#underdeveloped characters

This blog celebrates both characters of Tolkien's world and our own characters that need more love, by creating and reblogging all kind of fanworks, like fanfiction, fanart, fanvideos, fancrafts, headcanons, playlists, edits, moodboards etc. NSFW text entries are allowed and we’ll tag them accordingly when we reblog them, but please put them behind a “read more”.

We're tracking the tag tolkienocweek!

The event is modded by @niphredilien, @elamarth-calmagol and @stormxpadme and will take place between 26th July - 1st August 2021 for the first time.

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The event schedule for 2021:

Day 1 (26th July): Shipping - create a piece of fanwork about an OC that you ship with a canon character.

Day 2 (27th July): Family members - create a piece of fanwork about a character who fills a gap left in a family tree (e.g., Legolas' mother, Maglor's spouse, Aragorn and Arwen's younger children).

Day 3 (28th July): Background characters - create a piece of fanwork about a character who is in the background of canon scenes and is either never mentioned or barely mentioned in the story (e.g., an extra from Laketown, a Teler defending their ships during the First Kinslaying, the Haradric man that Sam sees die) and show their view of the events.

Day 4 (29th July): Self insert/reader insert - create a piece of fanwork that includes yourself being in Middle Earth, or write a reader insert story.

Day 5 (30th July): Worldbuilding - create a piece of fanwork about a character who lives in a different place or time from the main canonical events (e.g., a character from Rhûn, a character who stays in Valinor after the Darkening, a character living in Gondor when the kings were still ruling etc.) and flesh out their world.

Day 6 (31th July): Forgotten characters - take a character who is neglected (e.g. Bob and Nob in Bree, Eärwen) or abandoned by Tolkien (e.g. Trotter the hobbit) and make them your own by creating a piece of fanwork about them. Or, completely redesign a canon character to make them yours (e.g., Gil-Galad becoming Fin-Galad).

Day 7 (1st August): Freeform - create a piece of fanwork about whatever resonates with you.

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Since we want to celebrate creations about neglected characters all year long, the mods will occasionally reblog posts and fancreations about OCs and underdeveloped characters. If you would like to see your post on our blog, you're very welcome to tag tolkienocweek. Since tumblr's tagging system is often being faulty, don't hesitate to message us, too!

(The title’s just an allusion/joke. Shoot me.)

Correct me if I’m wrong (I know I could be) but out of the entirety of the ATLA and LOK series, we witness three official female leaders in total: Earth Queen Hou Ting, Commander Kuvira and Fire Lord Izumi.

EQ Hou Ting is every horrific stereotype about female leaders, and women in general, imaginable (and probably how Bryke wanted Azula to be written and interpreted). She’s greedy, cruel, temperamental, hateful, vain, self-absorbed, demanding, irrational, egotistical, preoccupied with appearances/status, etc. I think her sole purpose was to show how much more insidious the Earth Kingdom’s monarchal rule and police state politics had become, but with the added bonus of getting to represent the evil witch-queen of Bryke’s nightmares. Her death was also, dare I say, extremely violent and arguably uncalled for. But she’s in the same coffin as P’Li and Ming Hua there.

C. Kuvira is...well...a dictator, to put it nicely. Irregardless of how she may view herself and her actions too. She was lawfully chosen as the leader of the Earth Kingdom after the EQ was murdered by wannabe anarchists and Suyin rejected her chance to take the spot, sure. But after reaching incumbency, she immediately set out on a mission to ‘right the wrongs’ of the EK’s shortcomings and solve international drama plus world hunger by turning the whole planet into one big gulag-plantation under her authority. Neither her reasoning, fears or her childhood give much illumination for the decisions she makes (and of course don’t excuse them) but we’re supposed to accept that they do. (I say this while acknowledging that she wasn’t completely wrong to want the Earth Kingdom to be ruled by a strong, unyielding person that would actually make improvements for the betterment of others.) Worse yet, it’s been theorized that she was supposed to replace Azula in the hearts of many Azula fans and be the in-spirit ‘Azula Redemption’ that we still haven’t gotten. Furthermore, they continued her arc in the LOK comics that, amazingly, are reportedly worse than LOK at developing believable, consistent 3D characters. She was adopted into and raised within the still well-off Beifong family but her sister Opal was apparently mean to her for some reason? Well, that’s very unfortunate, but does not make me sympathize with her anymore than I already may have in the tv series she was conceived for. Azula’s unfinished story stays superior and imo far easier to be understanding over. Why keep trying to rewrite Azula into these other characters when the real deal is already around anyway? Why are they being bitter and headstrong over her, even now? Will Azula ever get to just try on the Fire Lord’s headpiece?     All in all, Kuvira gets off basically scot-free with no repercussions (despite Suyin of all people hilariously promising that she’d get exactly that) or even a chance to actually make up for what she and her accomplices did. Her arc continuation as far as I can see, is basically just filler that does no justice to her character or that of others. All this and she’s allegedly a personal favorite of Bryke—that they may even have called ‘attractive’ at one point—which may reveal a lot about why they placed so much focus on her post-series that other just as enrapturing characters did not get. There’s a huge amount of bias present around her.

