also okay, whenever you have time: in lieu of a star, because it's me...Wild West AU? *eyes emoji*
*cracks knuckles* saddle up, here is the directors cut to the Wild West AU.
So first off, I really don’t remember how it first came to my head. I never watched a lot of westerns growing up. The only significant “western” movies I can remember are “An American Tale: Fievel Goes West,” and “Shanghai Noon”. That said, I certainly read several book series that took place in the Wild West, on ranches, or on the frontier. I also was very interested in Annie Oakley.
I just remember the idea of Legolas’s improbable aiming translating over to the idea of a nigh mythical sharpshooter just resonated with me.
I also felt a lot of the immigrant story with Gimli was very fitting. Especially the Irish immigrants. I know there are other cultures even more strongly tied to the culture of the Dwarves, but the Irish resonated with me because of my family’s history. A good deal of my family were Irish immigrants, and I’ve been tracing back their history. There was even one of my grandfathers so many greats back that we realized was an Irishman, when we had never thought so before. We always thought he was German, until we found his trail and realized that he had changed the spelling of his Last name to a similar German name, moved to a new city, married a German woman, and passed himself off as German. That tells you something.
I wanted to highlight some of the more romanticized parts of the Wild West outlaw gang (because it turns out it’s a fun sandbox to play in), and highlight how people who are outcasts could find community and family together. I also wanted to play with some of the aspects of the west that get overlooked with the image that is most known. I wanted to make a point not only of our two main fellas falling in love, but how colorful the West was too, in terms of people involved.
The plot of the first story stands for itself. I just really wanted a high action, comedic, dramatic “meet cute” as it were (and now I really want someone to make a list of prompts for Action Meet Cutes).
So let’s get into the cast! I’ll happily reveal some of their backstories, since I don’t know that I’d be able to fit it all in in the sequel.
Gimli; an Irish immigrant who came to the US in search for opportunity as a teenager. He hasn’t had an easy time of it, owing greatly to his hard it’s been for him to find and keep a job. People don’t want to hire the Irish for anything but the lowest paid and thought of jobs. Land the job as the fireman for the engine is the best one he’d had actually, until the outlaw gig presented himself. He still hasn’t told his Ma, even though he writes to her whenever he can.
Legolas “Legs”; is a legendary sharpshooter and outlaw. It’s alluded to in the story, but never fully stated in what’s been written so far, but Legolas is mixed race. Part Native American, and Part European. I don’t go into as much detail in these aspects, because it would be rather uninformed, despite what research I can do. Still I felt it was important to his character. I can say that he can feel as though he doesn’t really belong with either side of his family, and like he’s always too much of the other side to really fit in. It’s part of why the gang means so much to him. He fits in there.
Aragorn; has a mysterious past. Because it’s Aragorn. When doesn’t he? I won’t reveal all of that, just know that his grandfather fell from grace. I also wanted to make it clear that Aragorn has dark skin in this story. Again, the Wild West was colorful.
Boromir “Beau”; was a bugler for the Union during the civil war. He’s came back jaded. Proud of what he accomplished, but definitely scarred as well.
Faramir; is Boromir’s younger brother, he was supposed to go to school to become a chemist and start work at a pharmacy. But his father cut him off. When Boromir decided to strike out on his own, he decided to come with him. Aside from the bit of medical knowledge he has, both he and Boromir are responsible for handling any explosives the gang may use.
The Hobbits are all Italian immigrants. I’m giving them one bullet point because they are very much intertwined. Frodo was sent to the US to join his uncle Bilbo, who had immigrated before and opened a shop. Frodo was a very bright student with a gift for languages, so he learned English well before he took the trip. His cousin’s Merry and Pippin ended up joining him last minute to avoid some trouble they’d gotten into at home in Italy. They will divulge what trouble that was. They spoke enough English to make it through immigration, and understand it fairly well, although neither speaks it very much. Pippin speaks a bit more than Merry. Sam actually did not meet the others until they were on the boat. He did not speak or understand any English whatsoever, and upon learning that he needed some to make it through immigration, was in despair. Frodo noticed, befriended Sam, and spent the whole trip tutoring Sam in specifically what he’d need to get through immigration, and English in general. He’s devoted to Frodo because of this and swore to help him in return. He remains the best cook you’ll ever meet. Upon arriving to the US, they find that Bilbo’s shop is closed. Apparently some strange folk who were heading west with the hopes of finding gold and a new life (the cast of the hobbit) somehow convinced them to go with them. Frodo and the others ended up heading west in hopes of someday finding Uncle Bilbo. They ran into the gang along the way and somehow ended up joining it.
One thing that was important to me from the beginning, was getting the voices right. I wanted to get the dialects to sounds right without writing accents too phonetically. It’s an interesting line to find.
The town that Eowyn is leading them to is called Dreadwood, as a play on the city of Deadwood, and the literal name of one of the places in middle earth.
I can’t think of what else to say other than that! I hope you enjoyed!
which one of u was going to tell me that tea tastes different if u put it in hot water?
y- you were putting it in cold water?????
Radish. Answer the question radish.
yeah??? i thought for like. 5 years that ppl just put it in hot water 2 speed up the tea-ification process didn’t realize there was an actual reason
You dont have the patience to microwave water for 3 minutes???
