任是无情也动人

Finished Part 6
Previous: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

Also made small edits to the previous parts to account for the new changes. Some notes regarding major setting changes:

* Since PJ pushed Gundabad as another major enemy location in the Hobbit films, I shoehorned it in here as well since the xover setting is half-half movieverse vs bookverse as things go. It's also my excuse of where the Sons of Elrond and the Northern Dunedain were in the movie timeline for them to not appear at all in the LOTR movies.

* Didn't manage to get screentime with Thranduil in, to my own chagrin. Then again, I wrote so much on his backstory that I guess this is sort of a break. Still working on Part 7 and that will have some more.

* So the way I'm meshing together the movie & book timeline is that the Battle of Five Armies in movie canon (and in this xover TL) took place 17 years later than it had in book canon. Coincidentally, the time between Bilbo and then Frodo leaving for Rivendell would also take 17 years less time than it would have in book canon, so that balances out. This way, Aragorn would've been around 27 at the time of BOFA (and hence it would actually make sense for Thranduil to send Legolas off to find a pal who's not a 10 year old boy). But it also means that the ages of the Kings of Dale will need to be pushed back a bit. Bain was 18 at the time of BOFA in the movies, and so here he's still the king instead of his son Brand. Not that I've gotten to showing them yet, of course. That's also in the next part.

* Still conflicted on what I'm going to do with Denethor, especially since I'm moving closer to movie characterization for him. (Mostly cuz I don't care much about him. The people I like I tend to take the best parts of both movie and book characterization, I find. =P) Maybe I'll end up just siccing Galadriel on him. Hehe.

* Modified Arwen's part a bit...still not too satisfied with her non-part. Also need to figure out what I'm going to do with Eowyn. We need more strong female characters dangit. Eh... part of the problem is that I'm mainly writing from the POV of the SI characters, so we don't really get to see a lot of the stuff going on elsewhere. I should maybe write a separate interlude in tandem with the storyline covering all the NPC stuff going on. Ugh. But that's also so much work.

It's been raining all morning. I feel like a zombie. Spent my stam on PAD and no GW2/STO. Might as well vomit some junk from my sleep deprived mind.

So. Have LOTR movie vs book ramblings plus a few more pokes at the YvtW xover.

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Part 5 is done.
Previous: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Yeah I still haven't decided on Faramir's fate yet. *shrug*

I dropped all the extra dragons and stuff from the original version, because honestly, they're not needed. I think I've kept things more in line with canon and still made for an effective narrative.

Plans for part 6...I want to incorporate more of Mirkwood and possibly Dale/Erebor - which means that part won't get written until I see Hobbit 3 and decide what to keep/discard. I did have one scene already with Thranduil, and that is also still subject to retcon.

As for the segue into the Afterlife arc, it doesn't make sense anymore for Aragorn to bring up the connection. If ossian approves, I want to use character from the Simarillion. I have two potential candidates, so let me know who you prefer.

* Tuor - He's similar to the PCs in that he wasn't born immortal, which gives a mechanism to introduce some background meta stuff. Canonically known to have dropped off the map, so to speak, for a long time. His Edain heritage may give him the freedom to 'travel beyond the circle of the world' which sounds like an euphemism for d-travel. Also, he would bring together 4 generations of direct lineage (Tuor - Earendil - Elrond - Elladan/Elrohir) which could make for some interesting family drama.

* Maglor - Another wanderer whose fate is unknown since the end of the First Age. He would introduce lots of potential conflict/drama. Given that as long as the Andromeda is around, Earendil's Simaril is technically within reach, a lot of people (including the PCs) would get all paranoid about the Doom with Maglor around. Elrond would likely have some mixed feelings about the guy due to being kidnapped/raised by him. And even putting aside the Silmaril, I suspect Earendil would not like him for the same reason.

Finished Part 3 today.
Previous: Chapter 1 Chapter 2

Notes:

- Massive, massive rewrite from the original. Basically everything in Rohan was rewritten. Most of my PC's scenes were also reshuffled and altered.

