rthstewart (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rthstewart) wrote2014-12-06 11:58 am
rthstewart) wrote2014-12-06 11:58 am
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December 5 -- For Yalumesse-- Evil Banker Morgan of the House of Linch
yalumesse asked for some reflections on Evil Banker Morgan of the House of Linch. Like much of By Royal Decree, Morgan was an after-thought, something added in furtherance of something I wanted to do or say. In this case, specifically,"Edmund and Ed are reserved for my Royal siblings, usually accompanied by long suffering sighs, cries of outrage, and very occasionally associated with the word 'brilliant,' as in 'Ed, you are brilliant!' Obviously, I am also the 'King Most Abused By His Irascible Guard.' Ass and Brute tend to be popular with my former lovers; any current one, well, that is no one's business but our own, and I do not much care, so long as it is not 'brother,' 'father,' or 'Peter.' For your purposes, here, 'Your Highness' will do; or 'Your Majesty;' King Edmund as well."
He turned to the Tiger. "Satisfied?"
"You left out 'Sire.'"
"You are impossible to please. You know I don't like that one at all."
I really wanted Edmund to have to rattle on about his titles in order to set up a riff and parody of the ubiquitous love triangle stories. To do that, I needed a new character for Edmund to say this to, and it couldn’t be a sibling or Jalur. I gave her, in that chapter, the strange halting speech pattern to give Jalur the openinng to correct her, and then give Edmund the opportunity for his soliloquy.
So MUCH of this story was done on a whim based upon very poorly thought out head canon. I wanted Crows because I’d associated Edmund, visually, with Richard Burton in the old Becket film with Peter O'Toole and Thomas Becket’s symbol was a blackbird. I plugged Willa in because I loved the idea of the Mischief of the Intelligence Service and the idea of this bloodthirsty enthusiastic rodent. I knew I wanted a big, solitary Guard for Edmund and so created Jalur but in the first posting of the story, he was temporary.
The story was going to be 3 chapters, end with the hound in a corset, and certainly not with Morgan and Edmund together. I gave her the odd speech mannerisms in order for Jalur to correct her in Chapter 3 and then give Edmund the opportunity to expand upon his titles – all of which became very important later as a major recurring theme over their love story.
The deeper I got into BRD, I kept writing all this flirtatious dialogue and Edmund's ever increasing obsession with her and by the end, well, the end was by no means certain and I wrote out how it almost didn't happen In The Great Mother's Day Debate.
Even well into Queen Susan in Tashbaan, I’d not settled on Morgan as the bearer of an heir and Edmund’s wife and delayed identifying her as his wife for years. . I knew there had to be a human heir -- I did have head canon over that. I didn't want it to be Peter because of the characterization I'd given him. I couldn't force Lucy or Susan to leave a child behind. That left Edmund and I already had Morgan, so I could create a new character, or run with her.
She’s a very difficult character to write and had this come about differently, I might not have written her as I did. Having already given Morgan the strange speech patterns, started in chapter 3 to give Jalur an opening and then continued over the course of BRD story to keep her consistent, I realized something more – that she had what was then called Asperger’s – she was on the autism scale and this became more fully realized once I started in on H&M.
I realized during TQSiT that – at least at that stage of the writing -- people liked Morgan, that she was different, and so Edmund ended up stuck with her.
I’ve had my doubts about Morgan lately and I think, based on what happened with the stories, that people got tired of Morgan and liked her less. However, I heard recently from a readerstarpaint , whose comments and insights just meant the world to me. Morgan is a formidable woman with a pretty significant cognitive impairment, and, at one point, a major depressive disorder. Yet, she succeeds. She finds a place and friends, respect, acceptance, romance, and love. She asserts herself and takes her place as a leader. I hope that for some readers she is both relatable and a hopeful embodiment.
As for appearance, well, several problems there. First, I am not a visual writer, so writing her physically wasn’t something I’d do easily. I don’t fancast. Also, as she was written against the type of typical romantic interest in a Narnia love triangle, I deliberately did not describe her as those stories so often describe their female OCs in glowing, flowing terms. Edmund notices her as a guy does – that she’s not gorgeous but not unattractive, either, is normally proportioned, with a shape more like Lucy than Susan, that she doesn’t have huge breasts, is wide-hipped, and eventually, that she has brown eyes and darker skin. Mostly she’s available and wants to be with him, and that’s good enough for him, for the moment. VERY male pov. I don't know that he ever truly sees her as beautiful until he's finally, hopelessly in love with her.
