[Meme] Top 5 things to keep in mind when writing various characters

[edenfalling]

As seen around in various places:

Pick a character* I've written and I will explain the top five** ideas/concepts/etc I keep in mind while writing that character that I believe are essential to accurately depicting them.

* Try to make it someone I've written either often or recently in order for me to answer.
** May not actually be five.

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Susan Pevensie (Chronicles of Narnia), for branchandroot

Ginny Weasley (Harry Potter), for silverblade219

Haruno Sakura (Naruto), for silverblade219

Prince Rabadash (Chronicles of Narnia), for hungrytiger11

Dave Strider (Homestuck), for askerian

Aravis Tarkheena (Chronicles of Narnia), for rthstewart

Lucy Pevensie (Chronicles of Narnia), for snacky

Uzumaki Naruto (Naruto), for vehrec

Comments

[edenfalling]

Book canon only. Disney!Susan is not as irritating to me as Disney!Peter, but I think she was equally changed from the books.

1. Susan likes to feel that she is doing something useful. This is an extension of her generally practical approach to life and also of her family position as surrogate mother. She is the one who keeps her siblings focused on the here and now.

2. Susan likes boys and men, both in Narnia and in England. She is interested in romance and probably uses her beauty as a tool to attract male attention. Lewis seems to think this is a bad thing, given the mess with Rabadash and the scorn Polly, Jill, and Eustace heap on her in TLB, but I don't. (I don't know if she's also interested in women, but she definitely is interested in men.)

3. Susan was called "The Gentle" for a reason! Note the scene in Prince Caspian where she hesitates over shooting the bear, and also the part where she doesn't want to embarrass Trumpkin by showing him up in an archery contest. She can be as snarly and bad-tempered as the rest of her family, but violence (physical or emotional) is never her instinctive reaction... except sometimes with her siblings, which I suspect is because she trusts those relationships to be solid enough to withstand any minor bout of pettiness on her part, just as she forgives her siblings for their similar failings.

4. This, I think, is why the argument with her family after they were all banned from Narnia turned so bitter -- because that bedrock trust got ripped away when she felt none of them understood her reaction to their fate. I am of many and varying minds as to what caused the initial split, but I am quite sure it was the lack of trust that hurt the most.

5. Susan's relationship with Lucy is very important to both of them and they've gone through a lot of big events together -- note how Lewis tends to pair them off at the same time he pairs the boys, so they're the ones who witness Aslan's death and rebirth, and the ones who ride through the waking of Old Narnia in PC -- but it seems to get sadly neglected in fic. This annoys me. Sisters are awesome! So I try to make sure Susan thinks a lot about Lucy, or at the very least mentions her sister, every time I write her.

[branchandroot]

So much yes to Susan and Lucy. And one of the things that pisses me off the most is that we never get Lucy's pov on what happened after they were exiled.

[snacky]

I was going to ask for Susan (did her in my own version of the meme :D) but since you've done her, can you also do Lucy?

Lucy Pevensie

[edenfalling]

1. Lucy finds joy in life. This is not to say that she can't be serious, or angry, or sad -- because she can; we see her in all those moods in canon -- but her default state is enthusiasm (or at the least good cheer), and she assumes all people are potential friends until proven otherwise.

2. Lucy is not a plaster saint. She can be selfish -- note her misuse of the book on the Dufflepuds' island. She can be snarky and silly. She can be wrong. She does have a deep connection to and faith in Aslan, but that doesn't remove her essential humanity.

3. Lucy is both a healer and a warrior. This goes all the way back to the gifts she receives from Father Christmas, though I think that is more an acknowledgement of the way she healed Tumnus emotionally by her very presence, and the way she fought to make her family believe in Narnia and understand that they should do something about the Witch. They are both active roles, which is interesting when compared to Peter and Susan, both of whom receive one active gift (sword, bow) and one passive gift (shield, horn). I should maybe write a fic about that someday...

4. Lucy is VERY truthful, to the point where I think lies of omission and social misdirection are difficult for her to learn. That is probably why the spell that finally tempts her to the breaking point is a spell to overhear what a friend says about her when she's not around. It's also why in LWW she wants to tell Edmund that Aslan died for him, whereas Susan thinks the knowledge "would be too awful for him." That tension between Lucy's blunt truthfulness and Susan's concern for social and emotional repercussions is probably the main source of tension between the sisters... and also mirrors the way Lucy holds tight to her memories of Narnia while Susan immerses herself in England after they are both banished from the Narnian world.

[(Anonymous)]

So much yes for all of this. For some reason I think the "Gentle" part of Susan is often ignored or tired to be "reclaimed" as in "Oh, she's called gentle but she also is a fighting machine," which has always seemed a little odd to me. Not that it is weird she could or would fight, but that fic tries to paint it as her main instinct.

I'd never stopped to realize that Lucy and Susan's relationship IS probably the most neglected in fandom. You get a ton of Edmund and Peter, whether on the campaign trail or whatnot. A lot of older siblings and/or younger siblings fics too. You also see Edmund and Susan (usually as diplomats or spymasters) and sometimes Peter and Lucy (often in religious/Aslan connotations)...but very little of the sisters. Expeirncing something like walking with and then watching Aslan die and rise would be something that would cause a deep bond (though I suspect one was already there). Too bad there isn't more fic of this.

-hungrytiger11

[edenfalling]

Some of the redefinition of "gentle" I think is an attempt to reconcile that title with the Susan of the Disney movies, for whom it is an awkward fit at best. And also probably a reaction against too much history of women only being valued for being meek, being sweet, being beautiful, being objects who do what they're told without fighting to make their own choices, etcetera, etcetera.

But the thing is, part of being free to make your own choices is that you get to make your own choices, and if you want to be kind, to refrain from violence, to care for the people around you, to take care of domestic things, there is nothing wrong with that. SO LONG AS IT IS A CHOICE. So for me, I am interested in writing a Susan who is a strong person and knows her own mind, and chooses not to ride to the wars, and to turn her attention to domestic practicalities, and to attempt a dynastic marriage (both for practical reasons and for romantic ones), and to turn away from being a Friend of Narnia, and to survive the loss of her whole family, and to carry on.

I have a Susan-and-Lucy-go-on-a-quest fic idea that I keep meaning to find time to write, but I never seem to have the right moment. (Also, it would be rather long.) But someday!