Thank you so much for such kind comments, Keiliss. This was one of those comments that had me walking on air for the rest of the day! :D
I never gave Indis much thought.
Honestly? Neither did I. She was a very meh character for me. In the Silm, things happen to her; she seems to lack agency in those things or even seem capable of responding to them with the emotions one would expect. She is married by Finwe, she is hated by Feanor, she is left behind by her husband. Her marriage is justified only by the good deeds of her children. She gave me the impression of an object that is acted upon but ultimately inert.
When we mod-types were developing the prompts, then huinare suggested the song for this prompt. I listened to it and really liked it and thought of it as something I could work with as a prompt. But I figured it would be grabbed up early, and I didn't claim my prompts until the very end to give everyone else first choice. And when I did ... it was still available. So I listened to it again and let a story form around it in my mind, and when I did, it was Indis of all people!
Reading about her in the HoMe, she is not so inert as in the Silm. I'm not sure if JRRT excised these details about her or if (like Nerdanel) it is one of the several examples of Christopher trimming out the characterization of woman characters, seemingly without reason.
But because Indis has always struck me more as someone to be acted upon, then I have been quite unfair to her in my own stories. She has played an evil stepmother more than once ...
So I was glad to get to write about her from her PoV at last and do her some justice in my verse at last as well. :) This
The progression from a young girl with a crush (rather like having a thing for a rock star) to a mature and disillusioned woman seeing the flaws and weaknesses and doing the best she could with what was left to her
makes me really happy to read because it is exactly what I wanted to convey. That she is sheltered both physically and socially leaves her unprepared for what she actually faces as a married woman ... and one in the difficult and unenviable situation of being the first woman to be a wife in a second marriage and stepmother (to probably the most difficult possible stepkid! :)
And I was never really drawn to Fingolfin and this all kind of confirmed him to me.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2014-03-17 06:20 pm (UTC)I never gave Indis much thought.
Honestly? Neither did I. She was a very meh character for me. In the Silm, things happen to her; she seems to lack agency in those things or even seem capable of responding to them with the emotions one would expect. She is married by Finwe, she is hated by Feanor, she is left behind by her husband. Her marriage is justified only by the good deeds of her children. She gave me the impression of an object that is acted upon but ultimately inert.
When we mod-types were developing the prompts, then
Reading about her in the HoMe, she is not so inert as in the Silm. I'm not sure if JRRT excised these details about her or if (like Nerdanel) it is one of the several examples of Christopher trimming out the characterization of woman characters, seemingly without reason.
But because Indis has always struck me more as someone to be acted upon, then I have been quite unfair to her in my own stories. She has played an evil stepmother more than once ...
So I was glad to get to write about her from her PoV at last and do her some justice in my verse at last as well. :) This
The progression from a young girl with a crush (rather like having a thing for a rock star) to a mature and disillusioned woman seeing the flaws and weaknesses and doing the best she could with what was left to her
makes me really happy to read because it is exactly what I wanted to convey. That she is sheltered both physically and socially leaves her unprepared for what she actually faces as a married woman ... and one in the difficult and unenviable situation of being the first woman to be a wife in a second marriage and stepmother (to probably the most difficult possible stepkid! :)
And I was never really drawn to Fingolfin and this all kind of confirmed him to me.
Lol! I'm still trying to let him grow on me! :D
Thank you again for reading and commenting.