#this still comes from the chapter called sibling rivalries which highlights the tensions between siblings as a theme in this episode

[noheteroexplanation]

– New still of Alicent Hightower and Gwayne Hightower in episode 2x03 "The Burning Mill" from the House or the Dragon Season 2 Companion Book

[alwaysahiccupandastrid]

I want to know more about the Narnia OC thing ngl

Oh, of course - I wasn’t expecting anyone to be interested, to be honest! Please don’t judge too harshly because it’s, as always, a work in progress!

My OC for the fic is a girl called Eleanor Johnson; she’s 14, so I’m thinking younger than Peter but older than Susan (I don’t know where I heard it but I heard somewhere that Peter is 15 and Susan is 13 in LWW?), and she’s an only child who’s evacuated alongside the Pevensies to Professor Kirke’s house during the Second World War. She’s someone who likes to read but she’s not adverse to a game of hide-and-seek or with joining in playing cricket with the others, though she’s spectacularly bad at it (she gets paired with Edmund, much to his displeasure) - she kind of wants to be friendly with the others because she doesn’t have any siblings herself, and they’re going to be living together for a while. At first, she’s somewhat shy but friendly, if a little awkward at times, and she likes the others while also respecting that they’re a family and she shouldn’t really get involved in their family issues (but she gets dragged in anyway). However, Narnia changes her just as it changes the others.

I don’t want to reveal the WHOLE plot, just in case I do actually end up publishing it all, but the idea is that she’s with Peter, Susan and Lucy on the way to Aslan’s camp, and she fights during the battle. She becomes Queen, ruling with the other four; Peter is still High King whilst the others are just “King” or “Queen”. Being in Narnia changes all of them, even at the start, and the adventure, battle, training etc., causes her to come more out of her shell. The idea is in the first one, she becomes really very close friends with the Pevensies because they’re sharing this adventure together - I especially plan to write some (extra) scenes where they get to know her more, and hopefully it will help to integrate her more fluidly into the story than just immediately dropping her in there and going “yeah so look she’s suddenly SUPER close with them!”.

Because they are, of course, children, there’s no romance until a few years into their reign at Cair Paravel. There’s hints of something between Peter and Eleanor, but they’re both young and honestly, the time isn’t right until later. I want the romance to feel natural, and so the idea is that it develops as they start to work together. The details need fine tuning but I already started to write drafts of moments where they’re courting, married and parenthood - which means writing in another few OCs and trying to make it feel like they actually belong there. My idea of the relationship is that it develops from them being friendly, to a friendly rivalry, to exasperation/tension (because they know each other better by this point, and she’s especially exasperated by him because he’s a boy and Susan you’re brother is infuriating even if he is cute), to what is hopefully a somewhat believable relationship. Also, I was thinking that marrying Peter (aka the High King) would sort of adjust her title to High Queen to match (because of marriage meaning shared titles?), but I don’t know if I want to do that yet.

I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say about them going back to earth after 15 years because the film has been out for 12 years, the books have been out for decades! Obviously there’s then the part of the story that takes place during PC, which I’m looking forward to because of the drama! One of the things I was hoping to explore there is, because they were married and had kids, how that will have weighed on them over the course of a year, and how it’s effected the relationship - and how it continues to do so in Narnia when they find out that 1000 years have passed. We know that in the film, Peter is sort of a bit angry already and trying to prove himself a little, has the weight of the world on his shoulders etc., so it’ll be fun to deepen that!

I won’t spoil much more of my plans but that’s a very basic idea! It’s hard because with the first part, it’s important to make sure the OC feels natural and not like they’ve just been added solely for the purpose of a self insert romance. I read a LOT of both fics and articles/posts by authors - both in the Narnia fandom and out of it - regarding OC fics and how NOT to make a Narnia OC. It’s constantly in my mind when I think or write this series, because I don’t want the OC to be a Mary Sue, and I don’t want the reader to hate her either. Some of it is super obvious, and I’ve read some pretty hilarious Narnia OC fics - “hello my name is Ebony Way, I have red hair with purple highlights, and I am the savior of Narnia/the daughter of Aslan/the one who’ll kill the Witch”, for example. It’s why I’ve tried to write in new lines that don’t exist in the movie for the OC, because I don’t want to take other lines from the pre-existing characters just to make my OC more interesting. I’ve also tried not to make her too special or skilled or anything that makes her stand out from a mile; yes, she’ll be fighting on the field of battle, she’ll have swords but she has to train and work hard just as anyone else does. An example I was thinking of having would be, over the years, having the OC be one of Peter’s seconds in commands, alongside Edmund of course - she’s not the one who’ll duel the white witch or Miraz, but she fights and is still part of the army. I hope that makes sense?

So I published the first two chapters of the LWW fic (aka part 1 of the series) - at the moment the published stuff goes up to when the kids are hiding from Mrs Macready and end up in Narnia. I’ve started Chapter three but it’s unfinished right now, because I kind of lost all confidence for it. I still have all my drafts - including for LWW, the golden age, PC AND post-PC - on my computer, so nothing’s been lost thankfully.

Also, I’m using the films more than the books as a guideline to start, but I’ll probably be using the books for parts where there’s gaps (eg. The Horse and His Boy is set during the Golden Age, before the Pevensies go back to England after 15 years of ruling) There will also be a monumental gap to fill between the end of Prince Caspian and The Last Battle because after that, Peter and Susan are “too old” to return to Narnia, and so will my OC be as well. It’ll be fun to fill that gap whilst also being sure to stick to what’s already canon, and it’ll probably give me a little more free reign with writing/characters.

I made two (crappy) graphics - one as a story cover and the other as a couple aesthetic.

I’m not in a good place right now so...I don’t know if I should focus on this fic since it’s a guilty pleasure of mine or not.