Short Hair
Some of your questions hinge on the nature of the 1001 Nights, i.e. built-in cliffhangers, plot twists ad infinitum, allusions to other stories.
One reversal you've probably rejected: the genies follow the bidding of the protagonists, rather than arbitrarily creating the situation. Too much like Aladdin ... unless maybe you have two competing genies who mostly cancel each other out. So Camaralzaman orders his genie to show him his one true love, and Badoura does the same. The two wish to meet, but the genies (as genies do) grant the letter and not the spirit of their wishes. So maybe Cam's wish for a mate turns Badoura into a man, not just a woman in disguise, and Badoura's wish for Cam's heart puts it in a talisman, which he naturally wants to protect. Or Cam's genie is in the talisman, or a different talisman, or an identical talisman.
As for the "deception" at the end, she hasn't actually spent much time with Cam, so she wants to see how he reacts under pressure and how much humiliation he's willing to undergo for her (good training for marriage, that). As for the name issue, she could take a different name as prince, or simply be referred to as "Prince of Islandistan." Cam wouldn't recognize himself if she had grown a beard or otherwise changed her appearance. As for the second marriage, Badoura would have to let Heidi in on the gag, but you could get some humor out of the situation.
If you need more ideas, I've got a million, and I love 1001 Nights.
Under World. It rocks!
Field Primus
I would love to hear a ton more ideas from you. I have been beating my head against this story for years and I figure I just need to hear a lot of alternatives to see where I could go with it to slip out of this problem and into a solution.
I like the idea of them both wishing for their true loves... it makes a lot more sense than this rather "where did that come from?" opening of the original.
I'm also open to some ideas that leave one half of the story intact but spin the other side off in a whole new direction. At one point I had toyed with the princess going into a forbidden area with a pool of scrying and seeing Cam captive to some ogre or something, and dropping everything to go rescue him (possibly it was she who faked her own death to get away). It's been a while and I don't know where my notes are, so let's see how much of the details of that I can remember offhand here...
The Weird Version I Thought Up At One Point
Cam's dad (still a sultan or king) had made, or been tricked into making, a promise to marry his son to this ogress (or genie, but I'll call her ogress through here) if the son hadn't found his own mate by his Xth birthday. The ogress had taken some pains to spoil every attempt to hook up with humans, and possibly gone so far as to actually lock Cam up so he couldn't run around trying anymore.
Badoura, now, has her adopted brother Marzavan (he wasn't her real brother in the original), who is also her best friend since before she can remember. They end up getting pulled into the story, and she falls for Cam. As they're heading toward Cam's home, the ogress tricks Cam into separating from the party, which introduced the tension of whether they'll get back together before deadline.
Meanwhile, the ogress somehow manages to get her claws into Marzavan. I think I had turned Marz into some sort of elemental spirit, or being conjured up specifically for the princess, so that it was possible to either completely destroy him (no soul, unlike mortals), or to send him back to the elemental plane (she'd never see him again) if the contract between them was broken. (I think the contract was something like "be my daughter's friend until she's got a husband" and the princess had, as a young child, declared she'd never marry so she'd never lose her best friend.)
So I think they were on the ship headed for the island kingdom when the ogress tried to drown them, and Marz sacrificed his life for Badoura, but the ogress grabbed him... something like that. Maybe he, in the moment of potentially losing her, made a deal with the ogress to save Badoura and he'd be hers to command. That would all hinge on what sort of being he was, I suppose.
Anyway. I don't recall exactly how they got to the finale, but it was to be a marriage. By this point the ogress had contrived to extract an unbreakable deal out of the princess, with Marz's life (or freedom) hinging on her completion of the deal. The crux here was a Friend-or-Idol Decision or Sophie's Choice: Do you save your One True Love, or your Best Friend? Implication: Can't save both, but Badoura takes a third option that reverses the genie's love of Exact Wording.
The princess agrees to marry someone else, whereupon she'll be given Marzavan back; there's no time for Cam to find a new girl (and that whole True Love thing anyway), and there might be a clause about him marrying an unmarried virgin or something just to cinch the deal.
So instead of marrying Heidi herself, she marries Heidi to (presumably) Marzavan. By acting as the official who marries them off, she's fulfilled the wording of the deal, yet left herself free to marry Cam the next instant, before the sun goes down on his last day of freedom.
There might be a need for some deception to get Badoura into the legal position to be able to perform the ceremony, which might be able to account for her tricking the dying Island King (she becoming his successor). Not so much that she actively tried to trick him, but she went along with his delusions about who she was or something, seeing how they could help her do what she had to do.
