Another week, another Game of Thrones episode, another meme

[lunasariel]

Nothing much to report this week. Reading is back up at its normal insane level, but at least we're reading some interesting stuff. We finally finished Northanger Abbey, my favorite Jane Austen (although probably not the *best* Jane Austen), and the professor says that, for my final paper, I can do a comparison between NA and Mysteries of Udolpho as long as I run my thesis by her first, so I'm probably going to spend most of this weekend getting that ready. Otherwise, the forecast calls for unseasonably hot weather, which, DO NOT WANT, so I've spent most of today in my lightest skirt (forest-green cotton, looks great on me in addition to being perfect for hot weather) poking around on the Internet. I'm going to try and finish Athyra, the next volume in the Dragaera series that hamsterwoman lent me, and watch the DVD of Northanger Abbey I got from the library, but no promises on either.

In larger news, I can't believe that this is my last real weekend of the semester: next week is the last week of actual classes, next weekend I leave on our annual family vacation down near San Jose, the week after that is Dead Week, the week after *that* is finals, and then I go back to Sebastopol! Maybe it was the workload this semester, but it really feels like I just got here, and all of a sudden I'm nearly done. The ever-thorny question of what to spend my summer doing is now very much on my mind, and...hmm. There's going to be a major family reunion around the 4th of July, and Comic-Con, unusually early this year (blech; it usually overlaps with my birthday, so it looks like I won't be continuing my yearly tradition of getting something signed "Happy Birthday" this year XP), directly after that. This means there's about a week and change where I'll be unavailable, which means no summer school (missing a week's worth of summer school is the rough equivalent of missing three weeks' worth of regular classes), and summer job prospects aren't looking that great, either. TBH, I'd love to spend the summer catching up on my backlog of entertainment (Dragaera! Babylon 5! Doctor Who re-watch! Sense and Sensibility! Mansfield Park! Tolkien yearly read-through! Godzilla! Mistborn!) that's fallen by the wayside this semester and organizing various relatives' libraries like they've asked me to, but I can't quite justify spending my summer for all intents and purposes sitting on my ass. I not-so-secretly dread entering the world of retail, but the library certainly isn't hiring, and making money this summer would be a very, very good thing. Eh, 'tis a puzzlement.



In less RL-related news, as suspected, Pottermore has turned out to be kind of a flash in the pan. I've run through the story, and it turns out that Galleons/Chocolate Frog Cards/potion ingredients don't replenish themselves when you re-visit a scene, so I have a finite amount of resources to last me until Chamber of Secrets comes out, whenever that is. The only things left to do are make potions (again, finite resources) and practice spells/compete in Wizards' Duels, neither of which I find particularly thrilling. It's probably because there was so much buildup but I feel slightly let down by the whole Pottermore experience: I can't name my pet, there's not nearly as much individual choice/story as I'd expected, and I suspect that the Sorting was skewed to ensure even numbers between Houses, as I don't feel much like a Gryffindor.



I've been finding it helpful, when watching a show that I plan on reviewing here, to take notes, as trying to keep everything in my head and then spew it all out at once makes no sense at best, and leaves out crucial bits at worst. Even so, going back over my notes can be kind of hilarious. For example, here are some of the ones I took for this week's episode of Game of Thrones, reproduced here exactly as taken on my iPhone:
- D'aaaaaw Sam (sweetheart mama's boy)
- Yaaaaaaaay Brienne! Wow, she's really really tall
- Yaaaaaaaay Tyrion 3-way trickiness! The beauty of it is, any of the 3 plans would have worked
- Jealous!Loras is the best Loras, even if he does have a stupid perm
- What the ever-loving fresh hell is/was Mags wearing?
- Damphair ahoy!
- Big Freaking Production made of Theon's conversion. CUE DRAMATIC MUSIC!
- Yoren is the best weird dad ever
So this should give you a good idea of what my mental process is like.
A lot of the chatter seems to be that episode 3 is the best of the 4 that reviewers got in advance, and, although I obviously haven't seen episode 4 yet, I'm inclined to agree, mostly because we finally got to check in with Renly and at least two members of Team Sparkly and, although I do have my issues with them, overall, I approve.

