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i_read_what2019-02-10 01:26 pm
kalinara) wrote in i_read_what2019-02-10 01:26 pm
Dragonquest - Chapter 12 - A Lot of Wasted Potential
So we're coming onto the chapter that annoys me the most, even more than F'nor's rape of Brekke or the mating flight in Dragonflight. Not because the content is traumatic or triggering to me, though it does involves someone undergoing a substantial loss, but for the sheer waste of plot.
I mean look, Brekke's plot in this book hasn't been complicated. She's a set of virtues wrapped up in a dress, who is dutifully trying to do her job. She has a cartoonish mean girl adversary who mistreats her at every turn.
The only saving grace about this kind of plot is the climax, when the mistreated girl rises up to claim some sort of social triumph against her mean spirited bully. Or, in the alternative, the mistreated girl succeeds on a personal level in such a way that the bully is utterly meaningless to her from that point on.
And we're building up to that, right? Brekke is about to have a mating flight. She's scared, but there's a plan in place to allow her to fly with the man she loves. Now there's all kinds of interesting possible social ramifications to this decision and obstacles for the future. But Brekke is about to win something major here.
Her rival, Kylara, doesn't love anyone. She only cares about personal power and ambition. She won't understand Brekke's triumph here. But if Brekke gets what she wants, then Kylara's power grasping won't matter anymore. Brekke'll have bigger concerns, and bigger triumphs.
Except...that's not the direction the story goes after all.
Okay, so we start the chapter with F'nor bringing the pot of grubs to F'lar. Canth advises him that F'lar is waiting in his quarters and Mnementh isn't worried about him. F'nor wonders if the dragons speak amongst themselves like humans do.
...that seems to be a weird thing to wonder now? And also, we know dragons talk to each other. That's how the Queens call the alerts? Possibly there's a nuance to this thought that I'm missing. Or F'nor's just a self-absorbed idiot.
Anyway, F'nor meets up with F'lar who is kind of endearingly enthusiastic for once. Also possibly feverish, but that's F'lar for you. He gets an update on the fire lizard situation (Apparently Lytol didn't take a lizard, which doesn't surprise F'lar, though F'lar had hoped he would. It's actually a rare show of empathy from our noble asshole, so I won't mock him for it.).
We learn that the Hatching Ground secret entrance has been blocked out, because it upset Ramoth, and Mnementh supported her, because he's by far the best spouse in the bunch. But anyway, F'lar leads F'nor into one of the secret rooms.
F'lar explains what he wants to do: basically, he wants to prove that grubs survive in Northern soil and can eat thread. Because that's what F'lar figures has been happening. Thread doesn't burrow in the south because the grubs eat it. He wants F'nor to try to catch some Thread.
F'lar is very obviously frustrated that his injury won't let him do it himself. But F'nor of course agrees, and F'lar has an idea about using a long-handled hearth pan while flying at a low altitude near the queens.
It occurs to me that F'lar's injury is an interesting opportunity for growth for the character. For all his faults, no one can say that F'lar isn't proactive, or that he's not willing to take risks himself or get his hands dirty. If anything, his fault is that he's too apt to play things close to his chest and not fill anyone else in (except Lessa). Now he has to rely on other people, and let them in on his ideas and plans or they don't get done. And we can see how hard it is for him to do that.
So F'nor asks what happens if they do prove grubs eat Thread, and F'lar enthusiastically says that they breed them by the tankful and spread them across the planet.
This makes sense to me, but apparently F'nor thinks F'lar is feverish. F'lar explains though that if they get the grubs across Pern then they'll have no need to worry about Thread burrowing into the land and destroying the crops.
F'lar has apparently had a lot of questions: why did it take so long for dragons to spread out, why aren't there more people, why hasn't anyone tried to go to the Red Star. He thinks that the biggest concern is protecting Pern when the dragons are away, and that grubs are part of an answer.
Then the brothers have an exchange that boggles me a little:
'Isn’t it just possible that we, now, are the culmination of thousands of Turns of careful planning and development?' F’lar was suggesting urgently. 'Look, don’t all the facts corroborate? The large population in support, the ingenuity of Fandarel, the discovery of those rooms and the devices, the grubs—everything . . .'
