[mark12_30]

Bird, I understand your points, but there is (for me) a deeper issue here, and that is that I'm playing Frodo. It's one thing to play non-canonical characters-- Gamba, Lindo, etc-- I can go wild and have fun and do what I want. But not with Frodo; he's a balancing act, a study, and something I'm determined to do well, or not at all. I feel simlilarly about Sam, and Pippin. I've written a novel with them, after all, and it was a painstaking effort, trying to blend everything I did in with existing historical events, and not go outside what TOlkien has already written as far as those characters go.

Now, that doesn't mean I didn't have creative fun with the OTHER characters in my story-- boy, did I. They did things that few hobbits EVER would. But NOT Frodo, Sam, Pippin. They were tied and woven into Tolkien's history to the very best of my ability.

And that's what I'm trying to do now; everything in me is screaming, Tie it in faithfully, to the best of your ability, in a way that The Professor would approve of and that your conscience can handle. And if I can't do that-- well, that's an issue for me, and a monstrous one. Talk about losing sleep. [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img]

Giving them travelling names seems to me like the simplest way out. It's slightly hokey, but I can deal with it.

Let me put it this way-- a dragon in the fourth age Shire? Okay. You're right-- that's lots of fun. [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img] But-- it beter not be Smaug, Ancalagon, or Glaurung, because they're dead. [img]smilies/frown.gif[/img] Tolkien said so. Soooo--- make your own dragon, get him from somewhere else, and bring him in to wreak havoc-- fine. But the dragons whose destiny has already been settled? Let them rest in peace.
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[ March 14, 2003: Message edited by: mark12_30 ]