Jaedyn Silverhand

I guess, after reading about her gruesome death today (assuming she is dead and Vincent doesn't rush in to save her at the last minute), I was wondering what led you to write her life and death the way you did. While Jae was certainly a whiny brat at times, she wasn't an evil person or even a particularly unpleasant one.

Honestly, the more I think about it, the more her life seems just tragic to me. All she would have needed or wanted (to me) would be a guy who loves and respects her and gives her some nice babies. Instead she's married to someone who cheats on her right and left, is impotent, and then gets raped and impregnated by her father-in-law, is forced to give up that baby, and every time she tries to fix things with her husband, something else comes along to screw things up. Yes, she could have made some better choices in her life, but honestly ... I think most of the time, she was reacting, not pro-acting, to what was going on around her.

So, what's the deal with Jaedyn?

I think Jaedyn was abit of an example of how life can not always be happy and good things do not always come to those who deserve them. Story's where the good guys and always happy arn't that much fun.

Jaedyn started off as one of my favorite charecters and till the end she still was to some degree because she was far from perfect and somehow for me that made her more real. She made some really stupid choices along the way but most of them where out of the desire to make her and gabriel happy, I don't think she honestly ever ment to hurt anyone.

Jaedyn's death and tbh most of her life was unfortunatly was a catalyst for showing Gabriel's downfall.

Likewise if you go back in time and read the early posts Gabriel was at one point a nice guy, however I suspect some future posts may well have Gabriel overtake Peter in the "most hated" catagory.

The thing with Gabriel was i didn't want a charecter who was just bad, Like Valdermar to some extent he has been made that way though his lifes frustrations. Valdermar is still however somewhat saveable however i fear Gabriel is gone forever *evil laugh*

I wanted to show his slippery decent into what he's become and while i sometimes feel i didn't give him or Jaedyn enough air time it wouldn't have been as gut wrenching or thought provocing to read if he'd just taken his frustrations out on a nameless NPC.

It's easy to have Bad guy charecters, Peter being an example of one where he was never liked and everyone roots for his death. However when ever i think some of the scenes i've read in books over the years the ones that really make me shudder it's the ones where i think, my god i remeber when he was a really sweet guy.

In this case there where a few options for who he was going to kill to tip him over the edge, options where.. Finian, Daisy or Jaedyn one of them needed to go the control of who that was and when however was upto the Death Calc as alway.

Jaedyn lost.

I think in the Jaedyn/Gabriel case what makes her death so tragic is the fact that he really did love her once and in someways still does. As you say Jaedyn wasn't a bad person, she was the victim of her own circumstances she just wanted a simple life a man who loved her and a baby or two.

Gabriel was a good guy once upon a time. *sigh* I was rereading some of the older Gabriel-Helena posts and the very early Gabriel-Jaedyn posts. He was so sweet to her at the beginning of their marriage, even when she drove him up a wall. And then ... Aldun happened, I guess. He really was in some ways the catalyst for their problems.

More hated than Peter? You've set yourself a high goal there. Though I guess it's easier to despise a character who starts off ok and then turns horrifically evil, rather than a character who starts off bad and ends his life saying, "No, don't take my son -- take one of my daughters instead!"

Bastard. (Though wouldn't Aldun deserve that! Impossible since the kids mostly look like him, but still!)

Valdemar's saveable? Interesting ... last I saw, he was trying to get Holly pregnant without any regard to what that might do to her life or health. It'll be interesting when we hear from them again -- after the drama at Darkfire is done, of course!

I think Valdermar has always been a victim of his own circumstance. In that his father died at a young age and his only role model was his mother who as Aldun's sister was not exactly the best role model.

He spent most of his teen/young adult years trying to live up to his mothers expectation's. I don't think he was ever good enough for her and she constently put him down and that has built up alot of anger and frustration within him.

I think over the years although Valdermar had done some pretty terrible things most of them were based in frustration rather than pure evil.

I don't see Valdermar as a great thinker, every thing is about the now with him. Most of the things he does are about temporary release, sure hitting Marrissa or raping Eden where truely horrible things but i don't think they where thought out and planned they just made him feel better at the time.

I don't think he even really truely hated Marrisa, honestly i don't even think he even knew her, as he never took the time. She was just the face of his frustration, she was the girl he'd been forced to marry when he really wanted Holly, she was the girl who tried to trick him into thinking he was the father of his child and in some twisted way in his head she deserved what she got.

Likewise when he went after Thomas It wasn't about doing it for the sake of it, in his head Thomas deserved it for stealing Holly and it was only done when he had abit of a push from his big dead sister.

As for Eden well poor Eden just got caught in the cross fire, she was there and i don't think he ever even concidered her "human" she was just something to release anger on and i think if i'd gone more into detail of the story we'd probabally find her rapings/beatings most likely co-insided with times his mother or Marrisa had frustrated/upset him.

Mostly I don't think Valdermar likes himself very much, I don't think he really know's how he's supposed to act and get's frustrated, and having never learned to deal with it like an adult he throw's a temper tantrum like a child. Kids don't realise how "naughty" they are being they act on pure anger and frustration lashing out and I think Valdermar with the right 'motherly' guidance could learn to behave.

Likewise with Gabriel and Jaedyn I don't always feel i gave this story enough time, which is why im making a effort to generally slow down the passage of time within the story so i can play out events more fully.

I'm not covering the Valdermar/Holly line right now.. other than to briefly explain that Holly's given up and just doens't care what happen's anymore, but when i do get back to them i hope to show the mechanic's of that relationship in alot more detail.

However in regards to these issues....

I have been concidering entering some extra in-between chapters into the old stuff for alot of charecters just to round things off. As i think in the early days there where a few times things where jumped though to quickly and some times i feel the story was abit disconnected.

I often spend time reading back though the old stuff to re-cap etc and the most recent example I can think of is the Kaitlyn Lar's storyline because it's what im working on right now.

Kaitlyn comes to stay.. i think there is some build up stuff showing how close the pair got in the early days but there is very little between the rape and Alistair's return to show how the relationship developed before he came and threw a spanner. Theres a brief bit about her realising she did love him but untill then theres nothing much at all.

At the time it was caused by the fact that i had other storylines going on and i was trying to have to story keep up with the rate I was playing the game. I think as times gone on I've realised I have to keep the game in line with the story not the other way around.

Don't get me wrong I still struggle with the whole timeline thing, It's like now I feel there are a dozen storylines getting neglected while i focus on whats going on right now.

For example i always planned to do so much more with Tarik/Asha/Jasmine and now im like Ekk the vampires are invading and honestly no-ones really got much of a clue whats been happening with them. Other than they've been training with Lusicous.. heck you don't really know if Luscious is a good guy or bad guy other than to know he thinks experimenting on warewolves and vampires is Ok.