The Characterisation of Annabelle le Roux

Chapter Nine: Expectations

The death of Andrew Kortley brought lots of paparazzi attention to the show. Every day a new opinion piece would run speculating how the show would handle his death. The leading theory was that he would be replaced by a new actor, more specifically an actor named Paul van Staden. Paul had already been cast to play the character Ferne' Brave. Ferne' as per the script's description was a young man in Phoenix's shadow. Paul was to be Phoenix's protégé. What could be better than him to step into the shoes of his hero when the old hero could no longer be there.

"Fresh Young Blood for Zilby" read a headline. Paul van Staden stood on the cover of the magazine.

He wore a full suit with silver cuffs, looking exactly like the image which gets older women to say "I love a man in a suit". He had a mischievous smile on his face. "A big ask for the local boy who says he is worried the audience won't be able to set into Andrew Kortley's shoes"

The actor talked about how he reacted when he heard of Andrew's death. He cried, he placed white Arum lilies on the grave. Now even the sight of the arum lily fields he passed on the way to work made him sad. The interview ended with the confident assertion that Andrew Kortly was in a better place now and he felt honoured to have known him.

"Andrew was the life of the party" the article quoted Paul "He taught me that life is meant to be lived. If you want something, get up and go get it. Life is too short to be thinking about tomorrow, because tomorrow never comes."

"Do you know anything about where the script is going? What should the audience expect"?

"James Mitchell is nothing if not very secretive, but you can know that when it comes it will be something that none of us expects. We will love it all the more for being so unexpected."

"Do you think that the Mamlish represent something in our current society?"

"I think that we are all too attached to things and status. James Mitchell can see through all that, he doesn't get bogged down by opinions and what people are saying. He just focuses on his artistry and we are all the better for it"

"Do you know if there is anybody special in James Mitchell's life?"

"There must be, or how else would he be able to write such convincing love stories", said Paul van Staden with a chuckle.

James had to write, he had to rescript everything. He knew that his story was strongly action driven, this happened then that happened, the blitz and the blaze and the constant movement carried the audience along. The characters didn't matter, not in the way that they mattered in Shakespeare or in the poetry that he wrote as a teenager. Perhaps he didn't need to change that much. He just needed to find a suitable and non-hassle replacement for the character of Phoenix.

He thought of Phoenix, what was the core of Phoenix: He was rugged and handsome. Audiences loved him because of his bulky bulging muscles that rippled through his t-shirt. He needed to develop and form relatable bonds with people, that was why he was spending so much time with Annabelle.

He drew a circle around Annabelle's name and thought to himself that that was a place to start. How would Annabelle react to the news of Phoenix's death? Would she be devasted? Would she cry like her actress Vanessa did? How did Phoenix react when confronted with death? He always felt like a stone barely noticing it around him. Annabelle would feel like a stone too. She would realise the need to be strong and fight whatever needed to be done.

The Mamlish were coming, they had been shown to show no mercy, and Annabelle wouldn't want to have her country to be run over by such a terrible foe. Annabelle knew more about the Mamlish's secrets than any other person in the world. She could pick up Phoenix's guns and start shooting at them immediately.

James could see how Annabelle could easily just pick up the pieces that Phoenix had left behind. There wasn't very much in Annabelle's character that would prevent her from doing it.

James knew that he had to somehow make it up to Alicia, of course, everything she had said was without merit. He had never known her to contradict him in the manner that she had that evening. "Boring" the words stung him. James had always been surrounded by friends who were laughing at his jokes. James felt hot, he was many things, but boring was not one of them.

On the other hand, people who weren't prepared to spend their time talking to him and getting to know him might mischaracterise him and assume that he was boring and that he had nothing to add to the conversation, but as far as James was concerned that was their loss.

Annabelle would step up to the challenge, Annabelle would go to the Lesser Lord George and she would kill him. She would then blow the smoke off her gun and would face any danger that James put her in. She would solve any problem that even the most prominent scientists of the age could not solve and then neatly explain the solution so that even the slowest viewer would know how the solution worked, Annabelle would become the hero, James didn't even need to change the dialogue much –except that is to get rid of Annabelle's original character and the part that she played in Phoenix's life. He would need to write a few scenes to allow the audience to get used to the idea.

Annabelle could be seen as fighting for the people of her world. She could tell the Lesser Lord George to go home and warn his people to never come back. The Lesser Lord George would of course never do such a thing.

James would give Annabelle the ability to defeat the Lesser Lord George.