a thief among thieves
Robin Hood AU: In a country much like England, King Rogers the Just has vanished while overseas fighting the Red Dead King. His closest confidante, Sir Barnes, is rumored to have fallen under the influence of the distant and icy Tsardom. He now contests with the appointed Steward Nicholas Fury for control over the country while its affairs are in
( Read more... )
I can see the leadership problem, in that Tony and Steve are generally the leadership figures in Avengers stuff, Tony's even been Director of SHIELD, but Clint did lead the West Coast Avengers, so when he breaks away from the others he has the capacity. So neither of them an odd choice to lead a group, but comics-wise Clint came to it later :)
If you want to keep Tony in the forest but out of the leadership role you could either make HIM not want to lead or the people who would be under him not want him to lead. If Tony was still recovering from torture, Clint was already established as leader and Tony came along later, if Tony was happy for someone else to make the decisions and just let him be, let him tinker and improve where he could, but God please don't let be in the position of having to be reponsible for someone else's life ever again... Or Tony could be the kind of drunk from the comics, or Iron Man 2, where he's not a functionable leader or people won't let him lead. It could be that if Clint is a Knight, Tony was the equivalent of a civilian? Might not fit the time period though. Tony could have his own agenda - think how he pratically ignores his company, international law Rhodey, everything, to become Iron Man and track down those who stole his weapons. What if he wasn't in the forest to lead (or even wanted to be in the forest) but was persuing a seperate agenda...and the forest lot were part of that or just convenient, or Pepper pays them money to keep an eye on him, make him eat kind of thing...
I guess it depends whether you're going for the jockular kind of Robin Hood, where Tony can be the odd man out, kind of humourous but perhaps a bit sad, or a serious Robin Hood, where things are dark and people broken.
I like your weary Clint and his annoyance at Steve :D
If you wanted Tony at Court you could do that stuff in a later story and just have allusions to his position, mentions of him when people are discussing wealthy marks to go after or what's going on in the wider world or politics or letters or who owes what debt to who or... Not necessarily interludes. Alternatively, you could have Tony be a peripheral part in a first act in the forest, a background figure who spends his days making crazy contraptions to improve life or because he's bored, or a broken person, or persuing his own agenda, or whatever else. And focues on Clint. And then in your act two, in which Tony returns to the Court, make Tony more a focus. Perhaps follow him as he relearns Court, what's happened whilst he's been away and what's changed now with the events of the first act. Or perhaps he's known all along, as part of his agenda, or why he was in the forest in the first place, or it all went to shit so he'd been avoiding it, or...and he does know what's going on and as such explains to the reader.
I haven't finished writing any fics since last summer, because everything wants to be long :S So yeah, I empathise on that front!
*ramble ramble ramble*
Reply
Leave a comment