With a wider variety of locations to juggle this season, it's inevitable that some get left out every time. This episode, there was a distinct lack of Teams Dany, Robb (unless you count Cat at Renly's camp), and Stannis. This actually led to a mildly jarring moment in the opening credits, where, after doing the usual King's Landing-to-Wall sweep, the camera swings back down to KL, across the Narrow Sea, and into Essos. But this time, when got as far as Vaes Dothrak, it just kind of cut out. Also, there were no markers on the map for Arya and Renly, both of who appeared in the episode. So this was my big complaint this time around, and it's a good episode when my major problem with it is some minor inconsistencies in the title sequence.

The big news, of course, is that we finally get a look at the King in Highgarden (well, technically, the King in Bitterbridge, but you know what I mean) and his crew, and I gotta say, it was a damn fine look! First, let's get the bad stuff out of the way: Margaery's clothes are...weird. They're not so much "these costumes are bad" as "what in the seven hells was the costume designer thinking?!" I mean, her very first outfit consisted of what looked like foam-rubber shoulderpads and a plunging neckline nearly down to her navel, interrupted only by a triangle-shaped series of diamond chains, when everybody else was bundled up in cloaks and, you know, sensible clothes.

Then there was some stuff that I can see why they did it, it just rubs the book purist in me the wrong way. For example, Renly seems to have changed his device from a black stag on gold to a gold stag on green, which kind of defeats the whole point of him consciously projecting the image of a return of Robert in his glory days. But HBO!Renly is quite a different creature from GRRM!Renly, and they haven't mentioned the whole "ghost of Robert" thing yet, so it looks like they're dropping that particular motivation/justification. Eh, I can live with it. I'm not thrilled with it, but I can live with it. Also, the Rainbow Guard has apparently been scrapped for a more conventional Kingsguard, which I can definitely see the reason for. To people who haven't read the books, it would look like some blatantly anachronistic pandering, and even to a self-described Grumpy Fan like me, it was a neat motif/visual flourish, not an essential element of the plot. Finally, and this is just a little note, Bryan Cogman decided to switch the "Loras! Highgarden!" cheering bit from Renly to Margaery, which, lol.

Speaking of Loras, as mentioned above, Jealous!Loras is the best Loras (and yes, he does have rather stupid hair this season). One thing Finn Jones does magnificently is pout, and we got quite a lot of pouting Loras this episode. We didn't get the immortal "stay and help me pray" line this episode (although the writers do seem to be set on establishing "praying" as a euphemism), but we do get an almost-sex-scene, wherein Loras is in a pet after literally getting his ass kicked by Brienne and Renly is in full-on "ohmygods, just shut up and take your pants off" mode. I don't know whether he's better written this season, I've just gotten used to him, or what, but HBO!Renly makes me less actively furious than last season. He seems...not sneakier, per se, but maybe a little smarter, and certainly a lot snarkier and cannier. It helps that, so far, he's mostly called on to be a self-absorbed but genuinely affectionate boyfriend and kind of amusingly alarmed husband so far, I think. He grates on me less, anyway. It helps that he's retained his "king of the people" schtick, which I firmly maintain was adopted due to enlightened self-interest, not warm fluffy feelings towards the smallfolk. So I'm giving this season's HBO!Renly a C+, whereas last season he only merited a D. Yay for improvement!

In terms of things that I actually liked about Team Sparkly and Co., I absolutely, unreservedly, completely adore Brienne and the casting decision made regarding her. We can tell that she believes with her whole heart that Renly isn't just the best king of the bunch, but the best man in all of Westeros, and her desire to serve him comes off as sincere, and thus rather sweet. She had a great conversation with Cat (who, it's been pointed out elsewhere, Brienne makes look like a Hobbit), and I hope the bit about Renly dancing with her way back when doesn't get left out, as I'm now sure that it can be done justice, acting-wise. Margaery was another new appearance that I'm pleased about, although not quite as thrilled as Brienne. I'm glad that Margaery's sharpness and wit came through, and the scene where she confronts an, er, less than eager Renly and nonchalantly offers to A) call Loras in to get him going, or, failing that, B) turn over and pretend to be Loras, was hilarious, especially due to Renly's look of mingled noncomprehension and horror. In fact, this scene reminded me strongly of another scene I've read recently where my favorite character has to admit to being not so much one for the ladies when the issue of being able to impregnate a wife comes up. ;)