'Except one,' F’nor said slowly, hating himself.
'Which?' All the warmth and fervor drained out of F’lar and that single word came in a cold, harsh voice.
'Son of my father,' began F’nor, taking a deep breath, 'if dragonmen clear the Star of Thread, what further purpose is there for them?'
F’lar, his face white and set with disappointment, drew himself to his feet.
'Well, I assume you’ve an answer to that, too,' F’nor went on, unable to bear the disillusion in his half-brother’s scornful regard. 'Now where’s that long-handled hearthpan I’m supposed to catch Thread in?'
The first issue I have is that I'm not sure the conversation flows logically. But more than that, I'm not really sure I understand the emotional undercurrents of this scene.
I think I understand F'lar's disappointment. Because, for all his MANY faults, F'lar has been devoted to the idea of saving Pern. The idea that dragons might not have a purpose afterward would be a very selfish reason not to save the planet, and while F'lar can be self-centered, I don't think he's selfish in that way.
But why does F'nor hate himself for asking? It's a logical question.
It's a question that doesn't really make sense in the context of Dragonflight. These guys spent four hundred years without Thread. By the beginning of Dragonflight, F'lar and Lessa were the only people who truly believed Thread would come back. And even for Lessa it was more of a premonition, not a sincere belief. And during that time NO ONE discussed what else dragons could do???
F'lar is an idea man, so I don't doubt he'll come up with something, but why haven't the Weyrs thought about this already? They had FOUR CENTURIES.
God, I hate this system so much. I really do want that Shadowhunters style adaptation that actually deconstructs this nonsense.
So after the discussion, where there's a very amusing note about both brothers assuring the other that they'd eat and rest, and both being very sure the other wasn't going to do it, but then there's this:
If F’nor appreciated the audacity of F’lar’s project, he also counted up the flaws and the possible disasters. And then he realized that he still hadn’t had a chance to broach the innovation he himself desired to make. Yet, for a brown dragon to fly a queen was far less revolutionary than F’lar wanting to terminate the Weyrs’ duties. And, reinforced by one of F’lar’s own theories, if the dragons were now big enough for their ultimate breeding purpose, then no harm was done the species if a brown, smaller than a bronze, was mated to a queen—just this once. Surely F’nor deserved that compensation. Comforted that it would be merely an exchange of favors; rather than the gross crime it might once have been considered, F’nor went to borrow the long-handled hearthpan from one of Manora’s helpers.
So let's unpack this a second:
1) Why the fuck didn't you bring this up with F'lar? Seriously? I know F'lar is a driven fanatic, but Wirenth is about to rise any day now.
2) Is it really that revolutionary to "want to terminate the Weyr's duties"? And what a weird way to look at it. I had assumed that F'nor was playing devil's advocate in the last bit, but this almost sounds like he believes it. How is saving the world a controversial option?
Also, F'lar's wanted to save Pern since Dragonflight. Even at his worst, that's been very obvious. Where have you been, F'nor?
3) I'm not sure what the big problem is? There are plenty of Queens now, that it seems like it shouldn't be a big deal if one breeds with a brown. Especially given Brekke's fears that she'd inhibit Wirenth otherwise.
It does occur to me that this worry of F'nor's makes more sense when I remember that the brothers grew up in Benden Weyr, with Jora and Nemorth, who had very weak clutches. But I don't think McCaffrey touches on that enough as a source of possible emotional issue.
But it does have some fascinating implications, socially: if Canth flies Wirenth, would that cause more problems with the Oldtimers, who F'lar has finally pulled in line? Or would it cause more problems among the modern dragons, who are used to thinking about dragons in terms of scarcity. These are people who grew up in an environment with one Queen total to carry on the entire species after all.
How might this upheave the social order of the Weyrs? The Weyrleaders have always been bronze riders mated to queens! Might this end up opening the door to other dragonriders taking leadership positions? Will we have brown rider Weyrleaders? F'nor probably would be as effective as T'bor after all. Maybe, just maybe, this could lead to a system where leadership is chosen on merit instead of who fucks the queen!
