random musings

[shadowsong26]

so, i just read through this article about twin cliches in fantasy. and it's raised some questions i might have about a pair of twin avatar ocs i've been futzing around with for the last few days.


the twinset i'm working with are mixed boys, earth and fire, who were conjoined. they survived being born and then separated, though have some difficulty walking (hip bones fused together). one is a firebender, one an earthbender. i built them because i wanted to play with conjoined benders, then ended up separating them because it was too many complicated issues to deal with. some cliches i'm concerned about violating:

first: they're very close/protective of one another. i'm not saying they're homgbestfriends, but they don't fight as much as, say, i and my siblings fought growing up. part of that is because they have to take care of themselves and their mother a fair amount--while she survived bearing them, it was a very near thing, and she has trouble supporting the three of them.

second: their bending is affected by proximity. when they're touching, they can bring a city down. when they're separated by more than a day's travel, they can barely bend at all. (this is the part i'm most worried about, frankly).

they're not the same personalities. hoai (the earthbender) is a little slower in thought, but tends to take the initiative in action. he's the more outspoken twin (in part because they're growing up in ba sing se; both keep their bending secret, mamma doesn't need more problems), and a bit more level-headed and mature. hoang (the firebender), has the kind of mind that jumps rapidly from point to point, but he's more reserved in company, preferring to let his brother do the talking, since hoai's less likely to offend people/get them in trouble. he's more creative, and the one who puts itchy powder in their landlord's shoes when he's yelling at mamma about the rent being late :D

they are identical (obviously, having been conjoined), but hard to mistake for each other, given that they limp on opposite sides.

iono. i'm just wondering if anyone has any thoughts on the relative clicheness of my twins.

Comments

[darkphaedra.livejournal.com]

It sounds like they're better thought out than most and the contrast of the Firebender having the quicker mind, but slower tongue is more complex than the stereotype of faster-tongue-than-brain firey personality. It's also reasonable that you kept the limp, though with me remaining consistent with who has which damaged side would be a challenge. Now- have you thought about why twins would have completely different, but not opposite, bending powers and why having said powers would cause Mamma stress?

[shadowsong26.livejournal.com]

in my headcanon, bending depends on three factors (at least, the element does, if you're going to be a bender you're going to be a bender, and that's that), bloodline, season, and location. the twins are an even mix of earth and fire, were born in the earth kingdom, in summer, so when they turned out to be benders, one ended up fire and one ended up earth. having the bending hurts mamma because it's an added complication in their lives--they're barely making ends meet as it is, and if she had to hunt down teachers for them...and they don't want to just have hoai open about it (being in ba sing se, finding a teacher for him would be much easier), because a) that's not fair, and b) daddy, who blamed mamma for the twins'...er...'defect', was an earthbender and they are very much aware that she has difficulty dealing with adult male earthbenders and don't want her to hate them.