Dragonquest - Chapter 3 - Why is F'lar almost tolerable?

[kalinara]

So last time, we got to follow F'lar's point of view into a meeting with the Oldtimers. We stay in F'lar's point of view for this chapter as well. Admittedly, he's been a lot more tolerable in this book so far. But sadly, this continues to be at the expense of the Oldtimers.

I genuinely believe that the T'ton of Dragonflight would punch the T'ron of Dragonquest in the face.



This chapter starts off with an alert of threadfall in Lemos, which is hours ahead of schedule. They're alerted by a green dragon who was already there, and F'lar makes it a point to say that the rider would " have his choice of anything in F'lar's power to give". I like seeing more recognition going to Greens and their riders but I can't help but note that Ms. McCaffrey doesn't bother to give the man or dragon a name.

Thus far, the only named green dragonrider is Lytol, who will soon be retconned as a brown rider, and T'reb, the asshole who stabbed F'nor. This irks me.

Anyway, the Thread isn't just falling early, it's also falling wrong. The dragons are having a lot more trouble than they usually do. They succeed of course, but F'lar is frustrated. So frustrated in fact that he almost resented Mnementh's summary of the battle.

Fuck you, F'lar. Mnementh is more awesome than you.

To be fair to F'lar though, he's stressed. The Thread has deviated from his timetables for the first time in years, humans and dragons are hurt, and his brother is still injured and recuperating.

I note that this book does more to establish a believable filial relationship between F'lar and F'nor in two chapters than Dragonflight did for the entire book. But that's probably because F'nor is a lead character now.

F'lar and Mnementh sidetrack into the problem of "the third queen". Basically Ramoth dislikes sharing her bronze dragons with too many queens, even though she only actually mates with Mnementh. She tolerates one other (named Lamath, I don't think we've heard her Weyrwoman's name), but there's a new golden egg.

F'lar considers offering the egg up to the Oldtimers, but is worried that they'll blame him for bad management of Ramoth or "coddling" of Lessa. You know what, F'lar. Let them. Given everything Lessa has done for pretty much everyone? She deserves coddling. Anyway, Benden queens are also bigger than the Oldtimer queens, so F'lar thinks that maybe one of the friendlier Oldtimers like R'mart or G'narish might not mind.

He's already imagining T'ron's scorn, but notes that there are precedents for giving away a queen. I really do wish we'd gotten a glimpse of T'ron and F'lar's relationship early on to compare them to now. There's an undercurrent of hurt and betrayal in F'lar's reactions to T'ron, I think. And he does credit T'ron with teaching him basically everything about fighting thread. I think I might find it easier to wrap my head around what Ms. McCaffrey has done to the man who was the first actually likable dragonrider we ever saw, if we got some idea of how he got to this point.

I have to admit, as bitter as I am about what she's done to T'ron, Ithink this dynamic really does benefit F'lar as a character. Seeing F'lar having to work with and maneuver around a more senior dragonrider is humbling and humanizing. It's something we never really got to see with R'gul. Unfortunately, while F'lar has benefited from this extra attention, so far, we've gotten almost nothing about Lessa, which frustrates me to no end considering she was by far the best part of Dragonflight.

We do get a nice moment when F'lar starts angsting about the erratic Thread again where he thinks that he couldn't have misread the timetables, because if he HAD made an error, "Lessa would have caught it". That's another improvement for F'lar this book: he is far more appreciative of Lessa in general, and far less proprietary or gross about her.

If you remember my Dragonflight reviews, I would often rant about how, when Ms. McCaffrey wasn't going out of her way to make the relationship unhealthy and gross, F'lar and Lessa had had a really good dynamic. Thus far in Dragonquest, we're seeing that dynamic without the baggage. And I like that. I don't forget all of the unnecessary grossness of their initial relationship, mind you, but I'm finding the relationship a lot less frustrating to read now. So far.

Anyway, F'lar goes to find Asgenar, the Lord Holder of Lemos. We learn that of the three holds specifically beholden to Benden, Asgenar is the easiest Lord to deal with. F'lar notes that while Benden, Bitra and Lemos had always conscientiously tithed to support Benden, Lords Raid and Sifer "had an unpleasant habit of reminding Benden Weyr riders of their loyalty at every opportunity".