Anyway.
So, yeah, please do throw in anything you can think of! And cut up my sample plot here to see what you can make of it, too.
Also, if you have any ideas from my other favorite stories to throw in, go for it. These are Two Sisters Who Were Jealous of Their Younger Sister and The Hunchback (the one everybody seemed to kill).
Thanks!
edited 11th Jan '11 2:01:37 PM by Kilyle
Only the curious have, if they live, a tale worth telling at all.
Short Hair
Time for round 2. Sorry about the delay. Here are some more suggestions. Nothing wrong with the original story, but you asked. If you don't like the heading this time, we'll tack.
A craft note: I tend to focus on one character and see how everything else relates to him/her. In this case it's Badoura. You may want two protagonists, with Cam alternating. I even considered make the ogress the narrator, so I'm flexible.
For want of actual names, let's say Badoura is from Baghdad, her father is Haroun al-Rashid, Cam is from Hong Kong, the island kingdom is Ceylon, the small island is Rowe Island, Marzavan is a guardian angel, the ogress is named Hilda.
The Master Plan: a framing device. Badoura's whole ordeal is a scheme put together by Haroun to prepare her for ruling Baghdad, and practically everyone is in on it. Hilda pulls the strings—she might even be Badoura's mother. At some point Badoura may catch on, so she can either play along or add her own spin. On the other hand, there can be a fun scene when she takes off her mask and one by one everybody else does too. There's a risk here of leaving the reader feeling cheated. Or pleasantly surprised.
Plot: Cam is stuck, possibly imprisoned. That puts the onus on Badoura, so start the story with her. If Marzavan is supernatural, he shows Badoura her one true love; if not, she consults someone (genie, seer, wizard, mirror, talking dog) who points her at Cam. Badoura and Marzavan go to Hong Kong and rescue Cam, or help him fake his own death, or replace him with a duplicate. They manage to get a head start on Hilda, but she soon realizes what happened.
Cam and Badoura get separated when he impulsively chases after her talisman. Cam has some adventures, which aren't germane to the plot, and winds up on Rowe Island. Badoura looks for Cam for a while, but then there's a storm, Marzavan makes his deal with the ogress (all part of the Master Plan), saving Badoura, but she gets marooned on Ceylon.
Badoura, still disguised as Cam, becomes the protege of the king (also in on the Master Plan). She might come across a flying carpet or steed or crystal ball to help her continue looking for Cam, but she'd have to do it secretly. Possibly as a result of this activity, she saves the king or the kingdom and gains favor. The king sends a message to Hong Kong that their prince is safe, so she has a deadline: someone who knows the real Cam will blow her cover.
For the wedding, if Badoura officiates, she has to take off the Cam disguise. That could create some tension when people start looking for Cam, then different tension when the real Cam arrives. Alternate theory: after she locates Cam on Rowe Island, but just before he arrives, she stages her own disappearance. If they think she's lost at sea, it will make sense when he shows up with sunburn and beard. And the king can send a message to Baghdad that their princess is safe. Cue huge wedding party.
Wedding Legalese: Marzavan voids the contract by getting a new best friend, Heidi, which releases Badoura. Hilda confesses she loves Marzavan (the marriage to Cam was arranged for her too) and releases Cam. Haroun appears and announces he'll marry Hilda instead (see Master Plan). Cam disguised as Badoura marries Badoura disguised as Cam—not sure how that breaches the contract, but it sounds funny. Marzavan disguised as Cam marries Hilda disguised as Barouda—interesting, may mean Cam has legally married Barouda. Cam marries Hilda disguised as Barouda. Cam marries Barouda disguised as Hilda. Cam marries Barouda disguised as Cam—all right, now it's getting silly.
Possible Wedding Twists: 1) The king, who thinks Badoura is his long-lost son, regains his sanity when said son miraculously returns—he could join the shuffle, possibly marrying Heidi (childhood sweetheart?) or Hilda. He might have been on Rowe Island, stuck with Cam, or he might have left with the telltale shipment. He might have found the talisman himself. He might have been on an unrelated quest, insert wild card. 2) Cam finds out he's the new prince of Ceylon, but Badoura did all the work, so they fight to the death. In this version Cam is a real dope. However, as his widow, Badoura becomes princess of Hong Kong, as well as princess of Ceylon and Baghdad. Not bad. 3) Hilda gives Cam the talisman as a beeper. If he's ready to marry her or renegotiate the terms or face death for refusing, he can smash the talisman and summon her. It literally means life or death (or worse than death) to him, so he has to drop everything when it gets taken. 3a) Cam and Badoura have just escaped Hilda and prepare to consummate their love. He lays the talisman on the sand. They kiss ... <swipe!> A magpie flies off with it! "Gotta go! No time to explain!" He's pulling on his clothes and chasing a bird, she's heaving a sigh. 3b) Cam and Badoura are reunited. She shows him the talisman and explains how it led her to him ... but, "You're more attached to this bauble than you are to me!" <smash!> Oops.
