distortions in relationships in LOTR

[Encaitare]

Evisse said...

Yet you see how I might have a certain difficulty in judging it as an artistic whole in itself, and not think along the lines of 'Aragorn would never do that. It's part of the essence of the character." There's that little problem of the characters already being very familiar to me and the fact that I know them to act in a certain way, which gets in the way of the story being appreciated for what it is, with no reference to canon.

Yup, and that's part of the challenge of writing AU or slash fiction. You want to try and keep everyone as in character as possible while still making a bit of a stretch. If the character is not acting like himself/herself at all, then it's usually a poorly written story and just a sloppy job on the author's part. I personally don't mind a little out-of-character-ness from time to time as long as the story is done well. But for example, a slashfic with Aragorn after he has sworn himself to Arwen is not exactly my cup of tea... however IMHO a "pre-Arwen" fic would be acceptable. See what I mean?