FL Izumi is Zuko’s daughter and it’s a wonder that we were given even that much information on her. In the entire series she spoke an astounding three lines. Three. All of them on the same topic, and in response to a man with far more influence on the story than her inquiring why she’s adamant about not bringing the Fire Nation into another war. As if the last war the FN was in didn’t last a century and finally end less than a century ago. She had her lines wasted on that exchange.

All this to say that we watched the entirety of two series, with no positive, extremely influential female leaders being truly represented. Two of them are very negative figures. One is downright nasty albeit less ‘conquest-thirsty’ than another. One operates as basically a silent figure in-show. Only one has a profound effect on Avatar Korra, and the feelings the two share in that one important scene seem to be forgotten just as quickly as they come. All three were meant to be forgettable in their original appearances.

I binge watched the first 6 seasons of Doctor Who over the course of a year and a half. This may not sound like binge watching, but considering my schedule at the time and the slowness of me watching hour long tv shows not propelled by my fiance (I am still only on season 9 of Supernatural after starting it sometime around 2009 and Battlestar Gallatica took me something like 5 years or more). It's not that I don't enjoy these shows, rather I have always lived a busy life and either I'm watching a show based on who is with me or I'm watching what I label as fluff- nondramatic, no-plot, comedic, and/or short. Cooking shows, sitcoms, hgtv, bridezilla style shows.

So the fact I found doctor who so enthralling to dedicate so much of my time to it speaks to my enjoyment.

However, around the sixth seasons beginning, I slowed down. All the potential of good ideas was there. I loved River Song and Rory. I loved a lot of episodes with the Eleventh doctor. I didn't care for Amy Pond, but I also hadn't cared for Martha, so that alone wouldn't have slowed me down. It was the plot holes and the rehashed dilemmas that bothered me. It was River Song's storyline supposed to be the exact opposite of the doctor's. The fact the first time she met the doctor should have been the last time the doctor met her. It was the love interest of Amy Pond going on much longer then it should, not to mention being creepy in the first place. It was her impossible constant superpowers. It was the lost opportunities on more episodes with Rory.

When I finally met Clara, I was disappointed in the end of Amy and Rory, but it was at least bittersweet. But it was Clara that made me go on hiatus. We met her multiple times. She was marvelous each of those times. Her beginning plot was fascinating. Then we met Clara, the companion Clara. Who was another Amy level pretty face (this bothers me alone in that each of the companions prior to Amy since 2005 were not traditional western beauties and I had so much appreciation for that) with impossibleness. She crushed on the doctor and lacked any of the spunk I loved her original characters.

I've read a lot on Moffat's writing of women, and I think if you look up that, it addresses a lot of my issues with these companions. Add in the plot holes and all the impossible feats, and you go from a show with character depth, variety, and well rounded plot lines to plots that begin and end within a couple episodes with no development in between.

Needless to say, this all comes to mind because I've finally revisited the series (the last season I watched a few years ago was the 8th season, because I wanted to give the 12th doctor a chance. I'm now almost all of the way through the 9th season, and I'm only reminded of my disdain for Moffet's writing (BBC Sherlock redeems him somewhat).

His best characters are wasted, and the plot lines are underwhelming and feel repetitive. The twelfth doctor feels hypocritical. If you want an apathetic, sociopathic grandpa, then do it. If you want the soft caring, passionate man, then do that. I feel like I get whiplash. I get that Clara is supposed to humanize him. But he constantly is doubting himself and it's getting old. He's constantly acting like he doesn't understand people then giving compassionate speeches as though he does. I don't feel the development has been enough to make sense of this back and forth character traits.

Meanwhile, Maisie Williams' character is brilliant. I admit some bias as I love her as an actress. Her character is undeveloped; I do realize that. But there's so much potential. She could have easily been another jack harknass or River Song repeating character used much long. This is likely due to her part in Game of Thrones, but that speaks to the fact they should have never had such a famous actress in that role if that is the case. Repeating characters don't happen nearly enough in a story about a time traveler. I love repeating characters because you bring in different relationships. It's okay to have complexity (see Game of Thrones, viewers are not stupid). One episode was not enough to develop the pain and trauma she underwent or the realization that her pain and trauma did not mean she actually didn't care. This was immortality the doctor created. This wasn't some river song tardis accident (still not really explained) or Rose Tyler God result. This was the doctor. Willingly giving this child eternal life and not waiting to explain the consequences. Their explanation for why he couldn't take her on the Tardis was actually decent, but it doesn't excuse leaving someone alone to deal with the consequences of his actions. They could've spent the whole season on developing that relationship alone. They could have kept her for multiple seasons as a reoccurring balance to the doctor. The one who helps the ones the doctor leaves behind. And no. She was a four episode character who was rushed through the woodwork.

I'm excited for Billy. I've heard some great things about her. I'm going to keep watching because all I've been telling people for years since my hiatus started was that I wanted a female doctor, and they've finally given it. Plus, I'm hoping some of the early brilliance returns with realistic characters, fully developed plotlines now that Moffat's reign of terror is coming to a close. A woman can dream right?