Characters: Maybe Badoura's motive isn't love, or not purely love. She may need to mature; losing Marzavan would change her perspective. She may see marriage to Cam as a way to shake up the politics of Baghdad. If she catches on to the Master Plan, how would she feel about being manipulated so thoroughly?
Cam seems to be sort of a dope, which is OK. Maybe Badoura (or just the idea of Badoura) gives him motivation. Maybe Hilda has a piece of his heart or soul as security, which makes him dopey. Maybe it's his nature to rush into things, to be impatient, which won't work on Rowe Island.
It's not clear why Hilda switches her focus from Cam to Badoura, unless she sees Badoura as her main rival. For that matter, it's not clear why Hilda is interested in Badoura at an early age. Maybe there's one ogre working against Cam and another working against Badoura. Their interests eventually dovetail, they meet, they fall in love....
Would it be too far in left field if Marzavan were an imaginary friend? That is, everything Badoura accomplishes, she does by herself. Once she realizes that, she doesn't need him, so he goes back to his "elemental plane." In another version, if Marzavan is part of the Master Plan, Badoura may feel that he's betrayed her. In yet another version, Marzavan is part of a triangle with Cam and Badoura, so Marzavan and Cam become rivals—who knows, Cam might have little "accidents."
Heidi could become a danger or comic relief or both: she may suspect something is off about Badoura but get it completely wrong, she can have some double takes (NPI) when the original Cam appears, she can become a rival for Badoura if she falls for Cam as played by Badoura. Heidi could even be Marzavan in disguise, Badoura's new best friend.
Under World. It rocks!
Field Primus
Holy wow.
Thanks for coming back! I was worried you'd forgotten this or couldn't find the post. You've sure got a ton of ideas and I'm looking forward to even more.
Man, this forum needs a quote button. But anyway.
I like the idea of focusing on a single character and seeing how everything relates to them; it's what they did with Tangled and it worked incredibly well. And I'm open to inserting a magical device not found in the original story here, if it helps clarify and align the different facets of the tale.
Let's see... hmm. I like Badoura in the lead position rather than Cam, because in the original she does seem to be the one doing most of the action, and he just seems to be along for the ride. Playing with Distressed Dude ought to be fun.
Marzavan has long been one of my favorite characters. I'm not entirely sure why... I tend to hook onto characters and invent backstories and details that go way beyond the original, and then love them for the way they sparked my imagination. At any rate, I want him to have a good ending, and I don't want him to be purely imaginary (the Final Fantasy X twist? yargh). Giving him a good ending is part of why I paired him with Heidi.
If it can work, I'd like to focus on the Sadistic Choice here: Badoura has to choose between saving her Best Friend and saving her One True Love, and it looks like there's no way to do both, but in the end she figures out how to Take a Third Option.
I'm not convinced that the word play on "marry" is a satisfying Third Option, but I was hoping the Third Option would showcase Badoura's intellect (or rather Wisdom), since she's always come across as a thinking character: she gets out of arranged marriage by playing insane, avoids consequences from Cam's disappearance by disguising herself as him, does something useful at Ceylon by fooling the king and "marrying" Heidi, all of which are aspects of Wisdom rather than physical attributes. (Well, they also have notes of Charisma in them.)
I'm not liking the "everybody's in on it" take here, in large part because it seems, well, cheap. Like a Xanatos Roulette: How would the king of an obscure island nation be in on this? and so forth. However, I'm open to a magical "everyone's in on it" thing in which the various disconnected forces are all manipulated by genies (or whatever). For example, the crow who stole the talisman and got Cam to jump ship might be the little genie helper, Caschcasch, working on his own behalf or at the command of one of the more powerful genies. Kinda reminds me of parts of Anastasia where Rasputin's little demon helpers were trying to kill her.