There is so much interesting potential to the idea of having Canth fly Wirenth that I feel it would completely vindicate F'nor and Brekke's crap storyline so far!
Which is why it's not going to happen. Spoiler.
4) The idea of mating flight as "compensation" is gross F'nor, fuck off.
So anyway, F'nor is thinking about what the Weyrs would do without Thread as a threat. Would they trade? What could they farm or barter now that F'lar's given up the Southern Continent. Did F'lar think he could mend fences with T'kul, or are there other parts of the Continent that they could use?
Actually that last thought is really interesting. F'lar really does have complex emotions about the Oldtimers. And he'd indicated before that he really wished they could be brought in line. Without Thread, it wouldn't matter as much if they couldn't reach a consensus...
I really wish the F'lar and Oldtimer dynamic had gotten fleshed out a little more. It's far more interesting than F'nor, Brekke, or even Kylara's nonsense.
-
So now we switch over to Brekke, who is restless. The timezone shift from Southern to High Reaches is making it hard to sleep. But there's a lot to be done in High Reaches, since T'kul had basically stripped it of everything useful and no one had time to get anything from Southern before he'd kicked them out.
We actually get a moment of indirect praise for Kylara, since apparently Merika had been worse. Brekke contemplates a discreet word to F'nor about their lack of supplies, but she doesn't want to suggest incompetency. She's having to readjust her thinking though, since High Reaches doesn't have as much to work with in terms of manufacturing things or being self sufficient.
Now, this is actually really interesting. We never really got a close look at how any of the Weyrs, besides Southern, actually function aside from the Tithes from the Lord Holders. It does kind of reinforce the question about "what happens after Thread", though again, that didn't bother Benden for four hundred years. But still, I'm intrigued to know about Weyr economy.
And for the first time, I'm actually interested in Brekke. She's dealing with a completely unfamiliar system, and trying to manage limited resources, figuring out what she can do without burning bridges. And there's an interesting implication of power struggle: if she goes to F'nor, will that antagonize T'bor?
Brekke is now in a position to basically become de facto Weyrwoman, even beyond what she was in Southern. And this precarious position makes the idea of Canth flying Wirenth even more interesting. T'bor will still be Weyrleader, since he's flying the senior Weyrwoman's dragon, but if Brekke is the one who is Weyrwoman in action, then F'nor is very much in a wildcard position. One that might not go well with T'bor.
(It's also a little annoying that McCaffrey forgot that F'nor, T'bor and Kylara spent four years in the past together. That SHOULD also color this dynamic. Were F'nor and T'bor allies, or was the latter resentful of the way F'nor was sent to quietly bolster him?)
Anyway, Brekke snarks, probably correctly, that Kylara will certainly not be doing without. She also notes that she doesn't like Meron and hates the thought of being indebted. They need an alternative.
So anyway, Brekke evaluates supplies, which are better than she thought. Some of the best fabrics, leathers and wines haven't gone south after all. The lake water is a problem though, polluted by garbage, and will have to be dredged. There are mountain streams, but they need something to carry the water. Kylara announces that she'll get kegs from Nabol. Brekke is happy to see Kylara taking an interest in the Weyr.
But then things come to a head, as Wirenth starts crying out. She's ready for her mating flight. A new character, Pilgra, who is the only Weyrwoman from High Reaches who stayed behind (conveniently as it turns out) is there to reassure her.
I rather like Pilgra. I wish we'd had time to meet her before this. She embraces Brekke and tells her that she can do this, before she scampers off with her dragon. We're told that other queens can't be around during the mating flight. And thankfully Kylara had already taken Prideth to Nabol Hall. We should remember that.
It's all very chaotic of course. Brekke is melding with Wirenth, and still terrified that her Crafthall repression will effect what she has to do. She's calling for Canth and F'nor, who are the "third alternative".
But it all goes wrong when Brekke/Wirenth see Prideth. Kylara had taken Prideth to Nabol, as was mentioned. But that wasn't far enough away. Prideth was close to her own mating flight, and her instincts have caused her to rise too. The queens fight, brutally, until they both go between, killing themselves.
