Re:Something fun for character development junkies

[amarinda]

  That's a whole lot of not-so-veiled hinting there, Cesar!! Aw, you've laid many of my fears to rest.   And made the game sound, if possible, even more interesting. What exactly are you going to do to poor Alex, though?   Sounds like we need some demon-repellent or something...

[Father Ghostface]

I figured Alexander would have so many demons huanting him, since after all, they are wipped tightly across his own back!  

[Rosedragon]

In my story, Morena's Tale, I explain why Hagatha is so ugly. She was once a beautiful young sorceress, but she was evil and cruel and did things like pluck the wings off fairies, so the fairies cursed her to be as ugly on the outside as she was on the inside. That's why she has green skin and red eyes.

As for Edgar and Rosella, I think you forget that the KQ world is not your typical mdeival fairytale world, it has some modern ideas and values. The idea of Sir Graham as a knight winning the throne by way of his valiant quest is democratic, whoever proves themselves worthy of the throne will be king.

Rosella is more cautious, and perhaps wiser, than her father and brother by choosing to court Edgar instead of marrying him. It makes since to get to know someone well before you marry them, after all I don't think there is divorce in the King's Quest world. She might have commitment issues, but I think it is because she does not know Edgar that well. In my fanfics, Edgar gets the chance to be a hero.    

[Lollotte]

Rosella is interesting, too, because besides being brave, independent, non-conformist and all that, I also believe she is a little self-centered. That may be part of the reason why she only allowed Edgar to court her and didn't get caught up in the whole "I'm going to marry you now!!" frame of mind. When I was playing KQ7, I had the feeling that Rosella was more wrapped up in enjoying her adventure than worrying about her mother.

Also, just because Cassima married Alexander right away doesn't mean she's submissive. We actually don't know a whole lot about her, and I have a suspicion she's pretty powerful--or willful, if you prefer.

[awesomeasapossum]

What about what it says on the king's quest desktops?

Rosella- A selfish princess about to lose everything
Valanice- A queen with too many secrets
King Graham- A hero, a king, a father, a husband (or something like that.
Alexander- a (something something maybe royal prince) tempted by darkness.

[Lollotte]

That's interesting about Alexander. I wonder exactly what "tempted by darkness" means? Gives you something to think about. 

[TrueCrusader]

ok, ok there was alot of talk about rossella and edger on page 2 so i woulod like to get my two cents in . Ok first thing how do we know its rossellas fault maybe she was picking upa vibe that we didn't .. i mean no guy has that sense of fashion   ,

[Deloria]

You really disappoint me. We're talking character development here! It's supposed to be deep and dark and delving into the furthest reaches of the soul, not "she liked his castle/money/ass"

Katie -
You make good points there... of course, as a team member & plotwriter, you can't give us the real goodies

First of all, Rosella is 18 in KQ4 - in fairytale terms, she's already an old maid. Rosella was probably groomed for marriage since childhood - What else could she do in life? go to college? have a career? Nope. Get married, let your husband run the kingdom and enjoy being the first lady.
And when TRUE LOVE in involved, age doesn't even come into account. Ask any teenage bride

I'm not saying Rosella should have agreed to marry Edgar in KQ4 (would have been nice to have an option to agree in the game though ). As Katie mentioned, she had every reason not to.

But the fact remains - Alex and Graham ventured out to find & rescue their love interest, even though they knew close to nothing about them beforehand. If anything, Rosella & Edgar's bond should have been stronger - ever heard of the Stockholm Syndrome?
Yet Rosella does nothing - she doesn't go out to search for Edgar or takes a ship out to the land of Tamir. When Valanice discussed potential suiters with her, the easiest way to get her to stop was to say she's interested in Edgar, but Rosella didn't even bother to do that.

Now, the sexist explanation would say that men are supposed to go out and rescue their princesses while princesses should just wait in their castle for a prince to rescue them - they should be passive and wait in their tower like good little girls, then fall into the arms of their rescuer and agree to marry him immediately.