Gosh, F'lar, how inconvenient that these people who willingly supported your Weyr for FOUR HUNDRED YEARS, while you did nothing of any value for them, occasionally remind you of that fact. (Asgenar was too young and was sworn in while Thread was already falling, so he doesn't get the same moral high ground.)

Fuck you, F'lar. You OWE these people.

We learn that another issue of Oldtimer contentious is trees: apparently four hundred years ago, no one permitted timber stands to grow because it caused "too much living green to protect". But at the same time, wooden goods are very popular even among the Oldtimers. The Oldtimers are resistant to the creation of a new crafthall for wooden products though, and F'lar thinks it's because the Crafthall would be founded near the hardwood trees of Lemos, and thus Benden Weyr would have a Crafthall in its jurisdiction.

I'm enjoying the increased focus on Lords-Weyr politics here, but I do wish it wasn't quite so one-sided. Right now, it looks like the Oldtimers are very self-centered, wanting the perks but none of the hassles of everything. Maybe that's true, but I'd have liked to see something from an Oldtimer's point of view. Perhaps they'd seem a little more reasonable if we understood why they're making these demands.

Oh, we DO get a name for the green rider from before. I rescind my complaint, Ms. McCaffrey. The rider's name is F'rad. We're told that F'rad wants to warn F'lar about something, but the warning is cut off by Asgenar's greeting.

F'lar learns from Asgenar that this isn't the only variation from the time tables. Asgenar is a bit wry about this, but he doesn't blame F'lar. He compares himself to his soon to be brother-in-law Larad (I remember Larad! I like Larad!), and says that he counts himself lucky to be "weyrbound" to F'lar because "A man knows where he stands with Benden Weyr"

Larad on the other hand has had to set up a thorough watch system because of the premature threadfalls at Tillek and Crom, and the lack of cooperation of T'kul, the High Reaches Weyrleader. Asgenar diplomatically notes that while he doesn't presume to criticize weyrfolk, a little forewarning would be courteous.

I like Asgenar. He's reasonable and thoughtful. If a little too happy to praise F'lar. But he's not as sycophantic as Robinton, so I can take it.

F'lar decides to leave F'rad, the greenrider with Asgenar for the time being, which makes Asgenar very happy.

There's a potshot taken at Meron, Lord of Nabol. He's the dude who I liked because he hated F'lar so shamelessly in Dragonflight: apparently he won't let commoners chop fuelwood, and forces them to pay high rates for "cromcoal" for heat during the winter.

Meron, like Kylara, tends to get the "designated dick" treatment. We'll see a lot of side comments about how awful he is. We'd best get used to them now. At least the complaints against Meron seem to actually have substance instead of being something like "she's lazy and doesn't show enough appreciation to the guy she doesn't like but has to bang anyway as part of the fucking Weyr mating rituals."

There's also more discussion about the wood Crafthall controversy, and it's determined that ultimately the other Craftsmasters will be making the decision. They'll all be at the wedding, and Asgenar suggests that they address it there.

The dynamic between Asgenar and F'lar is actually really interesting, because, unlike in Dragonflight there's a lot less of an "us against them" mentality with the Lord Holders. F'lar doesn't seem to be resorting to his usual arrogance when talking with the man, and they're actually conversing like peers. Almost like friends!

I am vaguely proud of F'lar for starting to act like a functional human being. He has a ways to go still. But still, baby steps.

F'lar returns to the Weyr, and Lessa greets him with salve (F'lar had gotten a bit singed in the attack, but nothing extreme), F'lar blames Mnementh for tattling on him and there's a pretty entertaining exchange:

“'I don’t want Lessa upset over nothing!'

I don’t want Ramoth angry over anything!"

Mnementh is still a better husband than you, F'lar. F'lar notes that this was one of those times when the bond between rider and dragon was a disadvantage, "[p]articularly when Mnementh took initiative, which is not generally a draconic characteristic."