Okay, so this entire section is very well done. I'll say that right now. It's tense and rough and scary. I feel for Brekke. But I am utterly pissed that this is how McCaffrey decided to resolve the situation.
All of that build up. All of that Brekke vs Kylara nonsense. All of F'nor's worry and his inability to get his brother's support before the flight. All of the potential ramifications. Utterly wasted.
Hell, even the rape was narratively useless. Brekke never completed the mating flight with anyone. And now she's lost her dragon.
Kylara is getting the blame for it, but I don't think that's entirely fair. She HAD taken Prideth away to Nabol Hall. And even Pilgra, the Weyrwoman from High Reaches, had believed that would be enough. It wasn't.
So Brekke's been put through hell, (which we saw through F'nor's eyes during the mating flight) and is near catatonic. The bronze riders aren't much better, given the psychic intensity of the flight and the loss of the queens. And Kylara has been reduced to a childlike state.
There's no triumph here. There's nothing. Even if Brekke gets to do something amazing and heroic later (spoiler: she really doesn't. This is basically the end of her plot except for being a bystander in F'nor's event later), she's lost pretty much everything.
She doesn't even get even a vague catharsis against Kylara. Kylara's mind is permanently destroyed from this. She's off the playing field entirely after being set up as the mean girl throughout the whole book.
I do like seeing the aftermath scenes from Lessa's perspective. She's got such a matter-of-fact, if brisk narration, as she tries to tackle each problem. I really missed her voice in this book. I'm just annoyed at the utter waste of Brekke's plotline. She barely had a character, she was finally getting an interesting role, and there were all kinds of potential ramifications.
And now, it's all moot.
And guess what? There are almost no real ramifications to this in the actual story.
This doesn't actually cause trouble with the Oldtimers. D'ram and G'narish are very sympathetic. This sort of thing is unprecedented for the modern riders, since until recently, they'd never had enough queens to worry about it, but there had been some incidents in the Oldtimers' time. (A part of me is curious about how T'ron might have responded if this had happened before the duel with F'lar. I kind of think some of T'ron's issues with F'lar had to do with the latter's composure, ego, and general air of infallibility. I wonder how he would have responded seeing F'lar genuinely at a loss like this. Would he gloat or would he help? I almost think it might be the latter.)
This also doesn't actually ruin things for High Reaches. Pilgra, who we just met, is a competent enough Weyrwoman. So having Brekke and Kylara gone isn't going to have any real effect there. I do wonder how this will effect T'bor's role as Weyrleader, but I don't remember that really coming up.
Oh, there's ONE impact: F'lar's trip to the High Reaches while already wounded will make his injury considerably worse, and inspire some changes in approach and tactics. But...that's about it.
Brekke will have some recovery beats to her story, but not really enough to balance the tremendous loss she's suffered here. But that's about it. And she will never get a good triumph to balance that out. She gets her happy ending with F'nor, but I can't help but notice that to get it, she had to lose everything.
And I'm trying not to read into it, but it's hard to miss the fact that had the Canth-Wirenth flight happened, Brekke and F'nor would have been a pairing in which the woman explicitly outranked the man. She'd be Weyrwoman. He'd be a wildcard, without the benefit of bronze status.
This is a contrast to F'lar and Lessa. F'lar and Lessa are equal partners, but we've seen enough of other Weyrleader and Weyrwoman dynamics to see that that is not the case for pretty much anyone else. Kylara and Brekke have no role in leading Southern. Mardra is an obstacle only to T'ron and has made no contribution toward leadership. D'ram and G'narish's partners aren't even mentioned. (It's possible that, like Lessa, some of these women may be leading off screen, while the men are having their conferences, but we never see that.).
F'nor and Brekke were the first couple we had where the woman expressly outranked the man. Or would, had Brekke not been subjugated under Kylara. If F'nor hadn't had his wildcard rank as his Weyrleader brother's right hand man. If F'nor hadn't been twenty years older than her and constantly portrayed as a voice of experience.
But even with all those equivocating factors, Brekke still ends up stripped of her rank and her triumph. She'll get a happy end, in a sense, with F'nor. But that's hardly worth all the build up.
