Saturday, October 07, 2006

Van's Allure

Tonight Danya watched ep9-20 with me (we did 1-8 before). She's one of my few friends here in the city, and my obsessive tendencies toward Escaflowne finally worked its insidious ways into us spending the whole evening over wine and fried chicken (mmm Popeyes) in front of the tv.

She thought it was actually cool to have the main girl character and the main guy character not be romantically involved with each other. Danya was bemoaning my romantic tendencies when she found out DS was V+H instead of adventure or other themes. Well, she hasn't finished the series yet, and she favors the unconventional more than my overly-girly ways (one of her friends call me "little lady" >x<; I used to be such a tomboy!), so that's part of the reason. The other part is that she considers Van to be always reacting towards something, instead of starting based on his own thoughts (which is very true, in some ways). Danya also thought Allen has a more interesting personality.

This made me think about why I like Van so much. Beyond his pretty boy bishounin ways, I think it comes down to Van trying to handle responsbilities, but ultimately still a young awkward boy in relationships--the allure of being an enigma between adulthood and boyish ways. And he's good, but not too good. He's closer in allure to Dryden than to Allen or Folken.


For DS progress, I've been changing the first part of ch5 from Chocolatelova's comments. I had been so focused on getting the horse exam completely right from a clinical perspective that it lost its narration power ; ; I've also been thinking again about what war should mean to Van. In ep17 Van seems to accept Balgus's reasons for fighting--to shoulder its burdens and its sorrows. But despite taking its pains in, he must still want to avoid another war, to avoid its costs upon Fanelia. Ugh, Van always says so little, it's hard work getting into his head >:(

3 comments:

Sincerity said...

You convinced someone to watch Escaflowne with you? Very cool! No one I know, family or friends cares to watch it. :(
You know, I agree that Van doesn't speak what he's thinking or feeling very often.
But since in your fic Van is more mature perhaps he can learn to be a bit more open?
I really enjoy how you have been writing him so far! You're doing a great job!

jomiel said...

Thanks <3 It means a lot to me that I have the characters done well.

Yah, he will be more open, once he's spent more time with Hitomi. At the beginning, though, I want him to be a little more like the jerk he was before, haha.

jomiel said...

Yah, depending on your viewpoint, it's either really nice or really frustrating that V+H never kiss by the end.