But Rosella isn't the type for that. She's a strong, independant young woman, and she's not about to let some ancient stereotypes to rule her life like they rule her father's, mother's and brother's. That's why she'll end up alone - like many career women, she's afraid to loose her independance if she falls in love and got married. That's why she wouldn't intentionally go out to search for a guy she likes, and if he does show up, she wouldn't fall into his arms so easily

With all due respect to Storm, Rosella was an old maid by 18, people back then usually married when they were twelve or thirteen, or at the very least betrothed. Then: Rosella as a princess, she had to marry someone in the Aristocracy of a powerful kingdom, preferably immediate royal family (second or third in line to the throne).

[Storm]

Gosh, did I really write all that?

With all due respect to Storm, Rosella was an old maid by 18, people back then usually married when they were twelve or thirteen, or at the very least betrothed. Then: Rosella as a princess, she had to marry someone in the Aristocracy of a powerful kingdom, preferably immediate royal family (second or third in line to the throne).

Hmmm, I fail to see how that contradicts anything I've said:

...Rosella is 18 in KQ4 - in fairytale terms, she's already an old maid. Rosella was probably groomed for marriage since childhood - What else could she do in life? go to college? have a career? Nope. Get married, let your husband run the kingdom and enjoy being the first lady...

[Deloria]

But she didn't know Edgar was a prince.

[Storm]

Ahh, but you forget the Fairytale exception - he who rescues the princess gets her hand in marrige, whether he's royal or not


Besides, Edgar's being royal or not never seemed to be an issue in KQ4... And generally speaking, it would be very uncharacteristic for a KQ game to use "he's not royal enough" as an argument against marrying someone. Unlike medieval times, marrige is all about loooove there

[Rosedragon]

Well, you have to remember that Daventry is a fairytale/fantasy world, not a strictly medeival world. The reason 18 would seem old in Medeival times was becasue people died young back then. A person would be lucky to live to be 18, children often died from all kind of diseases, things were very unhealthy, unhygenic back then, the doctors thatt hey had new little about medicine and science and for the most part were quacks. There is an idea that some of the 'witches' burned during the middle ages were midwives and wisewomen healers, accused of witchcraft by the male quack doctors so they could have more business by eliminating the competition. 

Anyway, Rosella world is much healthier, I'm sure she takes baths reuglarly, and she will probably live much longer than a reuglar medeival princess. Who knows how old Valanice was when she was rescued from the tower? In my story Valancie is 18 when she marries Graham. Yes, I know that's about how old Rosella is in KQ4. I think it is wise to spend time getting to know the one you love before you rush into marriage. I lan on taking my time when I find the right one, then again I feel like I'm an old maid, I'm 25 and I've never been married, don't have a boyfriend, rarely go out on dates. I do want to get married so I can..er...you know, enjoy the honeymoon!

[Deloria]

Ahh, but you forget the Fairytale exception - he who rescues the princess gets her hand in marrige, whether he's royal or not

Yeah, but it was kind of the other way around in KQ4, Rosella saved all of Tamir from Lolotte and was aided by Edgar, but he didn't actually "save her".  He didn't want her killed so he told his mother that he had a crush on Rosella and he gave Rosella a key. Other than that, it was all Rosella's doing. Besides if we're really talking fairytales here, why didn't she marry the frog?

[Jafar]

He was a snob.

[Rosella]

And it may have something to do with this.

[Rosedragon]

i think the frog prince was not just a snob, he was a jerk too. i would not want to marry a guy like that. It never occured to him that Rosella was a princess IN DISGUISE. 

[Yonkey]

I agree, she was on a Peasant's Quest.

[Deloria]

i think the frog prince was not just a snob, he was a jerk too. i would not want to marry a guy like that. It never occured to him that Rosella was a princess IN DISGUISE. 

Why should it have occured to him? She looked like a peasant by all standards. Besides, if you'd just spent a long time as a frog, wouldn't you be a bit crabby?

[Baggins]

I think it would be rather amusing if Rosella met him again, and rubbed the fact she is a princess in his face.

[Rosedragon]

yeah, that'd be cool, and if she also said, "By the way, I'm engaged to Edgar, formerly the green hunchback who thought he was Lolotte's son, he's now the prince of Etheria." I am totally for Edgar and Rosella marrying, under the right circumstances of course. With good people for in laws, and with her family watching and being happy for her, wearing a proper white wedding dress, Rosella and Edgar would be happy to get married.