![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Early White Phial Notes: Figuring Out J'zargo (Migrated Post)
Thursday, October 17th, 2019 09:32 pmI started writing scenes with just Mehra and Rumarin, but early on I realized I needed a third character to round things out. I thought it would be fun to have a spellcaster who would take offense at Rumarin’s fake College robes and bring out the magic-based insecurities of the other two characters. J'zargo fit the bill perfectly: he’s proud of his school, takes magic seriously, and brags about how he’s going to be a great mage someday.
Unfortunately, J’zargo is already a student at the College of Winterhold when you start the game. That wasn’t going to work for my purposes. What the heck, I’ll just pretend I installed a mod that placed him in Helgen at the right moment. Let’s call it Live Another Life for J'zargo.
But then fanfic J'zargo started splintering away from the original J'zargo in other ways. There are still similarities: both J'zargos are boastful and have that “I’m going to be a hotshot mage” swagger. Both J'zargos are ambitious and know they have a lot to prove to people who neither like nor trust Khajiit. But fanfic J'zargo started picking up other traits that surprised me a bit. He’s loyal to his friend. He hates screwing up and letting people down. He’s straightforward about what he’s feeling; if he’s mad at you, you’ll know it.
That’s where the two J'zargos are very different. In-game J'zargo is a scheming fellow who’s out for himself. He’s eager to climb the ladder of success even if it means stepping on his rivals. He does something pretty nasty that you can attribute to either treachery or a criminal level of incompetence. The more I wrote, the more I realized I couldn’t see fanfic J'zargo being underhanded like that– he has a different core.
But I like this J'zargo too much to rewrite him. Now the only way I can reconcile the differences is by assuming my J'zargo hasn’t had the same experiences as his counterpart. He hasn’t even been to the College yet, so maybe he hasn’t encountered the obstacles and disappointments destined to change him. Perhaps the devious J'zargo is what he becomes if his dreams tempt him down the wrong path.
[Originally posted on Tumblr on October 22, 2016]
Unfortunately, J’zargo is already a student at the College of Winterhold when you start the game. That wasn’t going to work for my purposes. What the heck, I’ll just pretend I installed a mod that placed him in Helgen at the right moment. Let’s call it Live Another Life for J'zargo.
But then fanfic J'zargo started splintering away from the original J'zargo in other ways. There are still similarities: both J'zargos are boastful and have that “I’m going to be a hotshot mage” swagger. Both J'zargos are ambitious and know they have a lot to prove to people who neither like nor trust Khajiit. But fanfic J'zargo started picking up other traits that surprised me a bit. He’s loyal to his friend. He hates screwing up and letting people down. He’s straightforward about what he’s feeling; if he’s mad at you, you’ll know it.
That’s where the two J'zargos are very different. In-game J'zargo is a scheming fellow who’s out for himself. He’s eager to climb the ladder of success even if it means stepping on his rivals. He does something pretty nasty that you can attribute to either treachery or a criminal level of incompetence. The more I wrote, the more I realized I couldn’t see fanfic J'zargo being underhanded like that– he has a different core.
But I like this J'zargo too much to rewrite him. Now the only way I can reconcile the differences is by assuming my J'zargo hasn’t had the same experiences as his counterpart. He hasn’t even been to the College yet, so maybe he hasn’t encountered the obstacles and disappointments destined to change him. Perhaps the devious J'zargo is what he becomes if his dreams tempt him down the wrong path.
[Originally posted on Tumblr on October 22, 2016]