[ID: Tags reading “u think i have the patience to boil water wtf ?????” /End ID]
why are you. putting it in the microwave to boil it
Do you think I have the patience to boil water on the stove
Its takes less than a minute
Bestie is ur stovetop powered by the fucking sun
How long does it take you to boil a cup of water on the stove
Like seven minutes
Just stick the mug on top of the stove on medium heat n it boils in like two minutes… less than that is u use a saucepan…
Crying you’re putting the whole mug on the stove ???? On medium heat???? Ur stove is enchanted
Every single person in this post is a fucking lunatic
Yet another post that reads like four shakespeare characters who come out in the middle of the play to talk about something completely unrelated for comic relief
(Enter RADISHN’T, MOTHMAN MISATO, BOIMG FROG and CATS'N RAINCOATS, stage left. They are having a HEATED DISCUSSION.)
RADISHN’T: Prithee, which one of you had planned to tell
Of diff'rent flavours gained by simple act
Of brewing tea with water hot, not cold?
MOTHMAN: Egad! you poured the water cold? Wherefore?!
FROG: An answer from you, Radish, I must beg.
RADISHN’T: Indeed I did, dear friends - why does this shock?
Without the guide of others I assumed
That heat was merely added for the sake
Of expediting this solution’s brewing!
Half a decade I have spent, or more,
Not questioning this worldview I had made.
In fact, I am myself a bit surprised
That you might think that I, your dearest friend,
Might have a patience of sufficient stock
To wait until a pot of water boils.
FROG: Three minutes overtaxes patience so?
The microwave will beep when it is done!
CATS'N: My friend, this answer vexes me the more!
Can it be true that thou dost boil by nuke?!
FROG: Are you in turn, my friend, so shocked to know
That I have not the patience, like our Root,
To boil upon the stove our favour’d drink?
CATS'N: It takes less than a minute!
FROG: On what plate?
Perhaps your dinner cooks atop the sun?
CATS'N: How long can take your stove to fill the task
Of boiling but a single cup alone?
FROG: In minutes?
CATS'N: Yes!
FROG: I counted seven, once.
CATS'N: Perhaps you ought to have your timepiece checked!
If on a middle heat you place the cup
You soon will have the scalding drink you crave.
Two minutes, in a mug upon the plate
Or even less, if you should have a pot.
FROG: You cause me tears - is this how thou dost live?
You place upon the iron stove a mug?
A mug, ceramic, filled with water cold?
How do these flames, though medium in height,
Not shatter like a glass this fragile thing?
Surely, then, your kitchen is bewitched
With magicks far beyond the mortal ken!
(The FOUR realise they have wandered into the THRONE ROOM. The ROYAL COURT watches with fascination.)
KING: Ev'ry single person in this group must be a fucking lunatic, it seems.
I’m sorry but the THOUGHT that has been put into this, I actually CAN’T—
The fact that nearly every line is so metrically considered- near perfect iambic pentameter witb the occasional trochee for emphasis, but usually retaining a strong sense of rhythm nonetheless. And then the king comes in at the end, so wound in his disbelief that his response is reduced to prose.
And the even better thing about this is how easy it would have been to structure the king’s line into iambic pentameter: it is effectively already said as such because of the way wizardlyghost has phrased it, yet they haven’t!! They did not break the line, rendering what, by all typically of both Shakespearean canon and other periods context should be the character with the most command and authority in the whole play. If there was ever a more effective way to convey a genuine “what the fuck??”, I know of it not.
But it gets better!! Shakespeare regularly uses meter in order to represent class divide; the nobility usually speak in iambic pentameter, save for a few particularly chosen moments (e.g. Lady Macbeth’s descent into madness, Othello’s realisation of Desdemona’s “betrayal”) or just lines where Shakespeare needs to suggest high emotion or when a character is lost in thought. Supernatural characters like the fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the Witches in Macbeth usually speak in trochaic tetrameter, an inversion of iambic pentameter. Lower class characters, particularly those used for comic relief (usually under the influence of alcohol), speak with no structure at all: their language is plain prose. Therefore, if this is a conversation between these types of characters, as the prompt from silvergirachi suggests, why the hell are the characters speaking so eloquently???
Now, this is Tumblr. It is subsequently logical to assume that this may have merely been a humorous recreation (and a very good one at that) of the Shakespearean style in a way that is widely recognisable to an audience that may or may not have read a great deal of Shakespeare, which is understandable. However, logic is boring so I’m going to probe further into this to the point where future historians will look to this as an example of overanalysing.
The inherent eloquence of the characters here suggests an unusual subversion of the roles typically assumed in Shakespearean comedy. This could be interpreted along two major avenues: firstly, that the rhetoric displayed by the speakers is fundamentally representative of how truth can be expected even from the most seemingly pointless or ludicrous discussions. Furthermore, it could suggest that it matters not how well constructed your speeches are: if you talk bullshit, it’s going to sound that way despite your attempts to hide it.
This is similar but not identical to the second avenue of interpretation: there is the implication that the noblemen in the play are in fact the comic relief characters, therefore implying that the “common people” of the play are the ones whose influence, though not expressed in such a highly spoken manner, makes a lot more sense than whatever the hell this is. If this was a real Shakespeare play, I would call it a subtle exploration into the innate corruption of the rich and powerful. Well done, op.
Now, I doubt any of this is actually grounded analysis in any way, shape or form, but if someone else can take this to the extremes of writing a Shakespearean scene, why can I not analyse it as such? And where else to do so than Tumblr?
im in tears i didnt think anyone would put this much analysis into this‚ thank you so much
i also like that everyone else gets a version of their handle and then tumblr user pidoop is promoted to king
Busy, Busy, Busy. Burn the candle at both ends, 'til moon gives way to sun again. Sing a song and watch it fly by. An instant in your ear, forever in your mind.
Now with all of my (art, music, writings) collected on their own works page.
