Fantasy Orphan

Well hello there, I would like to thank you for stopping by today. I am pleased to be here.Where is Jenelle, you ask?She's letting me take over her blog today. Oh! I'm sorry. Allow me to introduce myself.I am Fantasy Orphan.You've probably heard of me... especially if you like to read fantasy. You've read some of my stories. You've rooted for me, heard about my painful back-story, perhaps you've even shed tears for me. As you know, I am an important part of many fantasy stories. I'm often the protagonist, the unlikely hero, the one who rises up and overcomes the shadow and tragedy of my past.At some point in my past... my author thought it was important that I lose my family. I didn't like it, but what could I do? This loss of family made me vulnerable in some way that was necessary to the story, and it also freed up my author from needing to answer any questions about where my parents were and why they let me go off on such dangerous adventures. I hadn't got any parents, and thus was left to fend for myself and get into all sorts of trouble whenever I wanted.See, if I'd had parents, they would have loved me too much to let me do anything so dangerous as run off with Old Ben to save the galaxy from the evil Empire (even my aunt and uncle in that case were too strict... so my author killed them off, too!) I wouldn't have gone haring off on a wild adventure with Gandalf to liberate the Dwarven homeland from Smaug if I'd had those pesky family ties keeping me stable and sensibly AT HOME! (I was a responsible adult for a while while I raised my nephew, but, being a fantasy orphan myself, I knew how important it was to give him some space, so the moment he came of age, I exited, stage right, and gave Frodo the room he needed to find his own adventure without any parental oversight). I probably wouldn't have gotten into so much trouble at Hogwarts if I'd come from a good wizarding family, either. You can find me easily. I run rampant through nearly every Disney retelling of various fairy tales. In many stories, the loss of my parents often determines my station in life, gives me the courage to rise up in the face of overwhelming odds, or at the very least it prompts me to seek vengeance for their loss.In any case, as I was saying, my not having a family is most convenient for the author.... I mean, it allows for so many interesting twists and turns in my story.I'm free of obligations that come with having a family.I get away with things I wouldn't necessarily get away with if I had parents.I can always have an existential crisis if I suddenly discover that one of my parents is, in fact, still alive!!! I don't even know how I'll react to that!It also allows me to have a heritage or family tree that I am completely ignorant of... and then the sky is the limit! I can go from a poor pick-pocket dreaming of seeing the interior of the palace to heir to the throne in the course of my story!So, that's who I am. Thanks for letting me tell you a bit about myself. I think I hear Jenelle returning and... I... should get going. Keep an eye out for me in all your favorite stories, and when you meet me there, please have pity for those of us whose parents our authors have so blithely killed with nary a worry nor care.Adieu!P.S. Please ignore the signature at the end of this post... Jenelle didn't write this, I just used her stationery.