[Child of the 7th Age]

Sorry, Cami - but Pio is on task, and seeks the shortest and most assured means to its completion.

Sharon understands; Cami does not.

Given who Cami is, she will be shaken to the core. The fact that these actions came from a friend, who has given her all to the hobbits, will make the situation all the more distressing to her.

Let me explain this scenario from Cami's perspective.

First, 'family' is the core value of hobbit cuture. No hobbit would sit still if their child was in danger without attempting to help them. Cami is no different in this regard. Since Cami managed to survive the Orcs, the work camps, and the Tombs, it is likely that she would have the backbone to deal with a "dicey bar," particularly if she was with friends.

Unfortunately, the post was done in such a way that it was impossible for Cami to disagree or put forward her objections to Pio's orders to stay put and wait on the street corner. The issue was set down and decided in a single post, with no answer or rebuttal possible, since the Elf had since departed.

Cami had two choices: to accept the ultimatum, which went against her conscience, or disobey and help her son. She chose the latter.

Cami has witnessed character after character disregard orders and go off and do whatever they wanted. The Elf has been particularly flagrant in this regard.(Come on, admit it!) Yet, no other character has been reprimanded for their misdeeds, let alone ended up in chains.

As a result of all this, Cami was chained together with two children, ushered to her cabin as a prisoner in the sight of all the hobbits who regard her as their leader, and told that she would be 'dealt with' tomorrow. Moreover, two hobbrim children were told to guard her and keep her from further interference.

There was never any question in earlier posts of Cami threatening to flee or acting as a truant. She was the one who informed Pio of the boys' departure and asked for her help in getting them back (in response to a pm request by Pat). This was no lark for Cami. She was worried about her son and wanted to get the boys back to the ship as quickly as possible. This was her only purpose in going.

Pio was aware of all this, but didn't trust Cami to walk back without chains. Since flight was clearly never an issue, Cami can only believe the chaining was done to make her an object of jest. Certainly, Mith interpreted it that way.
[img]smilies/eek.gif[/img]

Cami is not Merri or Pippin who would see the episode in chains as a lark. She is a fifty-year old, older than anyone on the Star except the Elves, and has been accorded the title of 'wise woman' by her people. She has been through poverty; hard times; the loss of her family, her Shire, and her husband-to-be; but she has stubbornly clung to her dignity, even during her ten-year tenure in Minas Anor where she would surely have been regarded as an oddity. In many respects, she is the poor man's female Bilbo.

Now that dignity has been stripped away. She has been paraded not only in front of city residents, but also before her own people who regard her as their leader, and has been placed under house arrest by two teenagers. She does not feel any of this would have happened had she been one of the big folk in a comparable leadership position, perhaps, say, a nobleman from Rohan.

Moreoever, these are not the happy hobbits of the Shire. They are all veterans of brutal work camps. Chains for them are no joke. The last time Cami was in chains was on the forced march out of Beleriand. She watched hundreds of hobbits collapse on the trail and die, still being dragged along by their chains until the Orcs cut them loose. She has supressed most of these memories. Now they will return. Even for the other hobbits who only witness the chain gang, it bring back haunting recollections of Numenor and raises questions about the extent to which big folk can be trusted.

The real irony that lies behind all this is that the old Cami would never have the gumption to stand up and disobey. She is able to do this because of the model of Pio, whom she greatly admires. Yet, when Cami makes what is essentially an adult decision, she's treated like a child by the one person who taught her to behave like an adult. What a disappoinment!

Just think of it this way. What if Pio's twins were captured by two huge stone trolls, and it was suggested the Elf stay behind, since those trolls were a bit large for her? Do you think she would listen to that? Heck no! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] And if anyone tried to put Pio in chains, she would give them a taste of their own medicine (good for her!).

I am not asking for wiping out the posts. I don't believe in censorship, and there are too many that would need to be edited (Helen's, Bird's, mine, Mith's--all have elements of this.) But we'll need to deal with these issues in some serious way in the dialogue between these two characters.

Any idea?

sharon

[ December 14, 2002: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]