Ireth
Myth Weaver
I'm having some trouble with the villain of one of my stories, namely how to portray him without raising people's hackles. His name is Martin, and he's the equivalent of Frollo in my (very loose) adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The main characters are Diana and Vincent -- Diana is the bellringer, and Vincent is her love interest.
In keeping with the love/lust triangle in the original story, I want Martin to lust after Vincent at the same time as Diana loves Vincent. Unfortunately this raises some issues, as Martin is both Diana's ex-fiance (thus necessitating him being bisexual for the plot to work) and a deacon of the Leeds Parish Church (which raises potential issues about sexuality/lust and the church). Admittedly I think the latter was there in Hugo's original novel, but the former is still something I'll have to work out.
I don't want people to see Martin and scream "oh, she thinks bisexuals are EVIL!", because for the record, I don't think that way at all. That's just what works for the story I want to tell. He's meant to be evil first and bisexual second -- albeit a heavily closeted bisexual. I deliberately flipped the genders of the protagonists to provide a new spin on the story, and a friend of mine suggested I bring Diana's ex-fiance in as the bad guy. Flipping Martin's gender as well and making her more of an abusive mother figure would not work at all, since I don't think women were allowed in positions of such power back in those days. I'm going for historical accuracy as much as possible, minus the werewolves and mages.
In keeping with the love/lust triangle in the original story, I want Martin to lust after Vincent at the same time as Diana loves Vincent. Unfortunately this raises some issues, as Martin is both Diana's ex-fiance (thus necessitating him being bisexual for the plot to work) and a deacon of the Leeds Parish Church (which raises potential issues about sexuality/lust and the church). Admittedly I think the latter was there in Hugo's original novel, but the former is still something I'll have to work out.
I don't want people to see Martin and scream "oh, she thinks bisexuals are EVIL!", because for the record, I don't think that way at all. That's just what works for the story I want to tell. He's meant to be evil first and bisexual second -- albeit a heavily closeted bisexual. I deliberately flipped the genders of the protagonists to provide a new spin on the story, and a friend of mine suggested I bring Diana's ex-fiance in as the bad guy. Flipping Martin's gender as well and making her more of an abusive mother figure would not work at all, since I don't think women were allowed in positions of such power back in those days. I'm going for historical accuracy as much as possible, minus the werewolves and mages.