Fuck you, F'lar. Dragons deserve better than being passive partners here, considering they do 99% of the work. Also, you're barely functional as a human being without Mnementh's constant taking initiative.

One of these days, I want to write some meta about the F'lar-Mnementh dynamic, because it really is the most developed human-dragon dynamic we see in the series thus far, and it's pretty fascinating. Not in the least because Mnementh is by far a more decent, considerate, and socially aware person than F'lar is.

I think I mentioned once in my review of Dragonflight that there was a point where I thought that F'lar had a legitimate disconnect when it came to processing or recognizing emotion. I have that thought again here.

What happens is that Lessa is tending F'lar's very minor injuries and filling him in on the status of the other injured dragons and riders. She then digresses that one rider's injury might be just as well, because if he doesn't stop sleeping with Hold girls, they won't be able to foster all of the babies. The hold girls are convinced that it's evil to abort. Lessa has a reaction then: "She stopped short, set her lips in the thin line which F'lar had finally catalogued as Lessa veering away from a painful subject."

It's the "finally" that interests me here. After all, at this point F'lar and Lessa have been lovers and partners for seven years. They have a child together. But F'lar has "FINALLY" figured out what that expression means. Also, he says "catalogued", which implies analysis and pattern recognition as opposed to empathy.

Also, I think it's notable that F'lar seems to realize it's a painful subject only because of Lessa's facial expression. Not because he knows she's been upset over not being able to conceive another child. It reminds me of how surprised he was when she was devastated about Fax's attack.

As I said back then: I think the idea of F'lar as a character with some kind of non-neurotypical emotional processing disorder is really interesting. You really could read a lot of his interactions with Mnementh in Dragonflight as him relying on his dragon to translate appropriate emotional and social reactions. It doesn't, of course, excuse his horrendous treatment of Lessa in that book. But I think there's an interesting potential story here.

Speaking of his dynamic with Lessa, F'lar is proving that he's improving as a person by immediately trying to comfort her. He points out that riding between so much makes it "impossible" for Weyrwomen to conceive. Lessa brings up Kylara, which doesn't bother me as much as most of the gratuitous anti-Kylara sentiment does, because there's a legitimate emotional basis behind it. Lessa isn't angry about some nebulous failing that Kylara has in living up to the standards of their ridiculous cult. Her anger is simpler: Kylara has what Lessa wants and doesn't appreciate it.

They discuss the issue with Asgenar and the thread, and Lessa vents that she wishes she never had gotten the Oldtimers, that F'lar would have figured out a way to cope. F'lar notes that she gives him too much credit, but hugged her for her loyalty

Aw. I'm angry at Ms. McCaffrey all over again. This was the relationship dynamic she could have given us all along. Instead she had to go with rape and abuse. As it is, to enjoy the relationship now, I have to go with the idea that F'lar has somehow managed to shed his abusive tendencies at some point in the last seven years. I'm willing to do that, because I want Lessa to be happy. But I'm annoyed that I have to.

There's also some weird banter about Robinton:

"'It’s the wine train from Benden, silly,' Lessa told him, chuckling as Mnementh gave voice to a loud brassy grumble and began to arrange himself again, completely disinterested in wine trains. 'Now don’t tell Robinton the new wine’s in, F’lar. It has to settle first, you know.'

'And why would I be telling Robinton anything?' F’lar demanded, wondering how Lessa knew that he had only just started to think of the Masterharper himself.

Lessa clarifies that basically, whenever there's a crisis, F'lar immediately calls Robinton and Fanderal. But I prefer my initial interpretation, which is that the fact that Robinton seems to want to bang F'lar is reciprocated, and Lessa apparently finds it amusing.

They're interrupted by T'ron, who is agitated. Lessa notes that T'kul may not have told anyone, since he never forgave T'ron for talking him into coming forward.

Anyway, T'ron is a dick as is customary in this book, but he actually comes bearing something useful. He's found what F'lar "'forgot to incorporate in those so-called infallible timetables'". I would complain that T'ron had actually really appreciated those timetables before. But to be fair, the book actually pointed that out too: the timetables are F'lar's one innovation that everyone actually liked.

