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May. 17th, 2013 12:19 amHere is something dumb to discuss;
I actually thought about wanting to write Brave fanfic set several years out from the movie - but I don't have the chops for it, and I know it.
Some of the setting grabbed me and here's where I know early medieval Ireland more than early medieval Scotland, because part of that is the idea that you have four corners of the land ruled by an An Ri. And Fergus the Bear King is this brawling populist leader, sure, but he's not exactly a great hands-on High King unless someone invades. It's not impossible to imagine that, outside of Elinor (the Queen) as a balance, he has some sort of Taoiseach, and as soon as either King or Queen dies, you now have the interplay of the Taoiseach with the remaining parent.
And Elinor's obviously from someplace not-the-clans, which suggests that she's, you guessed it, English. Presumably she's nobility. Presumably whatever family it is, has a lot of troops and might make alliances to any of the clans, a little like how historically, Macbeth was lawfully king but deposed with English force of arms backing their own candidate.
So you definitely have potential villains - a minister manipulating a grieving Fergus who has no idea how to govern in peacetime, and Elinor's family massing troops on the border, eager to support whoever they feel best serves English interests. Plus all three clans other than Dunbroch would have candidates interested in the throne.
Into this you have the two nobles united by arranged marriage - Merida, who'd make a good war-leader but who's thought of as less powerful thanks to gender, and Wee Dingwall, whose ineffective manner might cover bookish learning and the poise needed to keep his head low in literally murderous family politics (remember technically Dingwall was the winning suitor in the archery competition - so he has a valid claim to Dunbroch and becoming An Ri, but I don't think he's capable of actually leading in battle like Merida is).
These guys have archers, but do they form schiltrons?
What about the Gormenghast-like collection of witch's woodcarvings now cluttering up Caer Dunbroch?
I'm going to quit now, because the obvious next step is to suggest that a pseudo-Scotland with massive bears obviously has massive dire wolves and a "Black Watch" which guards the equivalent of a Hadrian's Wall, far beyond all the courtly backstabbing. I think that may have been done already.
I actually thought about wanting to write Brave fanfic set several years out from the movie - but I don't have the chops for it, and I know it.
Some of the setting grabbed me and here's where I know early medieval Ireland more than early medieval Scotland, because part of that is the idea that you have four corners of the land ruled by an An Ri. And Fergus the Bear King is this brawling populist leader, sure, but he's not exactly a great hands-on High King unless someone invades. It's not impossible to imagine that, outside of Elinor (the Queen) as a balance, he has some sort of Taoiseach, and as soon as either King or Queen dies, you now have the interplay of the Taoiseach with the remaining parent.
And Elinor's obviously from someplace not-the-clans, which suggests that she's, you guessed it, English. Presumably she's nobility. Presumably whatever family it is, has a lot of troops and might make alliances to any of the clans, a little like how historically, Macbeth was lawfully king but deposed with English force of arms backing their own candidate.
So you definitely have potential villains - a minister manipulating a grieving Fergus who has no idea how to govern in peacetime, and Elinor's family massing troops on the border, eager to support whoever they feel best serves English interests. Plus all three clans other than Dunbroch would have candidates interested in the throne.
Into this you have the two nobles united by arranged marriage - Merida, who'd make a good war-leader but who's thought of as less powerful thanks to gender, and Wee Dingwall, whose ineffective manner might cover bookish learning and the poise needed to keep his head low in literally murderous family politics (remember technically Dingwall was the winning suitor in the archery competition - so he has a valid claim to Dunbroch and becoming An Ri, but I don't think he's capable of actually leading in battle like Merida is).
These guys have archers, but do they form schiltrons?
What about the Gormenghast-like collection of witch's woodcarvings now cluttering up Caer Dunbroch?
I'm going to quit now, because the obvious next step is to suggest that a pseudo-Scotland with massive bears obviously has massive dire wolves and a "Black Watch" which guards the equivalent of a Hadrian's Wall, far beyond all the courtly backstabbing. I think that may have been done already.