Monday, September 30th, 2013

amarie24: (Default)
I posted this over at Ana Mardoll's, as well! Here's the link and I would greatly appreciate any feedback/help!

http://www.anamardoll.com/2013/09/open-thread-writer-workshop.html


Oh, Ana, thank you guys SO MUCH for this thread! I need help…D:

Is anyone familiar with Assassin’s Creed?* At least the first one? If not, it’s basically a game that takes place in the 12th century, during the Third Crusade. You have all the main players, like Salah Al Din, Richard the Lionheart and, of course, the Assassins who are neutral and take out everyone that’s raping, pillaging and ravaging the Holy Land. It is highly fictionalized, of course and I am absolutely in love with the pairing Altair (one of the greatest Master Assassins)XAdha (a canon-Mary Sue that I look forward to…cleaning up a bit).

Yes, Amarie wants to write a romance fanfiction. How lowly she has fallen, haha.

But the problem is that I’m strongly considering writing the story in a modern AU (alternate universe). The setting of the first Assassin’s Creed is already set in the Holy Land, or ‘the middle east’, as we like to call it. There are settings in Syria and Jerusalem, for example. I want to bring the Third Crusade with all its players, battles, aspects, etc. to the modern forefront. It’ll be fun and interesting to brainstorm how to translate that which was done/said ‘back then’ to that which could or would be done/said today.
So the problem that I run into is that of sensitivity and representation. The geographic area that I would be writing in…is pretty war torn. It hasn’t been that long since we heard about sarin gas in Syria, female genital mutilation, [suicide] bombings and the resulting death tolls, malnutrition, women being beaten/stoned for the crime of being raped, etc. People of different religions-Muslims, Jews, Christians, Sikhs, etc.-aren’t getting along…all the time. So yes, there is a lot of violence, chaos, intolerance, etc. in that part of the world. Or at least, we only get that kind of news when we hear about that part of the world…cue the stereotypes and labels.

My question is…how do I make a modern AU Assassin’s Creed story when I’d be doing it in a part of the world that’s very, very war-torn already? How would I do that without stooping to stereotypes, broad generalizations, [cultural/social] appropriations, make real, human pain invisible/insignificant, etc…?

Do I completely scrap and just stay in the canon time period? Do I just put the whole thing in another country? Do I re-create the Middle East as a more peaceful, developed place as part of the AU? All of the above or none of the above? I just really, really, really want to have fun writing without being a grating, insensitive asshole…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassin's_Creed_(video_game)

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