Oh, and it's possible that the "everyone's in on it" only works out for the first half of the story, until Badoura realizes what's going on and goes Off the Rails for the second half. Maybe that's the point at which a death is faked and Badoura and Cam and possibly Marz end up off in the forest. (The talisman grabbing might be a last-ditch effort to separate them, as Badoura's father might want to ensure they don't get together.)
If we maintain the Badoura-playing-Cam thing, then I do like the idea of a deadline involving "someone who actually knows him (possibly even his dad) will be here by the end of the month." That seems very natural. However, this means that Badoura's reasons for disguising herself, and for maintaining the disguise despite it all, have to be very, very strong. And yeah, she might fake her death near the end just to avoid other problems; I could see that. Heidi could be in on that, with "I saw her fall over the edge of the ship!" or something. Maybe it's an inadvertent faked death, where Badoura jumps ship to try to rescue Cam or to get to where she thinks he is, and asks Heidi to buy her some time. Or something.
Oh, and a note on Heidi and Marzavan: I had worked out the idea that Heidi had always wanted adventure and hated being cooped up as a princess, so Marz telling tales of his adventures struck the right chord in her, and later when she confesses that she'd love to marry him, it surprises everyone. But her father, if still alive, wants to see her happy, and is favorable toward Marz; and this allows him to pass the kingdom to Cam (or Badoura) without Cam marrying Heidi.
"Cam disguised as Badoura marries Badoura disguised as Cam"... that's not funny, that's hilarious. I have no idea if this could be woven in without seeming hokey (bad enough that we have one disguise), but I would like to see us try.
I find it interesting that you start mistyping Badoura as "Barouda". Makes me wonder if we couldn't add a twin sister, or another character, who bears that name, and possibly having the evil agents get confused as to who they're supposed to be stalking. (E.g., "Let Barouda never find true love; that spell will ensure that... wait, what do you mean her name is Badoura?") Alt: Cam makes this slip and ends up pledging to marry Barouda.
Cam's dad being insane for a bit is worth exploring. I wonder if he couldn't be out looking for his son, run across the party, think Badoura (in no disguise at this point) is his son (in the original story, they looked very similar), and trot her off to his kingdom in triumph, while all the courtiers humor him and Badoura tries to think what to do? I have thought about avoiding Ceylon altogether and just going straight back to Cam's home.
Alt: We run by Ceylon in the first part of the story, as Cam is leaving his kingdom, which explains why we need to go through it en route back. And could set up some of the island king's motivation or expectations.
I do like the idea of switching the Talisman to Cam's side and relating it to his bondage somehow. I also like "you're more attached to this bauble than to me!" which fits in with why Badoura seems cold to him as he follows the bauble to Ceylon, and works well as a twist worthy of any Disney princess film.
I do want to see motivations that aren't Love at First Sight here. I have never much liked that trope. Badoura pledging to never marry, then slowly falling for Cam as she helps him or travels with him, that suits me. In fact, Marzavan might expect this sort of thing, and accept it with a bittersweet "such is life"... so it shocks Marzavan when Badoura goes out of her way to ensure his happy ending as well. He never expected her attachment to him to be more than a child's infatuation.
For Marz's happy ending to require Badoura's intervention, there's got to be some strong negative for him if she fails there. 1. He gets utterly destroyed, having no soul, like the mermaid in the original The Little Mermaid. 2. He gets returned to the elemental plane, and never sees her again (not so bad for him). 3. He gets returned to slavery.
At some point I even thought, what if Marz is slave to a genie, on loan to Badoura since her childhood... but the way to get out of this slavery (and turn human for good) is to have someone love you enough to throw everything away for you? So various forces are trying to get Badoura to do this (and have her throw away Cam), but in the end it comes from left field: Heidi loves Marz enough to throw away her kingdom and her father's favor (as she thought she would lose it) in order to marry Marz.
Hilda having part of Cam's heart or soul sounds like the plot of Howls Moving Castle, which is one of my favorite books (though I think somewhat less of the movie, and if you ask me why I'll give you a little rant about the changes made).
Maturation works well on both sides of the fence here. Badoura needs to get out of that childlike pledge to avoid marriage, and to understand about falling in love. Cam having to learn patience works well for me, and fits his character well; being stuck on an island for a year or two is perfect for that. We can arrange his duties on the island (to the old man) as stuff that fosters patience, and then we need to show his new patience paying off in the finale.
"Heidi... can have some double takes (NPI) when the original Cam appears"... what's NPI? Anyway, I do like Heidi potentially falling for Badoura-as-Cam, though I want to avoid, as much as I can, the potentially homosexual/bisexual aspects of the story (for various reasons, including marketability, and I think we have enough on our plate without bringing that up).
