More fanfiction -- why is this stuff in my head?

[azurelunatic]

wolfieboy mentioned over in a post of shadesong's something about how, with the well-written villains, you could turn the story around and have it work the other way -- the villain of the old story would be the hero of the new, and so on and so forth.

I mentioned there that I'd told the Little Fayoumis the Tragedy of Anakin Skywalker (before the release of Episode III, I might add) and the Tragedy of Konstantine Bothari (a topic that was mentioned onList years ago).

And then I suddenly had Bothari in my head, wanting his story told. The diction is familiar to the readers of the Russian fairy tales. And then the demons started speaking up. The angels will be starting to talk next, I think.

Bothari's a complex man for someone so allegedly simple.

The challenge is going to be describing all the complexities in simple vocabulary, both to illustrate Bothari's limited intelligence and to keep the story within the reading range of a kid the Little Fayoumis's age. Additionally, I want to artificially limit Bothari's vocabulary to exclude words that would take the story out of PG-13 range. I want to describe all the gruesome things that happen to him in such a way so that younger readers wouldn't be too horribly disturbed, yet make sure it's disturbing enough to have the desired effect on adult readers.

We'll see how it goes.

Comments

[sraun]

Who ever said Bothari was a simple character? He may be one of the deepest, most complex in the Vorkosiverse! Just because he has an overlay of smooth simplicity doesn't mean he's easy to write. He kind of reminds me of Spock's comment at the end of the TOS episode "Mirror, Mirror" - civilization is a thin veneer over barbarism - that so excellently describes Bothari.

[azurelunatic]

"Simple" in the older sense of "not put together very intelligently" was the main meaning, actually.

He has a lot of reasons for everything he does, and I think I want to explore them.

[thette.livejournal.com]

Oooh! I want to read!

wolfieboy mentioned over in a post of shadesong's something about how, with the well-written villains, you could turn the story around and have it work the other way -- the villain of the old story would be the hero of the new, and so on and so forth.

That was one of the things that bothered me with the book I'm currently reading (The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks): the villain is just an evil cardboard cutout. You know, tortures people for the fun of it, keeping them alive to torture them longer, killing them elaborately and slowly, keeping animals that eat prisoners and each other and so on, and so on. I want my moral ambiguity, dammit!

[azurelunatic]

When I get done, I'll definitely share.

Now I'm wondering how one could properly exploit the plot device of a cardboard villain. There has to be something he's good for. Oh! I know! Making villains out of Morally Ambiguous characters like Ani Skywalker!