(no subject)

[bedlamsbard]

Hey, ducks, I'm still alive, for those of you who were wondering. (Yeah, I haven't posted in A WHOLE DAY and people are wondering. I am not that fabulous, I'm sure.) Shopping all day yesterday, where I spent an inordinate amount of money and walked away with, besides food, three CDs (Emmylou Harris, A Fine Frenzy, and Celtic Thunder) and Dennis Lehane's The Given Day.

More importantly, though, the super Target at the Clearview Mall (two stories! has a machine thingy to take carts up alongside the escalators!) had



. In case y'all cannot see, that is Target mocking me by plastering big pictures of the PC DVD all over the walls, when we ALL KNOW that PC is not coming out on DVD until December 22. They are MOCKING ME. They want to FEEL MY PAIN AND MY RAGE. See, I had no choice but to spend money to exacerbate those feelings of intense hatred. (Picture from my brand new cell phone! Not that anyone had my old number, but I have a new number now! And a new phone! One that has a camera! And nothing else, just the ability to take pictures and make phone calls.)

And then today I woke up about three hours later than I'd meant to, a.k.a. too late to do my laundry before I had to gallivant off to a "retreat" with Intensive Newcomb, and by retreat, I mean "six hours in a single room at the LBC."

So that is where I have been. And now I'm off to read Titus Andronicus while I try and figure out how to make Tirian look competent.

Comments

[realpestilence.livejournal.com]

I did notice the lack of posting; but, rather than fearing your demise, I presumed you were merely studying like a good college girl. Or something. *laughs*


Re: Tirian's competence...you say he's a good peace-time king, just not a good warrior king. So...put him in some situations that require his strengths, particularly things that the Pevensies might not be able to do, for whatever reason. I mean, they've got all this diplomatic experience, but it's rather aggressive and machiavellian. Have *they* ever dealt with the kind of mundane problems that a peaceful, bucolic country might have? Aka-schools, if any; if not, why not; all the problems therein. Trade that's *not* oriented around war-time needs and so can't be hammered through council as a patriotic duty. Plumbing problems! Roads that need to be built or cleared. Prisons-who's in them, why, and suitable punishments/judgements for people who aren't traitors/murderers/spies and don't qualify for a royal execution, just did something wrong. The care of the elderly or people in need for whatever reason (immigrants/handicapped/bad harvest year,etc)-soup kitchens? How do you get the help out into the more remote areas? AND negotiate petty squabbles between species, things that are basically finger-pointing and name-calling stuff, that again can't be ridden roughshod over due to war conditions...all kinds of things that need to be fixed by understanding, kindness, good judgement, and NOT by beheading, poisoning, or any of the other dramatic solutions that the Pevensies would have ended up using. Just because he hasn't had to be tough-as-nails like them doesn't mean he can't learn, either. *eyes Calormene prisoners*

The mechanics of government would be the same, it's just the methods that would be different. I think it's VERY important that you show Tiran interacting with some not-crazy Narnians, because they'll give a better impression of how he relates to and is regarded by his people. You can't judge by extremists.


Do we know how old Tirian is? I don't recall anything being said about his family, either, but it's been a while since I've read LB. He might not have anybody close, no advisors or friends but Jewel (who has limited use, imo). How do you *learn* to be king with no mentors? *is NOT going to look up LB!*

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

That's not really, currently, an issue. I've got this horrible unwieldy bit here (*beats Dust*) where Peter's defaulting to Tirian on the matter of the current situation of the country -- the refugees/rebels, and all that. Because he's assuming Tirian knows, and Tirian actually does. He knows where most of the camps are, and some of who's in them, and the current international political situation (the west: has its own problems. Archenland: isn't going to antagonize Calormen until it's certain that Calormen's going to lose) and he cares about the people. Really cares, I mean, in a way the zealot Narnians don't. They're all, "we don't care if our children die! martyr's deaths!" and Tirian is pretty much, "you people are all idiots. bowing to the Calormenes is just words, and if it keeps more of my people alive so much the better."

Interesting fact about the zealot Narnians: mostly non-humans. The normal Narnians are almost evenly split between humans and non-humans, and that is, I think, going to be a first in Narnia stories.

Canonically, Tirian's older than Peter in LB (somewhere between twenty-one and twenty-three, depending on which timeline you look at); I think Wikipedia puts him between twenty and twenty-five at the time of LB. So my Tirian was twenty-five in LB and thirty now.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

The only family/mentor we ever hear about is Tirian's father Erlian, who (presumably) died after a battle with the giants as an older man.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Maybe Tirian can bake a couple of Calormenes in a pie or something.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Don't tempt me to do something really horrible to the Calormenes. *sigh* Although. Wait. Not Tirian, but there are a lot of Narnian servants/slaves...

[lyamainu.livejournal.com]

ooh... I love Raggle Taggle Gypsy!