It's just incredibly frustrating. Ms. McCaffrey gave us a bunch of virtues wrapped in a dress and told us she was a character, but basically she only exists to suffer tragically until she's subsumed into her rapist's storyline. It's so frustrating.
I mean look, Brekke's plot in this book hasn't been complicated. She's a set of virtues wrapped up in a dress, who is dutifully trying to do her job. She has a cartoonish mean girl adversary who mistreats her at every turn.
The only saving grace about this kind of plot is the climax, when the mistreated girl rises up to claim some sort of social triumph against her mean spirited bully. Or, in the alternative, the mistreated girl succeeds on a personal level in such a way that the bully is utterly meaningless to her from that point on.
And we're building up to that, right? Brekke is about to have a mating flight. She's scared, but there's a plan in place to allow her to fly with the man she loves. Now there's all kinds of interesting possible social ramifications to this decision and obstacles for the future. But Brekke is about to win something major here.
Her rival, Kylara, doesn't love anyone. She only cares about personal power and ambition. She won't understand Brekke's triumph here. But if Brekke gets what she wants, then Kylara's power grasping won't matter anymore. Brekke'll have bigger concerns, and bigger triumphs.
Except...that's not the direction the story goes after all.
Okay, so we start the chapter with F'nor bringing the pot of grubs to F'lar. Canth advises him that F'lar is waiting in his quarters and Mnementh isn't worried about him. F'nor wonders if the dragons speak amongst themselves like humans do.
...that seems to be a weird thing to wonder now? And also, we know dragons talk to each other. That's how the Queens call the alerts? Possibly there's a nuance to this thought that I'm missing. Or F'nor's just a self-absorbed idiot.
Anyway, F'nor meets up with F'lar who is kind of endearingly enthusiastic for once. Also possibly feverish, but that's F'lar for you. He gets an update on the fire lizard situation (Apparently Lytol didn't take a lizard, which doesn't surprise F'lar, though F'lar had hoped he would. It's actually a rare show of empathy from our noble asshole, so I won't mock him for it.).
We learn that the Hatching Ground secret entrance has been blocked out, because it upset Ramoth, and Mnementh supported her, because he's by far the best spouse in the bunch. But anyway, F'lar leads F'nor into one of the secret rooms.
F'lar explains what he wants to do: basically, he wants to prove that grubs survive in Northern soil and can eat thread. Because that's what F'lar figures has been happening. Thread doesn't burrow in the south because the grubs eat it. He wants F'nor to try to catch some Thread.
F'lar is very obviously frustrated that his injury won't let him do it himself. But F'nor of course agrees, and F'lar has an idea about using a long-handled hearth pan while flying at a low altitude near the queens.
It occurs to me that F'lar's injury is an interesting opportunity for growth for the character. For all his faults, no one can say that F'lar isn't proactive, or that he's not willing to take risks himself or get his hands dirty. If anything, his fault is that he's too apt to play things close to his chest and not fill anyone else in (except Lessa). Now he has to rely on other people, and let them in on his ideas and plans or they don't get done. And we can see how hard it is for him to do that.
So F'nor asks what happens if they do prove grubs eat Thread, and F'lar enthusiastically says that they breed them by the tankful and spread them across the planet.
This makes sense to me, but apparently F'nor thinks F'lar is feverish. F'lar explains though that if they get the grubs across Pern then they'll have no need to worry about Thread burrowing into the land and destroying the crops.
F'lar has apparently had a lot of questions: why did it take so long for dragons to spread out, why aren't there more people, why hasn't anyone tried to go to the Red Star. He thinks that the biggest concern is protecting Pern when the dragons are away, and that grubs are part of an answer.
Then the brothers have an exchange that boggles me a little:
'Isn’t it just possible that we, now, are the culmination of thousands of Turns of careful planning and development?' F’lar was suggesting urgently. 'Look, don’t all the facts corroborate? The large population in support, the ingenuity of Fandarel, the discovery of those rooms and the devices, the grubs—everything . . .'
'Except one,' F’nor said slowly, hating himself.
'Which?' All the warmth and fervor drained out of F’lar and that single word came in a cold, harsh voice.
