Fic Dilemma
Jun. 16th, 2015 07:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beatrice_otter posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
vorkosiganI'm signing up for femmeremix, a remix ficathon for female-focused fics, and realized that if I wrote one more Vorkosiverse fic with a woman in an important role, I could add the Vorkosigan fandom to my signup. And, thinking, I got a REALLY awesome idea for a genderswapped Aarl, which I now have to write. And then I realized "but genderswap doesn't count for signup purposes," but I'm going to write it anyway because it's such a cool idea.
And then I realized, "but wait, if I say instead that Aral died in Mad Yuri's massacre and his unnamed sister survived instead, that would qualify!"
Brilliant solution. Only problem being she is so firmly GIRL!ARAL in my head that I don't know if it would work.
Her backstory: canon!Aral married Ges' sister in an arranged marriage. Given an arranged marriage, wouldn't girl!Aral likely be married to a man from the same family? OMG, SHE WOULD HAVE MARRIED GES HERSELF! Except Ges would not treat a wife like an equal the way he treated canon!Aral, so he abused her, and given Aral's temper, she killed him, and now lives in semi-disgrace down in the Vorkosigan district. That is where the story starts.
Now, the main things that she has in common with Aral are a) brilliant tactician, except used socially instead of militarily, b) that infamous temper, and c) bisexuality. And sure, I can say that the sister had all of those too, but ... isn't that kinda denying the sister's individuality?
Sigh.
femmeremix, a remix ficathon for female-focused fics, and realized that if I wrote one more Vorkosiverse fic with a woman in an important role, I could add the Vorkosigan fandom to my signup. And, thinking, I got a REALLY awesome idea for a genderswapped Aarl, which I now have to write. And then I realized "but genderswap doesn't count for signup purposes," but I'm going to write it anyway because it's such a cool idea.And then I realized, "but wait, if I say instead that Aral died in Mad Yuri's massacre and his unnamed sister survived instead, that would qualify!"
Brilliant solution. Only problem being she is so firmly GIRL!ARAL in my head that I don't know if it would work.
Her backstory: canon!Aral married Ges' sister in an arranged marriage. Given an arranged marriage, wouldn't girl!Aral likely be married to a man from the same family? OMG, SHE WOULD HAVE MARRIED GES HERSELF! Except Ges would not treat a wife like an equal the way he treated canon!Aral, so he abused her, and given Aral's temper, she killed him, and now lives in semi-disgrace down in the Vorkosigan district. That is where the story starts.
Now, the main things that she has in common with Aral are a) brilliant tactician, except used socially instead of militarily, b) that infamous temper, and c) bisexuality. And sure, I can say that the sister had all of those too, but ... isn't that kinda denying the sister's individuality?
Sigh.
no subject
Date: 2015-06-17 12:08 pm (UTC)Truth be told, families have traits, and since Piotr was not too shabby as a tactician, we could say it's a family thing.
However, it wouldn't be implausible to have all those, just in different measures. Say she hasn't quite got Aral's self-control over her temper. She doesn't repress it to the point where she blows up in a killing rage, but she does have less dramatic 'tantrums' or flares far more frequently than her brother. Aral was primarily hetro, whereas given her experiences with Ges she's more lesbian. Aral was a wizard at military tactics, his sister is the brilliant socialite and plays the game of social influence as a Master of Strategy. [witness the fact she's still received in society despite technically being in disgrace.]
She can still have the same traits as Aral, but with different expressions of them. Road less travelled and all that..