If this episode hadn't contained the introduction of Team Sparkly and Co., my favorite part would definitely be Tyrion's simultaneous deceptions of Varys, Littlefinger, and the Grand Maester. It was shot brilliantly, and it made me very aware that Tyrion was putting one over on two of the, if not *the* two, smartest people in Westeros, and got away with it! He and Littlefinger even got to snark and snarl at each other as a result. Pycelle's beard wasn't as Gandalf-like long and thick as I'd imagined it, so it getting cut off was something of an anticlimax, but, hey, for a bad guy getting his comeuppance in Westeros? I'll take what I can get. Oh, yeah, there were also some bits with Tyrion and Shae, but I'm kind of indifferent to Shae for the time being, so these bits were largely forgettable, if inoffensive.

If this episode didn't contain either the introduction of Team Sparkly and Co. or Tyrion's masterful three-way duplicity, my favorite part would be Yoren being, as mentioned above, the best weird dad ever. This is the kind of guy who shows his genuine affection for his charges by kicking them awake in the middle of the night and yelling "OI! THERE'S MEN OUTISDE WHO WANT TO FUCK YOUR CORPSES! OUTSIDE, NOW!" and counsels a traumatized girl by gleefully recounting how he buried an axe so deeply in the head of his brother's murderer that said murderer had to be buried with it. He also gives Arya the idea for her death prayer, which is an interesting and not wholly unwelcome derivation from ASOIAF. He also died in this episode, which made me :( a bit, but just a bit, because he died as he lived: a profanity-screaming badass defending his charges who doesn't let little things like being shot and/or impaled stop him from taking five or six Lannisters with him. The writers seem to have cut out the bit where Arya, Gendry, Hot Pie, and Lommy escape through the forest for a while, and gone straight to Lommy's death and everyone else's capture, which, again, I'm not totally against. No Mountain, though; Ser Amory Lorch was in charge of this particular mess. I'm eager to see how the new Mountain measures up (hee!) against Conan Stevens' portrayal, and yes, I'm still annoyed at the re-casting. I mean, it's not like it's an especially taxing role: the entirety of his dialogue last season consisted of one word and a lot of incoherent yelling, and the only emotion he's really called on to portray is berserker-like rage.

We also checked in with Team Viking, where the issue of the day still seems to be Theon's divided loyalties. He firmly puts himself in the Greyjoy camp, both figuratively and literally, though. He still retains some elements of the amusing haplessness I mentioned last time, when he whinges about Asha being given thirty longships to capture a vital castle, while he's given one to go harass some fishing villages, but on the whole, he seems very much concerned with becoming all Greyjoy and no Stark. I think they made a bit to much of a big deal out of his conversion to/baptism by the Drowned God, with what may or may not have been a Damphair cameo. I mean, nobody addresses the drowned priest by name, and Theon certainly doesn't acknowledge any family ties, but it would make sense for A) a (technical) member of the Greyjoy family and B) the head of the drowned priests to baptize the returning youngest Greyjoy prince. So that's my theory for this episode.

We also got a scene or two with Cersei (who is slowly but surely sliding down the sanity slope), Tommen & Myrcella (still cute, but kind of alarmingly oblivious), Team Winterfell (more excellent direwolf CGI, and some characterization for Maester Luwin, who I still maintain was miscast) and the Night's Watch expedition (where Sam continues to be a sweet, kindhearted, and all-around decent human being and terrible Watchman and Commander Mormont was apparently aware of Craster's sacrificing his sons to the White Walkers, but chose not to do anything about it, and even threatens Jon for trying. WTF, mate?), but the majority of the screentime was taken up with Theon, Tyrion, and various Sparklies, both grown and transplanted.


For this week's meme, have one passed on to me from hamsterwoman:
1. Comment on this post with I VOLUNTEER!
2. I will give you a letter.
3. Think of 5 fictional characters and post their names and your comments on these characters in your LJ/DW.
I got the letter T, and the first five Ts that came to mind are Tharkay, Thomas, Tyrell, Túrin, and Tara.