'Son of my father,' began F’nor, taking a deep breath, 'if dragonmen clear the Star of Thread, what further purpose is there for them?'
F’lar, his face white and set with disappointment, drew himself to his feet.
'Well, I assume you’ve an answer to that, too,' F’nor went on, unable to bear the disillusion in his half-brother’s scornful regard. 'Now where’s that long-handled hearthpan I’m supposed to catch Thread in?'
The first issue I have is that I'm not sure the conversation flows logically. But more than that, I'm not really sure I understand the emotional undercurrents of this scene.
I think I understand F'lar's disappointment. Because, for all his MANY faults, F'lar has been devoted to the idea of saving Pern. The idea that dragons might not have a purpose afterward would be a very selfish reason not to save the planet, and while F'lar can be self-centered, I don't think he's selfish in that way.
But why does F'nor hate himself for asking? It's a logical question.
It's a question that doesn't really make sense in the context of Dragonflight. These guys spent four hundred years without Thread. By the beginning of Dragonflight, F'lar and Lessa were the only people who truly believed Thread would come back. And even for Lessa it was more of a premonition, not a sincere belief. And during that time NO ONE discussed what else dragons could do???
F'lar is an idea man, so I don't doubt he'll come up with something, but why haven't the Weyrs thought about this already? They had FOUR CENTURIES.
God, I hate this system so much. I really do want that Shadowhunters style adaptation that actually deconstructs this nonsense.
So after the discussion, where there's a very amusing note about both brothers assuring the other that they'd eat and rest, and both being very sure the other wasn't going to do it, but then there's this:
If F’nor appreciated the audacity of F’lar’s project, he also counted up the flaws and the possible disasters. And then he realized that he still hadn’t had a chance to broach the innovation he himself desired to make. Yet, for a brown dragon to fly a queen was far less revolutionary than F’lar wanting to terminate the Weyrs’ duties. And, reinforced by one of F’lar’s own theories, if the dragons were now big enough for their ultimate breeding purpose, then no harm was done the species if a brown, smaller than a bronze, was mated to a queen—just this once. Surely F’nor deserved that compensation. Comforted that it would be merely an exchange of favors; rather than the gross crime it might once have been considered, F’nor went to borrow the long-handled hearthpan from one of Manora’s helpers.
So let's unpack this a second:
1) Why the fuck didn't you bring this up with F'lar? Seriously? I know F'lar is a driven fanatic, but Wirenth is about to rise any day now.
2) Is it really that revolutionary to "want to terminate the Weyr's duties"? And what a weird way to look at it. I had assumed that F'nor was playing devil's advocate in the last bit, but this almost sounds like he believes it. How is saving the world a controversial option?
Also, F'lar's wanted to save Pern since Dragonflight. Even at his worst, that's been very obvious. Where have you been, F'nor?
3) I'm not sure what the big problem is? There are plenty of Queens now, that it seems like it shouldn't be a big deal if one breeds with a brown. Especially given Brekke's fears that she'd inhibit Wirenth otherwise.
It does occur to me that this worry of F'nor's makes more sense when I remember that the brothers grew up in Benden Weyr, with Jora and Nemorth, who had very weak clutches. But I don't think McCaffrey touches on that enough as a source of possible emotional issue.
But it does have some fascinating implications, socially: if Canth flies Wirenth, would that cause more problems with the Oldtimers, who F'lar has finally pulled in line? Or would it cause more problems among the modern dragons, who are used to thinking about dragons in terms of scarcity. These are people who grew up in an environment with one Queen total to carry on the entire species after all.
How might this upheave the social order of the Weyrs? The Weyrleaders have always been bronze riders mated to queens! Might this end up opening the door to other dragonriders taking leadership positions? Will we have brown rider Weyrleaders? F'nor probably would be as effective as T'bor after all. Maybe, just maybe, this could lead to a system where leadership is chosen on merit instead of who fucks the queen!
There is so much interesting potential to the idea of having Canth fly Wirenth that I feel it would completely vindicate F'nor and Brekke's crap storyline so far!
Which is why it's not going to happen. Spoiler.