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Looking at cashew's fics sorta kinda reminded me of a fic I read (reread, actually) recently, in which we're introduced to some Japanese OC's (not students, thankfully) in a mainly Hogwarts fic. Naturally, the "original" stuff (and not just the Japanese stuff) is all trumped up versus the topics that Hogwarts had. This in turn reminded me of a thread on SD.net, also somewhat recently, which talked about Japanese education, it's pros and cons and stuff.

So basically, for Japan and I guess most far Asian education systems, you have a teaching method that emphasizes on rote memorization, obedience and a complete unquestioning of authority. In Japan in particular you also have an emphasis on uniformity, conformity, and cooperation - working within the structure/company/system/school etc. Cirricula are usually set by a central system for a large region if not the whole country, and all kids are forced to learn it.

For western... well, American, I guess, you have a system that emphasizes critical thinking, questioning, experimentation/hands on stuff, and individuality. You also have very varied levels in different schools and regions. There's also a larger margin for slackers and underachievers, if we believe census reports concerning grades of different countries.

Obviously, neither is 'better', per se. But they both have good points and bad points. And there's also other good ideas or bad ideas that might not be mentioned. So I was thinking, and I wanna throw the question out there: What kind of system do you think would bring the best of (both) all worlds together? Say, for a child that's just entering grade/middle school who's pretty much a blank slate in all ways that matter where it comes to education.

What kind of courses *should* the child be required to take (again, idealistically) for such a grade/middle school? Ethics and morality? Philosophy and logic? All the hard sciences? Language classes that emphasize certain classical works? History (when and where)? Sports? Music/Arts? (Note we're not talking college here, so there probably wouldn't be any topic-specific classes like "Socrates" or "Advanced OChem". These should be classes that set good fundamental skills and knowledge.)

Any thoughts?

In my rewritings of the last part of the Afterlife Arc for YvtW, I've just gotten to the segment dealing with Mg back on Middle-earth. So while my mind was on the subject, I got to thinking about a couple of things...

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I'd love to hear what ossian has to say on any of these issues... though I don't think we'll ever get to deal with them in-story at the rate things are going. ^_^;;

So I'm in the process of streamlining my YvtW MtG cards with the new card-maker program.

Here's the page.

I've redone both the 2.0, 3.0, and non-character pages. The 0.2 page is still the old version. Lookit the vast differences.

BTW, Mg, if you're reading this... double check my mana costs for game balance or whatnot, k? Thanks.

When the last scene with me and Elrohir took place, we'd just met the fake-serpent-guardian. This is supposed to be the Logrus, who whisks us off elsewhere for a confrontation. But I'm kinda stuck on actually writing the scene, since it's been a while since I've read the Amber series. So I thought that two minds would work better than one. :p

1. What do you recall of the personality of the Logrus-serpent? I would guess that it would be cryptic, since it probably plays the games of intrigues that the Princes of Amber and the Courts of Chaos are known for. What about overconfident? Manipulative? Petty? Cunning? Loquacious about nothing? Terse? Flashy? Condescending? Etc...

2. What kind of motives would set it personally against whatever is between Llwella and "Locke 2.0", instead of manipulating a Chaosian or Amberite to do it? I suppose if it could predict that someone of Urd's and her sisters' power would get involved, then sending a Prince/ss of its native multiverse would be outpowered... But it still needs some kind of underlying motive, or even emotion.

3. Hypothetically, how would it handle rivalry in the arena of other deities over Chaos? Like Loki, for instance, and possible others in other mythologies and fiction. Cooperation? Competition? Friendly or otherwise? Any/all of the above depending on the other guy?

4. IIRC, a lot of what goes on especially in the second Amber series is that the Logrus and the Pattern(s) play the lords and ladies of their domain like chess pieces... although said nobles tend to do that on their own to each other as well. A possible trap that I need to beware is to write myself into a serious confrontation with an entity like the Logrus, who obviously has enough power to do whatever it wants to a much lesser entity, no matter how friendly with other deities. It's not like said other deities can do much to it. So if the Logrus is actually serious about things, it's highly implausible writing to get us out of this adventure alive, even if other powerful entities intervene... However, if the Logrus is treating this like a game, or a wager involving other unnamed deities, and even the likes of Llewella are pawns to it, then there is more plausible room to get out of this alive. Thoughts?