We also get confirmation that T'ron didn't know about the Thread falling out of pattern, as his shock and horror are too genuine to be faked. There's more back and forth, while Lessa breaks the tension with klah.

To his credit, T'ron is as relieved as F'lar at the interruption, and seems to be a lot more willing to be reasonable now that he knows about the out of pattern thread. (We're also told that there's a rumor that T'ron and Mardra are not on very good terms for a Weyrwoman and Weyrleader, which makes me sad. They had seemed like such a good team in Dragonflight!)

Lessa is able to work diplomatic wiles on T'ron, and even distract him from his anti-forestry rant. But there's a moment that just makes me very sad: "T’ron snorted with amusement, his eyes wandering over the dainty Weyrwoman in such a way that Lessa leaned forward abruptly and tapped the Record."

I don't know why this makes me sad. I think it's just that he and Mardra had had such a parental vibe toward Lessa before. I'm weirdly more disappointed by this than everything else about T'ron's portrayal.

Oh good, we have a brief moment of F'lar being awful again, when he gets irked at Lessa "implying negligence" by asking T'ron if he found something they missed.

Fuck you, F'lar. She's actually getting fucking results.

Which she does (and F'lar forgives her immediately, fuck you dude, she didn't do anything that you should have to forgive). Basically T'ron had found a skin that is badly preserved that he remembered studying four hundred years before. He's able to provide a partially missing phrase (with "unpredictable shifts").

That one moment aside, it's pretty fun watching F'lar and Lessa maneuver T'ron. They do make a good team. And Lessa has a very good question: why is it deviating NOW, after following the same patterns for seven years.

D'ram and G'narish arrive not long after that, and they finally found out what happened with R'mart. He'd been injured at the Threadfall in Telgar, which was apparently devastating, with many men and dragons wounded.

Lessa immediately goes to help, because she's awesome, and snaps at the Oldtimers that "Help in time of disaster is not interference." You tell him! (G'narish backs her up, which F'lar takes as a good sign.)

Meanwhile, F'lar brings up the idea of a Pern-wide guard, but T'ron shuts him down, accusing him of wanting to lodge dragons in Holds and Crafthalls again. I guess we can infer that F'lar had set that up, but T'ron shut it down. Too bad, because it made a lot of sense.

G'narish is useful though: pointing out that the Holds have more manpower and can supply watchers and means. D'ram is less useful but also seems to be tiring of T'ron's bullshit (though not enough that he can be considered an ally to F'lar, as he's quick to close ranks when it comes to what to do about T'kul.). F'lar gets to point out that the system of signal fires the Lords created to warn of Fax's marches are probably in place and usable.

They also discuss how to bring up the matter to the Lord Holders, and F'lar suggests just telling the Lords that they expected a shift at this time and that he doesn't need to bother with explaining himself to them, which surprises the others. It shouldn't because F'lar is still a manipulative bastard. F'lar, to his credit, is disgusted by his own hypocrisy.

Lessa returns with good news about R'mart, who was out of commission due to injury and some over-medication by his Weyrwoman. She flirts outrageously with G'narish in particular, flattering Gyarmath, and we get another moment of F'lar's emotional disconnect, as he wonders why Ramoth isn't upset, since Gyarmath could never catch her. Mnementh reassures him that neither he, nor Ramoth or Gyarmath mind the flattery.

When left alone, Lessa and F'lar discuss things more. Lessa points out that he's being ridiculous about the timetables, and that of course there could be deviations. She snaps at him and then feels bad about it, and there's a sweet apology moment that I'd enjoy more if we ever saw a reciprocal one. F'lar has been a lot worse to her after all than she has ever been to him. But nope.

Fuck you, F'lar.

We do get a little bit of an explanation for why Benden Weyr is suddenly the Weyr that's most friendly and approachable, after four hundred years of parasitism. Basically, when F'lar and Lessa started their mass innovations, they'd realized how pointless and restrictive some of the traditions were. It's not much of an explanation really, considering how much of that was apparently offscreen during Dragonflight, but it's more than I expected.

Next chapter, Kylara! Brace yourselves.