – even to her friends – Hani can be very detached and downright dismissive of people she doesn’t respect or care about, including their worth. While she’s definitely the kind you’d want watching over you through a dark alley, she’s not really the kind to take to formal meetings or social gatherings. This is especially true with her instinctive nature and her apparent unwillingness – or perhaps even inability – to connect cause and long-term effect; Hani will generally prefer to live in the now and ignore or flat out miss the big picture.

I find Hani a rather interesting character to write, both due to all the paradoxes, contradictions and internal conflicts she has, as well as the huge space she has to grow as a person. She’s a very flawed and not particularely driven person – she just keeps wandering because it’s better than doing nothing – and because it keeps focused in the present. Of course, as we’ve already seen she can’t just keep in the present – sometimes you have to think back, or ahead.

I’m definitely looking forward to seeing her evolve over time.