I don’t schedule blog posts in advance. I mean, every once in a while I do. For about the first week after I started my last job I had blog posts scheduled, because I had enough time and inspiration to write them. Time usually isn’t the issue, it’s because just because I think something is relevant and funny today doesn’t mean I’ll agree tomorrow morning at eight am.
Which is why I’m putting this up instead of the post I wrote yesterday afternoon and scheduled to post today. The catalyst is still relevant, but the rest has all changed. Ever notice how much things can change in an instant? I’m being melodramatic, but it’s true.
Here’s the deal. We saw Thor yesterday. I’ve been both dreading and anticipating this movie for months, because, well, if you’re new here *waves at new followers, hello!*, you don’t know this but everyone else does, I have a mild Loki obsession. And after I saw pictures from the movie, I was full prepared to sob silently about their portrayal of Loki.
When we walked out of the theater yesterday, I had not been disappointed. I was just the opposite – absolutely and totally infatuated. I could have hoped for better, but I couldn’t have asked for better. Their portrayal of this villain was almost exactly the way I think he should be portrayed. The subtleties, the methods of his betrayal, his motivations. And the actor they got to play him…yeah, okay, I drool over the thin guys instead of the muscly guys sometimes. Don’t get me wrong, Thor was…wow…but…he wasn’t Loki.
As an aside, I liked their portrayal of most of the Asgardians. Sif was fantastic as well, though the rest didn’t have the same screen time.
That’s my movie review. That’s only the back story for my sad.
We were talking about the movie last night. And about how amazing Loki was (yeah, that was all me). My comments were basically “It was awesome. It was fantastic. They wrote him exactly the way I would have. They wrote him exactly the way I already have.”
And the response was “You know, you’re probably going to have to rename your characters now. So no one thinks you were copying.”
“But, but…it was my idea to make Loki like that.”
“Yes, of course. You thought of Loki first.”
*sigh*
Epic sad face.
At that point I made a decision that, when I started blogging, I swore I would never make. Not because an editor or agent asked me to. But because I’ve known for a while I needed to. I’m removing the popular mythology from the world and replacing it with my own.
I was already struggling with certain aspects of the story. There was the issue that angels, Greek heroes, and Norse gods are the overwhelming trend right now and people are getting sick of them. Triple whammy for me since…the three of those are the foundation for my story. Then there’s the fact that I have all three in one story. Oh, and the number of times I’ve walked away from a critique growling because someone doesn’t like that my Lucifer hasn’t fallen, and is a separate entity from Satan, and is Micheal’s coworker.
I’d probably get more complaints about my portrayal of Metatron, too, but not enough people versed in that have gotten that far in the story. And I’ve had people recoil in distaste because Jehovah is also a character in the story. I’m just glad that Actaeon is such a lesser known hero that only one person has thought to call my on my portrayal of him yet. In my world, he’s Artemis’s son. In classic mythology, he was a hunter turned into a stag by Artemis because she caught him spying on her while she bathed with her nymphs.
So…I knew these things were difficult to explain. My reinterpretation of all of it was already killing me. And now, the one thing I loved more than the entire rest of the story, the one thing I interpreted the same as someone else, will be the reason I decide to make the change.
I’ll rename my gods, call my angels and heroes something else, obliterate all reference to anyone named Loki or Lucifer or Actaeon or Uriel. And oh yeah, since the book is called ‘Uriel’s Fall’, the one time I’ve ever been certain of a title in my entire life, I’ll be changing the book name as well.
Overall, I think this is the best thing for this universe. It opens up a lot of options that weren’t there before because of the preconceived notions associated with my characters. But part of me is still sad that I’ve had to make this change. There’s a lot in a name. And I’ll probably mope about this for a while because I’m a drama queen like that.
What kind of changes have you made to a story that you didn’t want to for emotional reasons, but knew you needed to in order to make the story better?
