Dragonflight - Part One - Weyr Search - Section 2: To Ruatha

[kalinara]

So last time, we met our protagonists. Well. Kind of. We learned that Lessa is possibly implicitly a serial killer while F'lar is a douchebag. I'm not sure what it says about me that I find the former more forgivable than the latter. I think it's just that I'm more willing to accept collateral damage from a kitchen slave lashing out with the only weapon that she has than I am seeing a man of relative privilege look down his nose at abuse victims.

Heck, I forgot to point this out in part one, but when Lytol tries to urge F'lar to do something about Fax, he says "he fancies himself as good as dragonmen."

Fax is a rapist and a murderer, who has beheaded women and children. And Lytol seems to believe that this is because he fancies himself as good as dragonmen.

What the fuck does that say about dragonmen?



So, because Ms. McCaffrey wants to punish me, the next section is also from F'lar's point of view. We just HAD a F'lar point of view, damnit. And I hated that dude. Well, this passage does nothing to change that.

So at this point, F'lar and his coterie have spent four days in Fax's company, and we're told that it's only Flar's "firm control on self and wing" that was "keeping the situation from exploding into violence." F'lar then tells us that Fax's tactics would have worked with other more honor-conscious dragonriders like R'gul (the current Weyrleader) or younger, less patient sorts.

This doesn't make a lot of sense to me, really. F'lar takes it as given that Fax is trying to provoke him, but why should Fax do that? Fax is basically the king of seven small kingdoms. The dragonriders have done nothing to stop him and have no intention of impeding him. All he has to do is wait them out and he's home free.

F'lar takes this time to muse about the decline of the Weyr, which he credits to "inferior queens and incompetent Weyrwomen". Fuck you, F'lar. I still don't know what being a Weyrwoman entails, but I'm still inclined to defend poor Jora. F'lar also blames the current leader, R'gul, for his "inexplicable insistence on not 'bothering' the Holders, on keeping dragonmen within the Weyr."

I'm not really sure how this characterization of R'gul meshes with the idea that he's so honor-conscious that he'd allow Fax to goad him into a fight. Also, I'm not really sure I blame R'gul for not wanting the Holder Lords to remember that they're still handing over tithes to a group that hasn't apparently done anything useful in close to two hundred years.

"What have you done for us lately?" is a legitimate question here, I think.

Anyway, R'gul also seems to favor Games as opposed to firestone drills, such as the one that "exiled" Lytol. (Fuck you, F'lar. The drill didn't exile him. You assholes did. From Lytol's attitude last section, he might have been happier to stay within the Weyr but wasn't given the choice.)

F'lar also believes that Fax would never have gained power if the Weyr was as prominent as it had been. He calls one man claiming seven Holds "evil", not, it should be noted, because of what Fax did to gain those Holds, but because he couldn't protect seven valleys at once.

And okay, that's fair, but it'd be nice if F'lar spared a thought toward the rape and murder part of Fax's character.

We see a bit more of F'lar's bullying side again: "He had issued small pieces of firestone with instructions to sear any growths as practice. It would do to remind Fax, as well as his troops, of the awesome ability of dragonkind, a phenomenon the common folk of Pern appeared to have all but forgotten."

Dragons are awesome, sure, but F'lar seems to enjoy causing fear a little too much.

So anyway, F'lar and his men finally reach Ruatha, which is indeed in terrible shape:

"Few of its fields were plowed. It's pastures supported meager herds. Even its orchards looked stunted. Blossoms that had been so profuse on trees in Crom, the next valley over, were sparse, as if reluctant to flower in so dismal a place. Although the sun was well up, there seemed to be no activity in the farmholds or none near enough to be observed."

...did LESSA do this? DAMN.

F'lar would seem to confirm that, actually, because he and F'nor feel a "subtle strength in this valley" and the dragons themselves seem to be agitated. That girl is a little bit scary.

