Comments | joyeee: To the Olympics! Ch. 2

joyeee

To the Olympics! Ch. 2

May 07, 2008 20:54

Title: To the Olympics!
Genre: Adventure/Drama
Rating: FRT/PG/K+
Summary: The summer of 340 BC: Alexander and Hephaestion attend the Olympics! While exploring new places, meeting new people, facing culture clashes and getting into a fistfight or two, friendship deepens into something more.
© Copyright Joyeee 2008

A/N: Just want to reemphasize that ( Read more... )

fic-alexander the great

Comments 3

Excellent! moon71 June 2 2008, 16:33:11 UTC

Hi ( ... )

Re: Excellent! joyeee June 15 2008, 06:45:00 UTC

Moon, so sorry I haven't replied 'til now (you guessed the right reason!) Anyway, thanks so much for your comments, detailed and insightful as always.

I always regret that my stories never seem to have time, due to pacing and so on, for more character development of Alexander's other Companions. When I watched Mr. Stone's film, I thought there was a lot of untapped potential he could have explored more fully, and one of my first, most instinctive reactions was that it was a pity we weren't shown more interactions between the great Alexander and all his very ambitious, successful boyhood pals!

Also there are so many possible interpretations of their characters based on the little we know/assume from history, and I usually write characters the way I "feel" they would feel. I suppose I haven't read enough about them yet to feel that familiar with them. (I'd delve into "Marshals of Alexander's Empire" - except, considering its account of Hephaestion, how am I supposed to firmly believe the accounts of the rest?! X___X)

Re: Excellent! moon71 June 15 2008, 10:57:42 UTC

I agree completely about the companions. If Heckel can be that negative about Hephaestion, unreasonably I think when you've read the historic sources, which say so very little about him that it's hard to form an opinion, I would have my doubts about the others too. How people judge the Companions is so often coloured by how they judge Alexander. I think in the film there was an element of name dropping and not much else. We didn't come away from it feeling we knew any of them better than anyone else. I particularly felt figures like Cassander, Antigonus and Ptolemy were prominent only because Stone was trying to point out that they would be the main players when Alexander was gone. And I also felt there was too much Renault in his portrayal of them. (Ptolemy the likeable friend, for example - he strikes me as far more cunning and self-promoting than that, at least when Alexander is dead ( ... )