And for the record, Loki is still master. My obsession doesn’t change and I need Thor on Bluray ^_^
I think that’s a great decision. You’ll have the freedom to really bend the mythology any way you want 🙂
And I agree with you about Loki. He pretty much made the entire movie for me. I loved that he wasn’t the carbon copy villain, and I also found his…er…physique *cough* more attractive than Thor’s LOL
Thanks for the support 🙂
And excuse me while I get all fan-girly for a moment, but…I know, right? There was just something about the build, the dark hair, the eyes…so very sexy ^_^
Creating your own world is the way to go… that way, noone can complain.
; )
Fun post, but in my opinion the movie was way off base. The characters were all wrong. Sif was Tors wife and she was known for her BLOND hair, that was her strength. Loki was NOT Thors brother, he was his best friend and Heimdal, WAS NOT BLACK!Ok so I am a stickler for getting facts straight. I liked the crooked character of Loki but he was always more about the mischief and making trouble just because he could. He never thought of Thor as a real father anymore than any of the other Gods did and Loki as far as I have studied and I have a bit is in no way a frost giant. Being that said I did enjoy your post and I agree that writing should be about creating your own freedom. As long as that does not mean changing someone elses.
Two words. Prior Art. I like the fact that you challenge my notion of who Michael, Loki and all the others are. Those names give the reader a hook to a greater story. And while you change who they are, its not that far a stretch to believe they could be different.
I also loved Thor, but disagree with your conclusion.
Maybe I’m just too attached to these characters already. I’m sure you’ll make it brilliant.
I haven’t seen this film, but Loki is also my favorite god from Norse Myths. I once played him in a school play.
The fact the film portrayed him in a way that might be similar to something you’re writing doesn’t matter. Loki is an archetypal trickster character. People have been writing characters like that for centuries.
Sorry I’m always late, but I limit my blog visits to once a week…
I had elves and dwarves and the usual fantasy buffs in my first fantasy stories (based mostly on the Dragonlance saga, I’ve never read Tolkien) and when I “dared” have an elf with some dark goddess blood a reader went ballistic – OK, he said something like “NO Elves are always good, stick to what readers know!” to witch I wanted to object “What about Dritz?” but let it go.
That was my “Moren Empire” cycle. Then I created the “Varian Empire” with elf-like magical beings (but they’re not called elves, therefore I can do what I want with them) and winged beings (with two sexes, wings the color of their hair, so they’re not angels) and it felt more original.
So when I went to seriously work on world-building Silvery Earth, I decided I’ll either discard or totally rewrite the Moren Empire cycle and stick to my own creations.
It’s so hard to write against stereotypes, sigh! 🙁
Barb
I guess I’ll be a sort of dissenting voice for a second.
While I think it’s great that you’re using constructs people are already familiar with and challenging them, of course people are going to be up-in-arms at times with your portrayals. Because everyone has an idea of how so-and-so-named-Michael should act. It’s like this with all mythology. Just as *YOU* went into the movie with how you thought Loki and Thor should be portrayed, a lot of others did, too. You were pleased because it matched up with YOUR concept. Others were displeased because it did NOT match up. You’re fighting that SAME thing.
I like your idea of creating your own mythology just because it’ll free you from people’s pre-assumptions of how your characters should act JUST because they have the name Loki and just because they’re in mythology.
On the other hand, I kind of like those threads as well. If anything, I’d tell you to yes change their names–but don’t change the mythology. Maybe Loki is now named Kilo, but he has the same relationships, the same personality as the Loki you imagined. It’s then UP TO THE READERS to make the connection between Kilo and Loki, Feriluc and Lucifer, etc. Then people can choose to read on the surface, or they can delve deeper and see the characters for who they really are, and try to understand the connections you’ve weaved through the several mythologies. It adds a level of complexity. Then people who think “hey, she’s ALL WRONG about Loki based on what I think” won’t have to acknowledge your character is even Loki. Those people who CAN acknowledge “she has the freedom to interpret any mythological or biblical character as she pleases” can study how you’ve interwoven the characters and appreciate how much time you spent crafting your conflicts 🙂
But then again, I’m all for subtleties 😛