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Jan. 20th, 2011
Title: If You Need Somewhere To Fall In Love
Fandom: Legend of the Seeker
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,775
Characters/Pairings: Cara/Dahlia
Previous: Part 2
Summary: Cara has taught Dahlia many things about pain.
( It's you. You make me weak. You make me think of things long dead. Why are you always here? If you're not with me, you're in my head… I can't be rid of you. )
Fandom: Legend of the Seeker
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,775
Characters/Pairings: Cara/Dahlia
Previous: Part 2
Summary: Cara has taught Dahlia many things about pain.
( It's you. You make me weak. You make me think of things long dead. Why are you always here? If you're not with me, you're in my head… I can't be rid of you. )
But then, that's every post, isn't it?
So I have this habit that comes in very handy when writing original fiction. And that's to step back and take a look at the archetypes you've construed, their place in the plot, what they're meant to do, and say "Okay. Does this character have to be white? Why is this character straight? Why can't this character be transgendered?"
"BECAUSE TRANNIES ARE GROSS, BRO!"
It usually results in a story that's both a bit more diverse and a better read. Like, I had this YA story where the female lead started out as a Chloe Sullivan type... crusader, very interested in social justice, very passionate... and that's all well and good, but then I made her a Hispanic woman (the book takes place in Texas, so how much sense would it make if there weren't a single Hispanic in the cast?). And suddenly the story is more interesting and even subversive, because there's a female Hispanic character who isn't all about her "salsa spice."
And there I was doing the same thing for another story I was writing, wondering why the cast had to be so white. The hero's story is that he's an immortal who's been exiled to Earth (specifically, America) for hundreds of years, so obviously if he's a minority that's a very different story then if he's white. And as interesting as that story would be (I mean, I'd read it if someone else wrote it), I don't think anyone's that interested in an Irish flatfoot's take on the past few centuries of race relations.
Then we have the villains, with whom we have both the obvious issue -- it's kinda weird if the only minorities in a story are the bad guys -- and the issue that if you're a shapeshifter who's infiltrating a society full of white privilege, patriarchy, and so on... isn't it in your best interests to appear to be a straight white guy?
Then there's another hero character, Ares. The idea there was that I was sick of every Greek mythology story doing Ares as the villain because he's the God of War (because war is bad. Let's go to war with the God of War!), and so it would be interesting to portray him as a hero. But he's a Greek god, so obviously he has to be Greek, and even if you portrayed him as very dark-skinned, he's still the thuggish, less intelligent, more brutal counterpart of Athena when it comes to warfare. Yeah, no unfortunate implications there.
But the character's evolved away from that a little bit and become... well... Arnold Schwarzenegger as portrayed by Brian Blessed, is how I like to think of him. He's very Dablone, he likes wine, women, and song... he's a take on the mythological Ares, but not immediately recognizable as such. So... why does he have to be Ares? Can't he be any suitably violent god from any pantheon?
So then I thought "Wouldn't it be interesting if he was an Asian god?" After all, he's abrasive, he's loud, he's uncouth, he's hypersexual... that's something you never see in Western portrayals of Asian characters.
Okay, almost never.
So now I just need an Asian god who fits my requirements (although any non-European god would be cool). Big bruiser in the grand tradition of Jayne Cobb, omnisexual/bisexual/homosexual (basically, he needs to like dudes somewhat), has a son (I could just make up a son, but that's a little cheap, don't you think?), and it would be cool if my mental image of him could be Toshiro Mifune. Because how cool would it be to be able to describe a book series as "Timothy Olyphant, Alan Tudyk, and Toshiro Mifune fight evil"?
Almost as cool as Obi-Wan Mifune.
So I have this habit that comes in very handy when writing original fiction. And that's to step back and take a look at the archetypes you've construed, their place in the plot, what they're meant to do, and say "Okay. Does this character have to be white? Why is this character straight? Why can't this character be transgendered?"
"BECAUSE TRANNIES ARE GROSS, BRO!"
It usually results in a story that's both a bit more diverse and a better read. Like, I had this YA story where the female lead started out as a Chloe Sullivan type... crusader, very interested in social justice, very passionate... and that's all well and good, but then I made her a Hispanic woman (the book takes place in Texas, so how much sense would it make if there weren't a single Hispanic in the cast?). And suddenly the story is more interesting and even subversive, because there's a female Hispanic character who isn't all about her "salsa spice."
And there I was doing the same thing for another story I was writing, wondering why the cast had to be so white. The hero's story is that he's an immortal who's been exiled to Earth (specifically, America) for hundreds of years, so obviously if he's a minority that's a very different story then if he's white. And as interesting as that story would be (I mean, I'd read it if someone else wrote it), I don't think anyone's that interested in an Irish flatfoot's take on the past few centuries of race relations.
Then we have the villains, with whom we have both the obvious issue -- it's kinda weird if the only minorities in a story are the bad guys -- and the issue that if you're a shapeshifter who's infiltrating a society full of white privilege, patriarchy, and so on... isn't it in your best interests to appear to be a straight white guy?
Then there's another hero character, Ares. The idea there was that I was sick of every Greek mythology story doing Ares as the villain because he's the God of War (because war is bad. Let's go to war with the God of War!), and so it would be interesting to portray him as a hero. But he's a Greek god, so obviously he has to be Greek, and even if you portrayed him as very dark-skinned, he's still the thuggish, less intelligent, more brutal counterpart of Athena when it comes to warfare. Yeah, no unfortunate implications there.
But the character's evolved away from that a little bit and become... well... Arnold Schwarzenegger as portrayed by Brian Blessed, is how I like to think of him. He's very Dablone, he likes wine, women, and song... he's a take on the mythological Ares, but not immediately recognizable as such. So... why does he have to be Ares? Can't he be any suitably violent god from any pantheon?
So then I thought "Wouldn't it be interesting if he was an Asian god?" After all, he's abrasive, he's loud, he's uncouth, he's hypersexual... that's something you never see in Western portrayals of Asian characters.
Okay, almost never.
So now I just need an Asian god who fits my requirements (although any non-European god would be cool). Big bruiser in the grand tradition of Jayne Cobb, omnisexual/bisexual/homosexual (basically, he needs to like dudes somewhat), has a son (I could just make up a son, but that's a little cheap, don't you think?), and it would be cool if my mental image of him could be Toshiro Mifune. Because how cool would it be to be able to describe a book series as "Timothy Olyphant, Alan Tudyk, and Toshiro Mifune fight evil"?
Almost as cool as Obi-Wan Mifune.
