"The Americans" fic prompts (and a little meta)

[quantumreality]

I'm still thinking about the symmetries thing. I'll get to that later this weekend I think. :)

Okay, so fic prompts.

1. The Jennings kids discover the truth about their parents. How do they react? What do they do?

• If you think about it, this would be a really interesting exploration of divided loyalties, and whether the price of remaining silent is better than the price of revealing to the police something about the people closest to you.


• It also forces the kids to ask themselves: Are they Americans? Or are they Soviets? It really goes to the heart of personal identity, I think.

2. Which leads me to a kind of corollary fic prompt: What if Philip and Elizabeth decide to reveal the truth to their children?

• Again, this could provoke a crisis of personal identity for the kids. Will they keep quiet? Will the KGB force them to send their children to Moscow as hostages for good behavior? Or would the KGB be satisfied with shipping them off to a private school where they won't be believed?

3. This is probably in serious wackyland but it would be fascinating if done right:

• What if Paige agrees to help spy for her parents? What would motivate her to do this? Stanislav Levchenko, who I've mentioned before, developed the concept called MICE - Money, Ideology, Compromise, and Ego. For Paige, it would clearly be about Ego: wanting to prove herself somehow.


• Henry is apparently only about ten years old as of the TV series, but in a few years he'll be old enough to understand quite a few things. As Elizabeth notes, he seems to have a harder edge about him than Paige does. What if he agrees to help spy for his parents? Again it seems that the most natural reason is Ego: Proving himself.

I only ask that you credit me for the fic idea, and link me when you've got it posted. :)

Comments

[jae]

I strongly suspect #1 will actually be addressed by the show--possibly in season two, possibly in hopefully-to-come later seasons, but they would be nuts not to use that awesome plot. :)

-J

[quantumreality]

I posted a couple of vignettes if you're interested. :)

[jae]

Cool! I'm travelling, so I don't know if I'll get to it soon, but it's good to see that someone's writing for this show.

-J

[jae]

Looking back at your #3 again in light of the end of season two! Your "serious wackyland" may have been prescient!

-J

[quantumreality]

.... even more so now, I think!