Oh, and in case I didn't hate F'lar or the dragonriders enough, we get this little gem, when F'lar despairs of his chance of finding a candidate in Ruatha:

"There had been that little brunette whose father was a clothman in Nabol, but ... And a tall, willowy girl with enormous eyes, the daughter of a minor Warder in Crom, yet ... These were possibilities, and had F'lar been S'lel or K'net or D'nol, he might have taken the two in as potential mates, although not likely Weyrwomen."

...HOW ARE YOU BETTER THAN FAX?!

Also, despite his claim that he wanted a girl with strength of will in the last section, it's noticeable that the first thing that comes to mind about these would-be candidates is their looks. I honestly believe he only rejected the girls from Fax's harem because they weren't his type.

Fuck you, F'lar.

LESSA

We're finally back to Lessa now, and this time we actually get to see what kind of person she is. And honestly, I think I love her.

So, it's pretty obvious by now that Lessa is a pretty standard deposed princess type, one who escaped Fax's massacre of her family and is now hiding among the kitchen slaves in her former home. The thing that makes Lessa fun though is that she's not patiently or sorrowfully waiting for rescue. No, she is AGGRESSIVELY pursuing her own goals.

And she is damn good at it. Ruatha has gone through a succession of EIGHT Warders, appointed by Fax to run things. And Lessa has, apparently, managed to orchestrate the downfall of each one through manipulation, miscommunication, and sabotaged production.

And then there was the first one, of whom Lessa says this:

He had achieved more than all the others, and Lessa had honestly regretted the necessity of his death. But he would have made her revenge impossible. He would have found her out before she had learned how to camouflage herself and her little interferences. What had his name been? She could not recall. Well, she regretted his death."

HOLY SHIT, LESSA

Anyway, when Lessa learns that Fax is coming to Ruatha, dragonmen in tow, she comes up with a new plan: she will get Fax humiliated or infuriated enough to renounce his claim to Ruatha in front of the dragonmen, and then she can claim her birthright.

I'm not sure that this is really a feasible or realistic plan, honestly. I mean, F'lar is annoyed enough at Fax that I think he might enjoy the chance to thwart him. But it requires a very specific response from Fax that seems like a longshot. But it is an interesting implication that words spoken in front of a dragonman might be actually binding.

We do get some annoying dragonman-aggrandizement from Lessa here:

"But she would have to be extraordinarily wary. Dragonriders were men apart. Anger did not cloud their intelligence. Greed did not sully their judgment. Fear did not dull their reactions. Let the dense-witted believe human sacrifice, unnatural lusts, insane revels. She was not so gullible. And those stories went against her grain. Dragonmen were still human, and there was Weyr blood in her veins. It was the same color blood as that of anyone else; enough of hers had been spilled to prove that."

I will accept that from Lessa, because she is under-educated (spending the past ten years as a kitchen slave doesn't allow much time for study), and because she seems to get some pride and strength from her lineage. In a position like hers, she needs whatever source of strength she can get.

It annoys me that Lessa's sections are so much shorter than F'lar's so far. I understand why: like Rey on Jakku in TFA, Lessa's in a holding pattern. Her real story isn't going to start until Fax and F'lar actually arrive in Ruatha. F'lar, as a dragonrider interacting with our villain, can give us a lot more relevant setting information than an isolated kitchen slave.

But in terms of character, Lessa is by far the most interesting.

Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of serious ethical issues with what Lessa is doing. She is provoking a very dangerous man with her own people in the crossfire. She's implicitly caused the death of a number of innocent conscripts, and she almost definitely murdered at least one man in order to protect herself.

But it's understandable. Ten years ago, Fax destroyed her world. She's been living as a slave ever since. She's never had a moment of safety or security to actually contemplate her life and her actions. She is focused entirely on two things: survival and revenge. And she seems to be doing pretty well at both of these things!

And honestly, I think it says something that even as callous and self-centered as Lessa is right now, she still shows more empathy to a pathetic guard creature and a man she implicitly murdered than F'lar has toward rape victims or maimed former colleagues.

I want to see Lessa succeed. I want her to take her Hold back. Or become Queen of the Dragons. I want to see F'lar fall off a cliff. Sadly, I suspect I will only get one of these things.

---

Part 1:1 | Table of Contents | Part 1:3