Tenzing Tharkay (double Ts edge out Temeraire himself, sorry). Surprisingly, not my favorite Temeraire-verse human, mostly because he doesn't have flaws like the others do. Laurence is self-destructively noble, Granby can't control his dragon, Berkeley is kind of a jerk, and even Admiral Jane "Awesomeness Personified" Roland gets impatient with The Powers That Be to her own detriment. Basically, for some reason, I'm just unusually aware that all of Tharkay's problems are imposed on him by an intrinsically racist and classist society. This is weird, because normally I like competent, snarky, badass outcasts too much rather than too little, but he's just a little too perfect for my tastes. In fact, I've been working on something halfway between Thinky Thoughts and a Rant on this topic, which I'm bracketing so that those who don't want to read my decidedly unpopular and possibly over-simplified Tharkay thoughts can skip it. BEGIN BLATHER Ever since finishing CoG, I’ve been thinking a lot about Tharkay, oddly enough. I’m not crazy about him, and I wonder why. It’s not because he’s a general favorite and I just like being contrary/a fandom hipster, and it’s not a shipwar thing where I’m pissed off that Laurence/Tharkay is more popular than Laurence/Granby. So I started a-thinkin’, and it came to mind that Tharkay has no major flaws to *dis*like, which might be a part of it. Upon reflection, I guess the reason I’m not as big a Tharkay fan as the rest of the fandom seems to be is that he’s just too perfect, too overt a Woobie. He’s tragic, but not mopey. He’s snarky, but not mean. He’s rejected by society, but not through anything that would actually make him unsympathetic. He’s good at everything. He’s always right. He has a trained hawk that he cares for. He’s a ninja. He’s probably a spy. He’s woobieishly aware of the fact that nobody likes him, but still saves everybody’s bacon. He has a sympathetic backstory that puts him at a disadvantage, but is still aesthetically pleasing. He’s exotically Asian, but reassuringly English (Scottish?). He has a tragic romance. Basically, he’s the smart, snarky outcast we all secretly imagine ourselves as. Other characters, like his Power Trio compatriots, Laurence and Granby, have actual flaws. Laurence is too honorable for his own good and Granby can’t control his dragon, but Tharkay, as far as the reader is concerned, only suffers from an excess of perfection. END BLATHER Yeah, I don't understand my thoughts on him, either.

Thomas Raith. My hands-down favorite Dresdenverse character. He's got superpowers. He's a secret romantic. He's snarky. He's protective of his loved ones. Sometimes he needs a hug. He's truly unbelievably gorgeous. He executes the Vampire With A Soul trope without making me grit my teeth. He's a badass (does this even need saying?). I really need to re-read Backup, as I only read it once, back when it first came out, and I remember really liking his portrayal there. I tend to like Lancer types the best, and Backup is Lancer!Thomas at his finest: he kicks ass and takes names, but doesn't seek glory for it, and is just kind of amused that his baby brother needs all this help but doesn't even know that he needs it. If we could get some more of Thomas and Harry being affectionately snarky at each other in canon, I'd be one happy fangirl. (Of course, considering how things stand in canon right now, that's hardly likely to happen, but a girl can dream, can't she?)

House Tyrell (yes, the whole house). My feelings about them are actually rather conflicted. I think I would make an awful Tyrell and a pretty decent Stark (too much formality/awkwardness, too little grace, sneakiness, and perception), but, as collections of characters go, on the whole, I like the Tyrells better than the Starks. Starks, even adopted Starks like Cat, can be needlessly harsh, or even cruel, when they think it's necessary, but the Tyrells have this revolutionary idea where they stick together no matter what (their main differences from the Starks), protect each other, and respect each other's differences. Also, they're just a good bunch of people. Westeros would be in much better shape if everyone just gave in to the inevitable and let Varys and Olenna run everything, Willas is the Westerosi Professor X (and may or may not be sleeping with the man who maimed him), Garlan is that rare type whose occasionally terrifying competence in battle gives him the leisure necessary to be a truly nice person without getting killed, Loras is the perfect combination of cocky smug little bastard and starry-eyed romantic, Margaery is shaping up to be a true Tyrell rose: given sunshine she'll bloom and decorate whatever garden she's planted in, but try to uproot her and she'll delight in making you bleed for your efforts, and even Mace and Alerie are just kind of inoffensive background characters.

Túrin Turambar (yay, another double T!). Every time I read/say/hear his name, I inevitably follow it in my head by "master of doom, by doom you are mastered!" in as dramatic a voice as possible. My strongest feelings regarding him came up in a meme a while back, where I had enormous fun putting his notoriously bad luck to use. So while I consider his situation tragic, I won't be shedding any tears over him, as his misfortunes just keep piling up until they come out the other side and become funny as hell.