It occurs to me that if I make a suggestion to the others in the arc/thread, then I should be obligated to at least consider it myself. Practice what I preach, so to speak. And actually, this has been something I've been pondering lately. Oh, and ossian? I'm gonna need your feedback on this one.

What I refer to, of course, is the "end result" of my part of the Afterlife arc. Now, ossian and I have already decided that MU Loki would be involved, which also brings in the indirect involvement of MU Hela. Currently, my short terms plans also involve the Logrus, which is a pretty obvious character to bring in when it comes to any adventure that has its start in Amberite nobility/politics. Now, these foes might or might not be working together, to any degree... but together or apart, I don't think anyone doubts that they are all big-name players in the grand scheme of things.

So, naturally, when pitted against these foes, at least two of whom are known for their cunning and trickery, if not outright power, I really think it would be a stretch to say that a bunch of bumbling Net Eventers (half of whom aren't even on the actual quest in question) can totally show up and outsmart them. Even with limited (and sometimes decidedly unhelpful) aid from the OMGU Norns. Unlike other RP'ers who I shall not name (unless forced to), I don't have any pressing need to prove my character as some kind of Great Force Beyond Reckoning in the Omniverse.

Anyways... my point is... we never decided on what would happen *after* we found Locke 2.0's soul, didn't we? I think everyone, right now, assumes that we're looking to ressurect him. After all, that's what you do with souls who've died, right? It's not fair to the dead soul who "died before his time"... yadda yadda yadda

Well. Why be fair? In the story sense, what dramatic value is there to be fair? In the IC world-POV, what logical reason is there that the various malevolent and cunning foes out there will *allow* things to be fair? Heck, haven't we learned our lesson with Mg, regarding: bringing peeps back from traumatic afterlife experiences is "not a good idea"?

So my current thought is this: whatever reason there was for our foes to take all the trouble into offing Locke on Earth 2.0 (and I would suspect that most offworld deities would prefer to stay the heck away from the Thread worlds, where they're highly vulnerable), what's to say that reason still doesn't exist? The very fact that Llewella (and possibly Urd) wants to get him back might point to the fact that there is still some plot there. (Granted, they might also be doing it out of remorse or just because they're good guys.) So there's no way to guarantee Locke 2.0's continual safety, even if we're to bring him back to life, unless we can come up with a 24/7 guard around him that is capable of taking on whatever plots our foes can come up with - which is to say, "not happenin'".

The other solution is both simple and elegant, IMO. Let's think - if bringing him back to life is dangerous, then what alternative is there that is not dangerous? Why, getting him to perhaps the only safe place when it comes to the foes we're facing - a *good* afterlife realm that is watched over by being(s) of sufficient power and possibly omniscience. The end of this quest doesn't have to go much further than to *find* our errant spirit.

Moreover, if there is something that still makes Locke a target, placing him in an afterlife that is also beyond *our* reach would also help decrease the threat to him and to us. After all, he would be safe and happy... and we (and others) wouldn't be in danger of learning the secrets or whatever that got Locke into this mess in the first place. Plus, it's not like these places don't exist all over the fictional realms. The DCU Heaven, for one - where none (living) who don't have a pure soul can enter, and which is accessable through CBY's self-proclaimed connection to Didi. And I'm sure there are other alternatives out there.

Of course, if ossian still wants to use his 2.0 character in the future, and needs him to be alive or accessible, then I'd be happy to try and come up with a way to get him back. But dramatically speaking, and without suspending too much disbelief or developing "jobber-auras" of our own... I think this idea really deserves some thought.

So what do you think?

(Edited for asterisk-overdose and spelling/grammar)

Plans and maybe rough draft for the next couple of scenes regarding the characters I'm responsible for.

(Last updated 2/4 3:48 pm)

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