to be or not to be (frodo)

[queenslayerbee]

A little while ago this post crossed my dash in tumblr, and I kept it in my drafts because something in it struck a chord: it reminded me of one of my oldest OCs.

Now, here’s the thing with LOTR: I only read it this year. It was one of the maaaaany newsletters of classic books I’ve subscribed to since the first round of Dracula Daily started that boom. For anyone interested, I’m pretty sure the LOTR newsletter will get a second round, starting September (you can look up the organiser’s tumblr, @sindar-princeling).

I have mixed opinions about the saga. It’s an incredible, insurmountable labour of love and passion on the part of the author. As someone who loves descriptive prose, I definitely have NO issue with Tolkien going on and on about the scenery (in fact, I wouldn’t have minded even more tree descriptions!), and his style works for me. I think he created a fascinating setting that pleasantly surprised me despite my overall saturation with medieval fantasy, and that he knows how to craft endearing characters quite well. I have… complicated feelings regarding how he writes women. Mostly though, I feel- temperate, about the trilogy. I don’t LOVE the world of LOTR; I didn’t hate the experience, and actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would, but I don’t think I’ll repeat it (although I might end up reading “The Hobbit” and “The Silmarillion” at some point).

With that out of the way... about my OC.

The very first OC I created when I had barely reached two digits in my age was named Eva, the Spanish version of “Eve”. On the nose? Maybe a bit, although I promise it wasn’t intentional. It was in part a roundabout, subtle homage to one of my favourite book protagonists, Lyra Silvertongue from “His Dark Materials”. It was also the name of my babysitter as a kid, although I don’t think that played a part either (she was, however, a huuuuge LOTR fan xD).

 

(I settled on Alba Flores -Spanish actress- as a face-claim a long time ago).

Her story has changed and evolved a lot over the nearly two decades that have passed since, but the current version, with the title of “All About Eve(s)” still retains something of the original. First of all, the setting: a world in which creatures of legend are known by all, and life side by side, if not harmoniously, with humans. Second, Eva is a fae: a young woods faery in her mid-twenties. Not a particularly exceptional one, and that’s by design.

Third, the story includes time travel (hence the provisional name of “time fuckery ‘verse” it had for the longest time LOL). The main action takes place mid-twentieth century, in Paris, where Eva lives as a Spanish Civil War exile. But there’s a version of Eva from far into the future that has, despite her relative lack of extraordinary ability, travelled into the past to prevent some mysterious (for the younger Eva) yet global tragedy. It involves an emerging, controversial political figure among the fae called Aemilia, a turned vampire (yes, part of the fae; I like to play around with my fantasy races).

Aemilia and old!Eva have a strange, convoluted relationship (time travel, baby!); young!Eva is certain her counterpart is desperately in love with Aemilia, to her discomfort. Because whatever it is she’s in the past for, it certainly doesn’t seem to involve stopping Aemilia, if she turns to be as dangerous as she appears.

With that long explanation out of the way, I’ll go back to Frodo XD

“Can’t someone else, anyone else, carry the ring?” “but someone else could”

In “All About Eve(s)”, the question, or one of the many I intend to answer with the story, would be “can’t someone else, anyone else, stop Aemilia?” Someone else could. Eva is a faery, but surrounded by others like her, she’s nothing special. Fun-loving, a bit lazy and unmoored, with a desk job (helping magical creatures find jobs & integrate into society, if anyone’s interested) she does efficiently but without true passion. Young and a bit flaky, fiercely independent and despondent. She has a strong core of values deep within, but she hasn’t really had to be challenged on them or do the work in developing. That, obviously, is one of the things The Plot changes.

Like with Frodo, what matters is that she volunteers. She DECIDES she’s going to take matters into her own hands, and oppose Aemilia and even old!Eva if it’s what it takes.

A key difference is here, however. Eva’s offer doesn’t come from a place of complete ignorance. If you follow the metaphor, Aemilia is the One Ring, and old!Eva is Gollum (which is such a perfect little parallel I’m mad about it LOL). This means Eva has seen one possible ending of all this. She can’t imagine anything worse, and she understands that it’s likely her actions, no matter what, will lead to the exact same outcome.

 

This here, though, sums up their similarities perfectly.

.

In case anyone’s interested, in a moment I’m going to post a little excerpt from “All About Eve(s)” that I wrote & post in a now inactive tumblr a long, long time ago. I’ll leave it as is, if unpolished, because although it definitely needs a rewrite (I’ve since decided on certain changes regarding the narrative’s voice, for one), it shows a little insight into old!Eva & Aemilia’s  relationship, so I wanted to put it out there ^^.

ETA: here it is! With another bonus short excerpt.