4) The idea of mating flight as "compensation" is gross F'nor, fuck off.
So anyway, F'nor is thinking about what the Weyrs would do without Thread as a threat. Would they trade? What could they farm or barter now that F'lar's given up the Southern Continent. Did F'lar think he could mend fences with T'kul, or are there other parts of the Continent that they could use?
Actually that last thought is really interesting. F'lar really does have complex emotions about the Oldtimers. And he'd indicated before that he really wished they could be brought in line. Without Thread, it wouldn't matter as much if they couldn't reach a consensus...
I really wish the F'lar and Oldtimer dynamic had gotten fleshed out a little more. It's far more interesting than F'nor, Brekke, or even Kylara's nonsense.
-
So now we switch over to Brekke, who is restless. The timezone shift from Southern to High Reaches is making it hard to sleep. But there's a lot to be done in High Reaches, since T'kul had basically stripped it of everything useful and no one had time to get anything from Southern before he'd kicked them out.
We actually get a moment of indirect praise for Kylara, since apparently Merika had been worse. Brekke contemplates a discreet word to F'nor about their lack of supplies, but she doesn't want to suggest incompetency. She's having to readjust her thinking though, since High Reaches doesn't have as much to work with in terms of manufacturing things or being self sufficient.
Now, this is actually really interesting. We never really got a close look at how any of the Weyrs, besides Southern, actually function aside from the Tithes from the Lord Holders. It does kind of reinforce the question about "what happens after Thread", though again, that didn't bother Benden for four hundred years. But still, I'm intrigued to know about Weyr economy.
And for the first time, I'm actually interested in Brekke. She's dealing with a completely unfamiliar system, and trying to manage limited resources, figuring out what she can do without burning bridges. And there's an interesting implication of power struggle: if she goes to F'nor, will that antagonize T'bor?
Brekke is now in a position to basically become de facto Weyrwoman, even beyond what she was in Southern. And this precarious position makes the idea of Canth flying Wirenth even more interesting. T'bor will still be Weyrleader, since he's flying the senior Weyrwoman's dragon, but if Brekke is the one who is Weyrwoman in action, then F'nor is very much in a wildcard position. One that might not go well with T'bor.
(It's also a little annoying that McCaffrey forgot that F'nor, T'bor and Kylara spent four years in the past together. That SHOULD also color this dynamic. Were F'nor and T'bor allies, or was the latter resentful of the way F'nor was sent to quietly bolster him?)
Anyway, Brekke snarks, probably correctly, that Kylara will certainly not be doing without. She also notes that she doesn't like Meron and hates the thought of being indebted. They need an alternative.
So anyway, Brekke evaluates supplies, which are better than she thought. Some of the best fabrics, leathers and wines haven't gone south after all. The lake water is a problem though, polluted by garbage, and will have to be dredged. There are mountain streams, but they need something to carry the water. Kylara announces that she'll get kegs from Nabol. Brekke is happy to see Kylara taking an interest in the Weyr.
But then things come to a head, as Wirenth starts crying out. She's ready for her mating flight. A new character, Pilgra, who is the only Weyrwoman from High Reaches who stayed behind (conveniently as it turns out) is there to reassure her.
I rather like Pilgra. I wish we'd had time to meet her before this. She embraces Brekke and tells her that she can do this, before she scampers off with her dragon. We're told that other queens can't be around during the mating flight. And thankfully Kylara had already taken Prideth to Nabol Hall. We should remember that.
It's all very chaotic of course. Brekke is melding with Wirenth, and still terrified that her Crafthall repression will effect what she has to do. She's calling for Canth and F'nor, who are the "third alternative".
But it all goes wrong when Brekke/Wirenth see Prideth. Kylara had taken Prideth to Nabol, as was mentioned. But that wasn't far enough away. Prideth was close to her own mating flight, and her instincts have caused her to rise too. The queens fight, brutally, until they both go between, killing themselves.
Okay, so this entire section is very well done. I'll say that right now. It's tense and rough and scary. I feel for Brekke. But I am utterly pissed that this is how McCaffrey decided to resolve the situation.