Morgan is mixed race, dark-skinned father, very pale skinned mother, so if you are interested in fancasting, that’s where you would begin.yalumesse had suggested someone like Angel Coulby and sure! Lyndie Greenwood? Tracee Ellis Ross?
He turned to the Tiger. "Satisfied?"
"You left out 'Sire.'"
"You are impossible to please. You know I don't like that one at all."
I really wanted Edmund to have to rattle on about his titles in order to set up a riff and parody of the ubiquitous love triangle stories. To do that, I needed a new character for Edmund to say this to, and it couldn’t be a sibling or Jalur. I gave her, in that chapter, the strange halting speech pattern to give Jalur the openinng to correct her, and then give Edmund the opportunity for his soliloquy.
So MUCH of this story was done on a whim based upon very poorly thought out head canon. I wanted Crows because I’d associated Edmund, visually, with Richard Burton in the old Becket film with Peter O'Toole and Thomas Becket’s symbol was a blackbird. I plugged Willa in because I loved the idea of the Mischief of the Intelligence Service and the idea of this bloodthirsty enthusiastic rodent. I knew I wanted a big, solitary Guard for Edmund and so created Jalur but in the first posting of the story, he was temporary.
The story was going to be 3 chapters, end with the hound in a corset, and certainly not with Morgan and Edmund together. I gave her the odd speech mannerisms in order for Jalur to correct her in Chapter 3 and then give Edmund the opportunity to expand upon his titles – all of which became very important later as a major recurring theme over their love story.
The deeper I got into BRD, I kept writing all this flirtatious dialogue and Edmund's ever increasing obsession with her and by the end, well, the end was by no means certain and I wrote out how it almost didn't happen In The Great Mother's Day Debate.
Even well into Queen Susan in Tashbaan, I’d not settled on Morgan as the bearer of an heir and Edmund’s wife and delayed identifying her as his wife for years. . I knew there had to be a human heir -- I did have head canon over that. I didn't want it to be Peter because of the characterization I'd given him. I couldn't force Lucy or Susan to leave a child behind. That left Edmund and I already had Morgan, so I could create a new character, or run with her.
She’s a very difficult character to write and had this come about differently, I might not have written her as I did. Having already given Morgan the strange speech patterns, started in chapter 3 to give Jalur an opening and then continued over the course of BRD story to keep her consistent, I realized something more – that she had what was then called Asperger’s – she was on the autism scale and this became more fully realized once I started in on H&M.
I realized during TQSiT that – at least at that stage of the writing -- people liked Morgan, that she was different, and so Edmund ended up stuck with her.
I’ve had my doubts about Morgan lately and I think, based on what happened with the stories, that people got tired of Morgan and liked her less. However, I heard recently from a reader
starpaint , whose comments and insights just meant the world to me. Morgan is a formidable woman with a pretty significant cognitive impairment, and, at one point, a major depressive disorder. Yet, she succeeds. She finds a place and friends, respect, acceptance, romance, and love. She asserts herself and takes her place as a leader. I hope that for some readers she is both relatable and a hopeful embodiment.As for appearance, well, several problems there. First, I am not a visual writer, so writing her physically wasn’t something I’d do easily. I don’t fancast. Also, as she was written against the type of typical romantic interest in a Narnia love triangle, I deliberately did not describe her as those stories so often describe their female OCs in glowing, flowing terms. Edmund notices her as a guy does – that she’s not gorgeous but not unattractive, either, is normally proportioned, with a shape more like Lucy than Susan, that she doesn’t have huge breasts, is wide-hipped, and eventually, that she has brown eyes and darker skin. Mostly she’s available and wants to be with him, and that’s good enough for him, for the moment. VERY male pov. I don't know that he ever truly sees her as beautiful until he's finally, hopelessly in love with her.
Morgan is mixed race, dark-skinned father, very pale skinned mother, so if you are interested in fancasting, that’s where you would begin.
yalumesse had suggested someone like Angel Coulby and sure! Lyndie Greenwood? Tracee Ellis Ross?
no subject
I'm fascinated that such a major character came about almost by happenstance. And I enjoy the bubble-bursting of the triangle trope.
(Jalur is another of my favourite characters. I love that they support and give so much to each other; it's a really beautifully delineated non-romantic important relationship.)
no subject