Shipping in the Alternity-Verse.... Same-player vs Multi-player

[gwendolyngrace]

Aliethen asked:

With the cast list coming out, it was revealed that a lot of characters who played opposite each other in storylines were in fact played by the same person. How did you balance that? Was it ever hard?




I felt that deserved its own thread. Discuss!

Comments

[synecdochic]

I had the same problem with Charlie and his relationship with Dree and Em -- if I'd realized at the time I thought that up how difficult it was to give a sense of a relationship happening offscreen, I probably wouldn't have done it, or at least not in that form. (Although it really is such a huge part of Charlie's character that he's good at communication and spotting/taking care of emotional needs because he's got that experience doing so in his various polyamorous relationships, but I probably could have done it another way.)

I was always so in love with Deb's ability to convey so much plot in so few words with her messages from Barty to other Aurors. It did such a great job of filling in the holes.

[queenbookwench.livejournal.com]

Well, I for one loved Charlie's polyamory, even if a lot of it did have to happen off-screen ;)

[gwendolyngrace]

+1

[synecdochic]

Thank you! And, I mean, I loved it too, just that it was very difficult to portray properly. :D

Charlie sort of sprang to life in my head fully formed -- I was going through my usual questions of "what makes this person tick" and got to 'relationships' and I didn't even have to think about it before he was like, yeah, I've never understood monogamy and never will, but I've at least managed to figure out how to do it without things blowing up. He was definitely poly before he took the job at the Reserve (I think he talked a bit about his teenage dating habits here and there), but the job definitely helped, because dragonkeepers tend to be an isolated population doing intense and all-consuming work and not have time to go looking elsewhere. So they develop a really strong cultural understanding around how you go about hooking up with the others on the job -- and how you don't, not if you want to avoid causing trouble.

When Peg and I were trying to figure out how Charlie related to his parents and to the rest of the Weasleys -- he loves his family dearly, and he's definitely a Weasley, but he's definitely a fish out of water sometimes -- I said that Molly probably thinks Charlie's never had a serious boyfriend/girlfriend, even though she's met loads of the people he's slept with, because a) he keeps his mouth shut about what he's up to because otherwise the Weasleys will be Weasleys at him (although Molly got SO MUCH BETTER about boundaries over time!), and b) all of the people he's slept with have been friends first, not romantic partners, and he won't sleep with somebody unless he's friends with them. (I always hesitated to call him aromantic, because he does form romantic relationships, they're just not his primary concern. But he's a few steps closer to aromantic than your 'average' person.)

Which is why he and Tonks worked together so well! Very early on -- I've actually gone looking for it and couldn't find it again; I'll have to really dig at some point -- Tonks had said she was feeling wistful about Bea getting older and wondering if she should have another kid, and Charlie said, hey, you know, if you ever want to, come ask, I will totally knock you up, and for him it was just the sort of thing you do if you have a friend who wants a kid but whose other relationships are Complicated. Charlie and Tonks were never Complicated, and that's why I loved them! (Well. Beyond the complications of Bill still having not gotten over his crush on Tonks when Charlie and Tonks started sleeping together, but. He did feel kind of guilty about that.)

(And then they did have Adam, and Charlie surprised himself by immediately falling head-over-heels for his son -- he knew he'd love the kid, but he didn't expect to have his life priorities shift so suddenly and sharply on a dime. It confused him a bit! But he's such a great da, and will be again once he gets over the "my life has been completely upended" and "oh God I don't want my kid to see me like this".)

[kiya]

A while back I made the comment about Charlie that his work was so overwhelmingly dangerous that it probably soaked up his entire capacity for Gryffindor recklessness, and thus meant that he was capable of having a wellspring of good sense where most lions have extra "Okay, on three!"

I loved Charlie's relationships, speaking of character representation.

[synecdochic]

*sporfle* Oh, I love that theory. (And speaking of Charlie's dangerous job, I loved that you'd get these little snatches of just how much he was downplaying here and there. Like, this is a job where if you want two days off and you can't find somebody to trade shifts with, you go out and deliberately let the highly poisonous dragon bite you because it's 48 hours off shift lest you manifest a severe allergic reaction, and Charlie's always like, yeah, hang on, lemme go get bit by the Vipertooth, nbd.)

I didn't decide until later on that the Hat had offered Charlie Hufflepuff or Gryffindor and he picked Gryffindor because Weasleys, but it does work for him. :D

[batrachian]

*cheerful swearing*

and this is where I make inarticulate gibbering noises again about how you've managed to take a piece of my psyche and self-image and project it out onto a character in such a way that I fall deeply in...sync...with them, and then you make a post like this where you lay the pieces out and I go "oh. that's why."

(not that you're the only person to have done this, mind *cheerful stare at jenett*, but you are so consistently good at it)

[synecdochic]

Oh, yay! happy to be of service. :D