Fic Experiment: "Legend"

[mark_asphodel]

Combining Tellius with the other worlds is a bitch.  

Anyway.  So, I've been toying with a serious take on It's All One FE World for months, and some time ago I thought about using the device of an interconnected myth cycle or something equally hazy.  Finally got there, or as close as I'm going to get.  At a certain point, I said "screw the research, it's all about myths anyway."

Overview:
Parents telling stories to their children, specifically to sister/brother dyads.

Step One: Jugdral

This one's easy enough as a starting point.  Jugdral comes before Archanea, and it has a clearly-defined set of foundation legends.  Ethlin reading a story to Leaf and Altenna was the easy part.  I'm not going to call Ethlin the World's Worst Mother, but her behavior re: Altenna and the Yied Desert suggests something's a bit off in this household.

Step Two: Archanea

Another continent, another royal brother and sister.  Imagining that the works of Omeros (bard from FE5) survived a millennium or so and made it to Archanea isn't that cracked out.  Liza's not exactly a saintly figure here, but given the kids she raised (as in, actually RAISED, unlike most FE moms), I can't imagine she was a plaster saint.

Step Three: 

And it's off to headcanonland, with Magvel in the distant future of Archanea.  After beginning this 'fic I decided that the twins' mom likely never knew them at all, but I wasn't having Fado reading the kids a bedtime story.  He's a cool king-dad, but not that warm and fuzzy, IMO.  So, you get "Deborah" instead, a modern-ish and tolerant mom who nonetheless is a little put off by her kids' lack of social graces.

Step Four:

Tellius.  @#$%.  I guess the presence of the medallion is opening Elena's mind to some weird transmissions and shit.  IDK, man-- I didn't want to exclude it, didn't want it coming first, and didn't want it last.

Step Five:

In which househusband Roy reads to his kids while Lilina's off on business, and I invent two children to keep up with the brother/sister theme.  Ella resembles the Ostian side of the family, and Bertrand the Pheraean.  And Roy's mother was apparently Fiora.  Oh well.

The connective bits:

1--2: the brother/sister theme connecting Judgral and Archanea (and recurring throughout)
2--3: the dragon princess theme connecting Archanea and Magvel
3--4: Magical jewelry McGuffins connecting Magvel and Tellius
4--5: The hero doing his Own Damn Thing connecting Tellius to 2nd Gen Elibe.

With apologies to the Tragically Hip.

Comments

[samuraiter.livejournal.com]

>:-) Welcome to the Dark Side. At last!

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

Hah. No, you won't see me pulling this again. Judgral-->Archanea? Canon. Archanea-->Magvel? Headcanon. A side step through the Dragon's Gate to Ereb, I mean Elibe? Headcanon. Tellius? Nothin' doin'.

[amielleon]

Quirky. Interesting.

Also, I c wut u did thar wrt Ike.

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

/whistles innocently

[shimizu-hitomi.livejournal.com]

Oooh. You're one of the only FE writers I trust to pull off a good crossover.

I especially enjoyed your take on househusband Roy. :P Glad you didn't use Fado, actually, because the contrast between Roy and the mothers in the other sections brings everything to a nice conclusion.

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :D

Glad you didn't use Fado, actually, because the contrast between Roy and the mothers in the other sections brings everything to a nice conclusion.

Yeah, that was a major reason for not using Fado even after I decided TwinMom wasn't around that long. It felt OOC, and it spoiled the progression leading up to Roy. I rather like Roy now... some of the time. Rather, I like what he can potentially be.

[kyusil.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of this one, even though I only knew of the characters in the last 3 stories, and only fully 'got' the last 2.

I will try not to fangirl too hard over 5 but Roy/Lilina is one of the few pairings I really like, oddly enough. It's nice to see it written well post-game, and I like the dynamic they seem to have going as far as their roles, even though Lilina wasn't present in this. Also I didn't get that you were implying Eliwood/Fiora necessarily; it seemed almost purposefully ambiguous to me.

I really like what you did with Elena, and I also have to say you write kids really well. One of my biggest fandom peeves is the tendency to make kids just... gratuitously cute, with no other purpose than to amuse their parents and the reader with their pwecious antics. You write them like real people, and the cuteness comes organically from that. :)

(I hope it's okay that I'm posting a sort-of review here instead of at FFN, but I was sort of working off your notes too.)

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of this one, even though I only knew of the characters in the last 3 stories, and only fully 'got' the last 2.

Thanks. The deliberate (IMO) resonance between the early games is pretty neat-- having them be the "baby" of one guy (Kaga) gives them a sort of organic connection that the post-SNES games lack.

I like the dynamic they seem to have going as far as their roles, even though Lilina wasn't present in this

Roy and Lilina are odd for me in that I'm not particularly invested in what we see of them in-game... but the ending (Roy sparing Idoun, Lilina unifying Lycia, etc) just fascinates me. So much potential there! I almost feel cheated we got a prequel instead of a sequel to FE6.

Also I didn't get that you were implying Eliwood/Fiora necessarily; it seemed almost purposefully ambiguous to me.

It was intended as ambiguous, yeah, but it felt more "Fiora" to me in the end. IDK.

You write them like real people, and the cuteness comes organically from that. :)

Thank you VERY much. Yeah... I admit that I hate the way kids are usually written and either avoid reading kidfic or I read it and flinch. I will say that I took a Child Dev class in college that included doing "field studies" on the kids at the model nursery school at the premises. It was eye-opening. I also remember being a small child (2-4) pretty well, and remember "kid logic" and the weird way I viewed the world back then. I could go on for hours about how writers and scriptwriters get children wrong, but I'll stop. :)

I hope it's okay that I'm posting a sort-of review here instead of at FFN

Sure. I like my review count as much as anyone, but I like discussion more.