Note also that Marz has been on many adventures while Badoura was growing up (in the original story, at least), so we have those to draw from. It's possible, for example, that he's run across Ceylon before, maybe enchanted Heidi with his tales back when she was a child. Not sure what all we could do with his backstory, but it's a useful resource.
edited 14th Jan '11 9:53:05 AM by Kilyle
Only the curious have, if they live, a tale worth telling at all.
Field Primus
Tiny thought: If Cam passed through the island kingdom en route to Badoura, maybe he talked about her with the king; and if that conversation went a certain way, maybe the king said she probably wouldn't be all that hot and why not take his daughter? (There could have been a hint of "childhood engagement" in all this, possibly.)
So what if Cam pledged that if he returned again and his right woman was not at his side, he'd marry Heidi? Badoura could then have been fulfilling his pledge in absentia, which could explain why she stuck with the disguise as far as to marry (though wouldn't explain why she put it on to begin with).
So Heidi becoming fascinated with Marz's tales of adventure would be an easy way out in a modern tale.
Only the curious have, if they live, a tale worth telling at all.
The old Rapunzel fairy tale got a beautiful makeover in the new Tangled movie, and it got me to thinking.
Seems that the writers managed to pull together a lot of unconnected detail and merge them into facets of a plot detail they pulled from thin air.
The original went like this:
The movie switches "commoner and prince" to "princess and commoner," which is interesting, but as far as those "disconnected" plot elements, it goes like this (using only stuff revealed in like the prologue, so not too spoiler-y):
I can't think of any other movie I've seen that was woven together so well. Adaptation Distillation at its finest.
So, I got to thinking. They took a bunch of plot and character details, pinned them on one element created out of thin air, and worked it all together. And I thought, why can't I do that with a couple of my projects based on fairy tales?
So here's some details on Prince Camaralzaman and Princess Badoura from The Arabian Nights. I hope you'll help me brainstorm some way of accounting for these details, because this crazy tale has been bugging me for years and I just can't come up with an adaptation that makes any logical sense.
I'll try to boil the plot down a bit, but it's complex so here you go:
Characters: Prince Camaralzaman ("Cam"), Princess Badoura, Marzavan ("Marz", Badoura's brother); their dads (Sultan and King), an old man, yet another King, and Princess H-something-or-other who I will call "Heidi".
Plot:
Cam and Badoura live thousands of miles apart and would never have met except that genies got in a bet over which one was the more beautiful mortal, and sorta had them meet in the middle of the night (they weren't awake at the same time, but each fell in Love at First Sight). When they wake up, each is desperate to find the other, but acts so crazy about it that their dads don't believe them and ground them (or worse).
Badoura's brother, Marz, believes her story, so he heads out to try to find this mysterious man of her dreams. He finally locates Cam, and they end up faking Cam's death to leave him free to journey across half a world to meet Badoura for reals this time. Badoura's been feigning insanity (to avoid arranged marriage) but Cam "cures" her and they get ready to wed.
En route back to Cam's family, Cam notices a talisman of Badoura's, which a crow steals; Cam chases the crow and gets thoroughly lost. Badoura calmly disguises herself as Cam (to fool the entourage) and continues on, hoping they'll soon meet up again. She gets as far as this island kingdom where this old king so enjoys "Prince Camaralzaman's" company that he offers his daughter Heidi as a second wife, and Badoura accepts (but lets Heidi in on the secret). She bides her time here, acting as wise ruler to the kingdom this marriage grants her.
Cam, meanwhile, stays with an old man in a fishing village. The ships to the island kingdom come by once a year, so he has to wait. Meanwhile he finds gold dust and hides it under olives in a bunch of jars. He also hides Badoura's talisman in one of the jars. When the ships come, he loads up, but misses the ships because the old man suddenly dies.
Badoura has a liking for olives and ends up buying the jars from the captain. She finds the gold dust and the talisman, and strong-arms the captain into going back to grab Cam under pretense of being a criminal. Cap's brought to the throne room and shown the talisman, whereupon he tells his sorry tale. Badoura then throws off the disguise, reveals that Cam has a new wife, and... Happily Ever After.
Problems:
So... in beating my head against this story now and again, I find I can't account for certain details:
Those are the most important details I can't wrap my head around, so I'm hoping you guys can help me out. Any ideas, however wild, will be most welcome.
Thanks in advance :)
Only the curious have, if they live, a tale worth telling at all.