I'm sort of sorry that Rilla's kids are such brats-but part of me loves the
probability of drama that will follow (I love fictional drama, but hate it in
its other forms!) Chloe really is a little beast, but it rings true-you can
see all of Rilla's worst traits in her. I kind of hope you don't reform her!
I wonder how much of their attitude is based on the fact that Rilla always
seemed to sort of resent Di's closeness to Walter? It's an interesting rivalry
I never considered before, that she might pass on to her own children, and
vice versa.
I'm so, so excited you picked up on this, Cathy (and another example of "kindred spirits," I suppose, that you figured out the background without me having to say much of anything at all).
Chloe is, to me, Rilla without the tempering effects of her family and the War. Kenneth, too, is portrayed as a somewhat selfish, self-indulgent character (or at least that's one way to read him), and so in their three children I see all their worst traits coming together. I think I can safely say without fear of spoiling anything, that while some reformation happens to one of them, they won't really change much throughout the story. I do think that, if I write a war-years sequel, we will see that Chloe does have some strengths to her character, and that even some of her flaws can be turned to good use, but she'll never really be
reformed.
But back to the part that really excited me, that you caught - the rivalry between Rilla and Di. I only started thinking about it with this story, that the two of them must have had some issues after Walter's death. First Di was his favorite, and then Rilla, and both must have felt some bitterness toward each other. Plus, their personalities are so very different, as are their priorities. I've also imagined that Di must have harbored some anger toward her parents for not letting her go overseas to work as a VAD, whereas Rilla might (just might) have been a little bit smug when they all returned home, about HER virtue in staying with her parents and comforting them while Nan and Di were "gadding" in Kingsport. Nan would have shrugged this off, because Nan is able to ignore those sort of pricks, but Di, already frustrated about not being able to do what she wanted, would have resented it.
So basically, I see a fairly fundamental gap between those two just widening and widening over the years, and while Di and Jon are very careful to never say anything negative about their siblings around the children, Rilla is not so cautious.
So there's the backstory! One of these days I might even write some Di stories, from the Rainbow Valley days through the war years, and expand on that a little bit. It's so fun taking established characters that I've already used once, and turn them around and make them different, while still trying to remain within what LMM wrote regarding them.