Tara Maclay. I just finished season six on my re-watch, and while I didn't blubber at Tara's death like I used to, I still sniffled a bit. I've formed a theory where Joss Whedon only allows one functional, happy couple at a time per show, and Tara and Willow were a great example of this: they were stable when Buffy was breaking up with Riley or Xander was leaving Anya at the altar, but broke up when Buffy started to come to terms with her relationship with Spike and Anya and Xander became something approaching amiable exes, but literally the minute everyone else gets their life sorted out to some kind of satisfaction, Tara gets killed, and then everything quasi-literally goes to hell in a handbasket.

Honorable mentions/runners up: Teddy Altman, Théoden, Tulkas, Tommy Shepherd, Tilney, Tom Riley, Tom Pullings, Temeraire (as mentioned), Tenth Doctor, Toshiko Sato, Rose Tyler, Thomas Barrow, Lady Teldra, Tamír/Tobin, Thero, Thom, Thayet, Thor (Avengers-verse), Thorin, Turgon, Thingol Greycloak.

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

We're actually enjoying the sun around here, but I'm sure it's a lot hotter in Berkeley -- we do have an ocean breeze to keep things cooler here.

How are you liking Athyra so far? I think it's the last of the sort of less-fun Vlad books in the middle of the series (Teckla and Phoenix being the others), and Orca and Dragon are back to being fun and Issola is just plain epic. I guess Jhegaala is back to being less-fun, and, probably not coincidentally, also jumps back along the continuity to take place between Phoenix and Athyra -- it just wasn't a very fun time for Vlad.

I can hardly believe your semester is almost over, too! I feel like you just came back from winter break. Since it sounds like you won't be around the Bay Area in the summer, I'm hoping we can have another meet-up before your end of school (though, of course, if you're too busy with finals and packing, that's totally understandable, too).

I'm bummed by the inability to name your pet in Pottermore, too (and don't really understand why it's not a feature -- seems like that would be really simple to add).

Pycelle's beard wasn't as Gandalf-like long and thick as I'd imagined it, so it getting cut off was something of an anticlimax,

Still haven't watched any of S2, but agreed on Pycelle's beard in general, and the resulting anti-climax-ness.

Interesting thoughts on Tharkay. I do like him a lot, and he was my favorite human in the earlier books, though I think Jane has eclipsed him in this role and Emily is following the same trajectory (and also, he hasn't really been around much since VoE). I can't really argue with the lack of flaws. I mean, he is secretive and aloof, but he has good reason to be, so I don't know that it really counts as a flaw.

Very much agreed on your thoughts on Thomas, and, of course, I never get tired of your thoughts on Tyrells :) Also, heh, lots of Tolkien-verse T-characters, aren't there!

[lunasariel.livejournal.com]

How are you liking Athyra so far?
As usual with Vlad, I flailed around for a little while trying to get my bearings, but once I got my feet under me, I started really enjoying it. I'm only on chapter 4, so we've only got Savn's narration to go by. Savn's voice is much different from Vlad's, and certainly less snarky and fun, but not disagreeable per se. That said, though, I can't wait to get back to a certain first-person smartass. I had to wiki Loraan, whose name I'd forgotten since Taltos, but it looks like Brust is setting up a confrontation with him, which should be interesting, mostly because I'm really interested in how necromancy works in the Dragaera-verse, and I'd love someone to compare Sethra's brand of undead-ness to.
One question though: I assume that Vlad lost a finger somewhere between Phoenix and here? Savn mentions him missing one, but nobody has before, so I assume something happened in the intervening year(s?), but it's entirely possible it's just one of those things that I missed for a long time (it took me until, like, Teckla to realize that Vlad had a mustache, for example XD).

I'm hoping we can have another meet-up before your end of school
That would be amazing! The week or weekend after next would be best for me, as it's a week between the end of regular classes and finals where school is still technically in session, but there are no classes (one of the aspects of Berkeley's schedule that makes sense in theory, but kind of mystifies me in practice). I should definitely have the Book of Athyra omnibus done by then, and possibly s2 of Babylon 5, if I'm lucky.

