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Great episode, as usual. I really enjoy the topical episodes, but the random minutae you get into with these is a lot of fun too.
Another example of making threats believable to your character, even if we know they’ll survive was Weber’s Honor Harrington. There were a couple times where she COULD have died (in particular since it was known Harrington was paralleling Nelson’s life). But more than that she a) suffered a lot of personal damage in the loss of limbs, nerve damage etc. b) suffered personal tragedy in the loss of friends and lovers and c) suffered the weight of the deaths of those under her command. All three of those meant that survival was likely, but the cost was very high.
I think I read somewhere that Webber had intended for her to die at the defense of Manticore system, but decided against it, in part because he really didn’t want to, but in part because he realized he needed someone in charge of the Manticore navy after that, and she was kind of it.
From a story standpoint I think it worked, and it was a good cap to her story arc.
That said, I drifted away from the series after that, so not sure how things went from there.
Also, Eric Flint and Co. made some references in their side series that scuppered Weber’s plans. He was good natured about it, and even told us how Honor was going to die, had his initial timeline gone through. Oops, well, so much for THAT great plan. 🙂
He talked about it at BuboniCon in . . . 2008? 2009? He also described the idea that would become the first Gordian Division novel.
Ah, I thought it was that they decided to change as that was Eric’s idea and David decided to start deviating from his inspiration, not that there was a continuity oopsie that required her to survive.
I also think it’s in the Foreword of…was it Crown of Slaves with Flint?
Yeah, I think I read Weber talking about how he used Nelson as a template for Harrington’s life, so the local conclusion was her death at a major naval battle that turned the tide of the war, but moved away from it.
I provide a link to Fanfic that, IMHO, better deals with the Honor Harrington personal story arc than the actual pro-fic. Fans aren’t bound to the publisher’s contract, the life of the historical inspiration, or other concerns.
I’m not sure Weber (or our host) is happy about fan fic in general but hope everyone takes it all in the spirit of homage and gratitude in which it’s offered:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/4777523/chapters/10928543
I think that it was Bujold who said that writing collapsed all probabilities, so when an author makes a decision and writes, all other potentials are killed off.
Or maybe I was talking to someone else about how I didn’t want to read more and find out what happened next because of that. Now I can’t remember.
I do know that there were definitely things that she *didn’t* do with various supporting characters that I really wanted to happen. They stayed “head canon” and what she DID do was very good and always something I also hadn’t thought of, of course!
I sort of suspect that I’ve not made much sense.