All of that build up. All of that Brekke vs Kylara nonsense. All of F'nor's worry and his inability to get his brother's support before the flight. All of the potential ramifications. Utterly wasted.
Hell, even the rape was narratively useless. Brekke never completed the mating flight with anyone. And now she's lost her dragon.
Kylara is getting the blame for it, but I don't think that's entirely fair. She HAD taken Prideth away to Nabol Hall. And even Pilgra, the Weyrwoman from High Reaches, had believed that would be enough. It wasn't.
So Brekke's been put through hell, (which we saw through F'nor's eyes during the mating flight) and is near catatonic. The bronze riders aren't much better, given the psychic intensity of the flight and the loss of the queens. And Kylara has been reduced to a childlike state.
There's no triumph here. There's nothing. Even if Brekke gets to do something amazing and heroic later (spoiler: she really doesn't. This is basically the end of her plot except for being a bystander in F'nor's event later), she's lost pretty much everything.
She doesn't even get even a vague catharsis against Kylara. Kylara's mind is permanently destroyed from this. She's off the playing field entirely after being set up as the mean girl throughout the whole book.
I do like seeing the aftermath scenes from Lessa's perspective. She's got such a matter-of-fact, if brisk narration, as she tries to tackle each problem. I really missed her voice in this book. I'm just annoyed at the utter waste of Brekke's plotline. She barely had a character, she was finally getting an interesting role, and there were all kinds of potential ramifications.
And now, it's all moot.
And guess what? There are almost no real ramifications to this in the actual story.
This doesn't actually cause trouble with the Oldtimers. D'ram and G'narish are very sympathetic. This sort of thing is unprecedented for the modern riders, since until recently, they'd never had enough queens to worry about it, but there had been some incidents in the Oldtimers' time. (A part of me is curious about how T'ron might have responded if this had happened before the duel with F'lar. I kind of think some of T'ron's issues with F'lar had to do with the latter's composure, ego, and general air of infallibility. I wonder how he would have responded seeing F'lar genuinely at a loss like this. Would he gloat or would he help? I almost think it might be the latter.)
This also doesn't actually ruin things for High Reaches. Pilgra, who we just met, is a competent enough Weyrwoman. So having Brekke and Kylara gone isn't going to have any real effect there. I do wonder how this will effect T'bor's role as Weyrleader, but I don't remember that really coming up.
Oh, there's ONE impact: F'lar's trip to the High Reaches while already wounded will make his injury considerably worse, and inspire some changes in approach and tactics. But...that's about it.
Brekke will have some recovery beats to her story, but not really enough to balance the tremendous loss she's suffered here. But that's about it. And she will never get a good triumph to balance that out. She gets her happy ending with F'nor, but I can't help but notice that to get it, she had to lose everything.
And I'm trying not to read into it, but it's hard to miss the fact that had the Canth-Wirenth flight happened, Brekke and F'nor would have been a pairing in which the woman explicitly outranked the man. She'd be Weyrwoman. He'd be a wildcard, without the benefit of bronze status.
This is a contrast to F'lar and Lessa. F'lar and Lessa are equal partners, but we've seen enough of other Weyrleader and Weyrwoman dynamics to see that that is not the case for pretty much anyone else. Kylara and Brekke have no role in leading Southern. Mardra is an obstacle only to T'ron and has made no contribution toward leadership. D'ram and G'narish's partners aren't even mentioned. (It's possible that, like Lessa, some of these women may be leading off screen, while the men are having their conferences, but we never see that.).
F'nor and Brekke were the first couple we had where the woman expressly outranked the man. Or would, had Brekke not been subjugated under Kylara. If F'nor hadn't had his wildcard rank as his Weyrleader brother's right hand man. If F'nor hadn't been twenty years older than her and constantly portrayed as a voice of experience.
But even with all those equivocating factors, Brekke still ends up stripped of her rank and her triumph. She'll get a happy end, in a sense, with F'nor. But that's hardly worth all the build up.
It's just incredibly frustrating. Ms. McCaffrey gave us a bunch of virtues wrapped in a dress and told us she was a character, but basically she only exists to suffer tragically until she's subsumed into her rapist's storyline. It's so frustrating.