writing rambles

[bunn]

I am trying to finish off my first Tolkien reverse summer bang story, which is about a slight AU Idril and Tuor.  I hadn't written Idril before (have written Tuor before, but he was a sealion skinchanger then, so arguably not very canon either!) 

I like the idea, and I'm over the minimum word-count, but somehow the story hasn't quite taken wing. 

I think what I'm struggling with is that Tuor and Idril have neither of them done a thing wrong in their entire lives, so far as I can tell, and are also enormously competent. I do like a competent character, but a character with weaknesses is perhaps easier to relate to.   Or maybe it's just a 3/4 done stall and I just need to get the end of it finished.  

Comments

[mindstalk]

Competence porn is valid and I can enjoy reading it.

[bunn]

I LOVE competence! It's just I think it's easier to write when not ALL the characters are competent at everything. You need a fool of a Took or something to balance things out.

[mindstalk]

Make one up? What was young Glorfindel like, really?

Oh, post-canon. Surely Valinor has no shortage of bumbling fools and prickly egos, as needed... you did write Return to Aman!

Did I ever mention my idea that Tuor and Idril are in charge of Tol Eressea? They seemed a natural fit for leading a coastal refuge of Noldor and Sindar. I figure the Valar uneasily asked people not to talk about Tuor too much back east, so Numenor/Middle-earth was vague on details back even in the Second Age.

[bunn]

I got there in the end! It's now waiting for TRSB reveals.

Idril would certainly be well placed to run Tol Eressea. I feel like Tuor's situation would need to be pretty maritime, so I guess that depends how big Tol Eressea is in your mind's eye. You get the impression it's of a rather flexible size from the few canon hints!

[anna_wing]

In Middle-earth, even competent people without serious character flaws are still fighting an uphill battle against overwhelming enemies, and still mostly lose. Would that do in lieu of personal weaknesses?

[bunn]

Yes, they are - and that's mostly the path I'm taking, though as I am writing post-canon Tuor & Idril, their struggle isn't so much vast armies of orcs and clockwork dragons as Valarin bureaucracy and the Sea...

It's probably partly that I just haven't written them before so the characterisation is still to undergo much onionisation.

[wendylove]

Arguably Tuor failed in his mission from Ulmo, and Idril in her role in Gondolin's government, by not getting Turgon to evacuate *or* at least have multiple emergency exits and a populace drilled in how to use them. We know it's possible to take over a hidden First-Age Elven city from its founding monarch; we know it's possible to get Elven kings to change their minds. Why - other than the dramatic irony and Doom of the Noldor - does Tuor have less impact on the actual governance of Gondolin than his cousin (not to mention Turgon's cousins) ultimately have on Nargothrond?

...I say this not to blame Tuor or Idril for anything, but to suggest that their attitudes toward Valarin bureaucracy might be somewhat complicated, especially if they are told there's no need to worry about the War of Wrath/Dagor Dagorath/the Fëanorians hosting a dinner party/any other impending possible catastrophe.

[anna_wing]

I've always thought that Nargothrond was vulnerable to Turin because (a) Turin was madly charismatic (whereas Tuor was sanely charismatic and a decent person); (b) Nargothrond was suffering from huge guilt at having betrayed their King, betrayed the promise to the Edain, and sent both Finrod and Beren and the other ten out to die; (c) the governance of Nargothrond was in shambles, as things tend to be after a coup, and even after kicking the Feanorians out, Orodreth was much less secure in his position than Turgon was in his.

[bunn]

Yes, I agree. I don't think Nargothrond and Gondolin, or Orodreth and Turgon, were in any way equivalent.

Tbh, I'm not convinced that evacuating Gondolin would have gone smoothly either. If Turgon had marched all his guys out in order to the coast (right past Glaurung in Nargothrond, presumably), then what? I guess you'd have a larger, stronger Havens of Sirion, but presumably Morgoth would have some idea of its location.

[bunn]

Yes, Idril's attitude to the Valar is surely a complex one.