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FIC: The Hostage Princess, Be the First Challenge
Posting this a bit belatedly, but I once again took part in the annual Be the First challenge, a challenge to write fic for a fandom that doesn't have any yet. There's some great stories in there, including Aparejo, a story for the novel I, Juan de Pareja (which was an amazingly great book and I'm so glad this challenge got me to finally read it) and No Door Save One which is based on the Children of the Star book series by Sylvia Engdahl, which was an old childhood favorite of mine. Go check it out--maybe you'll rediscover a favorite canon, or find a new one to check out!
As for my story, I wrote crossover based on the NHK taiga (samurai) dramas Toshiie to Matsu and Gou:
The Hostage Princess (11175 words) by geri_chan
Chapters: 4/4
Fandom: Japanese Drama, Toshiie to Matsu | Toshiie and Matsu (TV), Gou (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Maeda Maa, Azai Gou
Additional Tags: Sengoku Era, Family, Friendship
Summary: When the Maeda family must send a hostage to Shibata Katsuie, Maa learns a startling secret about her past. Meanwhile, Princess Gou and her sisters must adjust to a new home and stepfather when their mother marries Katsuie in a political alliance.
Some of the readers of my Harudaki fics might remember that I really love Toshiie to Matsu--the first taiga drama that I ever watched, and still my all-time favorite. One minor character from the series that's always intrigued me is Toshiie's daughter Maa, who willingly offers herself up as a hostage (to Gou's stepfather) for the sake of her family, and later becomes the concubine of Hideyoshi, Toshiie's friend, rival, and eventual lord.
Years later, I watched Gou, which is set during the same time period and features many of the same historical figures. I would have loved to have seen Gou and her sisters interacting with Maa, but unfortunately, Maa does not appear as a character in this show, so it was left up to my imagination, and I finally decided to write about it for Be the First this year. Both dramas had no fic in English written for them so it was a double Be the First! Writing a crossover was a bit challenging because certain characters are portrayed very differently in the two dramas, so I had to make a decision about which characterization to use. My Chacha is the one from Gou, since Gou is one of the main characters here, but Katsuie is mostly the Katsuie from Toshiie, while Oichi is a combination of both. The part where Gou asks what she should call Katsuie, along with Oichi's reply, comes from the Gou drama since that was a scene that I really loved, that slightly awkward but touching moment where they make a conscious decision to become a real family.
I really wanted to write a fic that covers the period when Maa and Chacha both become Hideyoshi's concubines, and the tension that might have developed between them, but that would have made it into an epic-length fic, and unfortunately I didn't have time, so I settled for just writing about the year that Maa spent as a hostage at Kitanosho. Perhaps someday I'll get around to writing the rest of it, so I'll have to add it to the ever-growing list of sequels I want to write!
As I mentioned in the end notes, I also used the novel Taiko by Eiji Yoshikawa to give me some inspiration. The scene in the epilogue where Gou and her sisters are kept like pampered pet birds in a luxurious cage came from a scene in the book, although the girls in the book are content with their fate, having been charmed and won over by Hideyoshi. It's not surprising, since Hideyoshi is the hero of the novel, but I much prefer defiant Gou butting heads with the morally gray (and yet still charming) Hideyoshi of the drama!
As for my story, I wrote crossover based on the NHK taiga (samurai) dramas Toshiie to Matsu and Gou:
The Hostage Princess (11175 words) by geri_chan
Chapters: 4/4
Fandom: Japanese Drama, Toshiie to Matsu | Toshiie and Matsu (TV), Gou (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Maeda Maa, Azai Gou
Additional Tags: Sengoku Era, Family, Friendship
Summary: When the Maeda family must send a hostage to Shibata Katsuie, Maa learns a startling secret about her past. Meanwhile, Princess Gou and her sisters must adjust to a new home and stepfather when their mother marries Katsuie in a political alliance.
Some of the readers of my Harudaki fics might remember that I really love Toshiie to Matsu--the first taiga drama that I ever watched, and still my all-time favorite. One minor character from the series that's always intrigued me is Toshiie's daughter Maa, who willingly offers herself up as a hostage (to Gou's stepfather) for the sake of her family, and later becomes the concubine of Hideyoshi, Toshiie's friend, rival, and eventual lord.
Years later, I watched Gou, which is set during the same time period and features many of the same historical figures. I would have loved to have seen Gou and her sisters interacting with Maa, but unfortunately, Maa does not appear as a character in this show, so it was left up to my imagination, and I finally decided to write about it for Be the First this year. Both dramas had no fic in English written for them so it was a double Be the First! Writing a crossover was a bit challenging because certain characters are portrayed very differently in the two dramas, so I had to make a decision about which characterization to use. My Chacha is the one from Gou, since Gou is one of the main characters here, but Katsuie is mostly the Katsuie from Toshiie, while Oichi is a combination of both. The part where Gou asks what she should call Katsuie, along with Oichi's reply, comes from the Gou drama since that was a scene that I really loved, that slightly awkward but touching moment where they make a conscious decision to become a real family.
I really wanted to write a fic that covers the period when Maa and Chacha both become Hideyoshi's concubines, and the tension that might have developed between them, but that would have made it into an epic-length fic, and unfortunately I didn't have time, so I settled for just writing about the year that Maa spent as a hostage at Kitanosho. Perhaps someday I'll get around to writing the rest of it, so I'll have to add it to the ever-growing list of sequels I want to write!
As I mentioned in the end notes, I also used the novel Taiko by Eiji Yoshikawa to give me some inspiration. The scene in the epilogue where Gou and her sisters are kept like pampered pet birds in a luxurious cage came from a scene in the book, although the girls in the book are content with their fate, having been charmed and won over by Hideyoshi. It's not surprising, since Hideyoshi is the hero of the novel, but I much prefer defiant Gou butting heads with the morally gray (and yet still charming) Hideyoshi of the drama!