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kalinaraSo 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.
( Read more... )
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.
( Read more... )