I mean, he is secretive and aloof, but he has good reason to be, so I don't know that it really counts as a flaw.
Exactly! To me, Tharkay comes down barely on the wrong side of the Good Flaws/Bad Flaws divide. People like Laurence, Granby, etc. have moments where you mentally headdesk and think "goddammit, [insert name here]!", which, for some perverse reason, I've come to like in the Temeraire-verse. I have no idea why Jane's flawlessness, which is actually quite similar, doesn't bother me, but...*shrug*. I've given up trying to sort out my Tharkay-related feelings.

Also, heh, lots of Tolkien-verse T-characters, aren't there!
There really are! I never noticed how many until I started doing this meme, but then there was an O.o moment. I didn't even bother to add in minor characters like the Tooks, Théodred, or Thorondor. I'm looking through the index of RotK right now, and I actually missed quite a few! So apologies to Treebeard, Thranduil, Tar-Minyatur, Luthien Tinúviel, and Tom Bombadil. Tolkien really did love his Ts, I guess.

[hamsterwoman]

All of Athyra is told from Savn's POV, which is one reason lots of fans don't care for it as much as the other books. (There's also the interesting question of how Savn's story ended up being narrated, since all of the other Dragaera books have a very clear narrator, whether he is part of the action or not, and Athyra appears to be in tight third person.

I assume that Vlad lost a finger somewhere between Phoenix and here?

Yep. We do eventually get to see how, but not before Vlad tells a lot of conflicting stories about how it happened -- Brust having fun with unreliable narration again :)

The week or weekend after next would be best for me

I think this ought to work for me as well. I should be home Friday, the 4th, so we can aim for then? (And I can give you s5 of B5, the next Vlad omnibus, and get you started off on Vorkosiverse and the Dragaera prequels :)

[lunasariel.livejournal.com]

All of Athyra is told from Savn's POV, which is one reason lots of fans don't care for it as much as the other books.
Athyra turns out to be another one of those books that I swallow in one or two huge gulps (write-up on its way), and, long story short, I actually rather liked some of the things Brust did with seeing Vlad from the outside, but Savn's weird passivity and lack of agency in his own decisions eventually really started to grate on me.

not before Vlad tells a lot of conflicting stories about how it happened -- Brust having fun with unreliable narration again :)
I've already gotten two different versions, and it seems that Vlad is having just as much fun with it as Brust is, lol.

I should be home Friday, the 4th, so we can aim for then?
Sounds good. And, yay, more fantasy/sci-fi goodness! This should tide me over for a while. XD

[hamsterwoman]

Looking forward to reading your thoughts on Athyra!

I also liked seeing Vlad from an outside perspective after so many books of living in his head (Athyra was actually one of the last Vlad books I read, having skipped over it and Orca because the library didn't have them and I wasn't eager to read a non-Vlad narrated book until the full-blown Dragaera obsession hit last year).

I think Savn's passivity and lack of agency are intentional, and also meant to be uncomfortable -- it was actually the thing that made me see both the impetus and the futility of attempting to "liberate" the Teckla as Kelly's revolutionaries are trying to do, along with the Easterner rights thing. (And reminded me uncomfortably of SPEW; it's not that Teckla are House-Elves, but you know what I mean, right?). I think there's also an intereting, like, house theme subversion thing going on with having someone other than Vlad narrate this book rather than any other, although it wasn't until I read a bunch of mailing list meta that I started seeing that. But it's one of those choices where, even if I see what Brust is doing and respect it, that doesn't make it fun to read, and ultimately how much I like a particular Vlad book is utterly dependent on how fun it is to read.

I've already gotten two different versions

Heh. Does he actually give two different versions in Athyra, or was the second one in Orca?

And, yay, more fantasy/sci-fi goodness! This should tide me over for a while. XD

:D (Although please feel free to tell me to stop hijacking your reading / watching list any time :)

[lunasariel.livejournal.com]

it was actually the thing that made me see both the impetus and the futility of attempting to "liberate" the Teckla as Kelly's revolutionaries are trying to do
Interesting, I hadn't thought about it that way. It makes sense that he would do it this way; it definitely ties into the whole Athyra theme of introspection and philosophy. But like you, I'm in this for the swashbuckling, cool magic, and unusually close friendships, so this tone doesn't do anything for me, aside from maybe kind of annoy me.

Does he actually give two different versions in Athyra, or was the second one in Orca?
Nope, one each. In Athyra, he said he blocked a sword with his hand, but in Orca, he just said "a very heavy weight." Sounds like he's having fun with it!

Although please feel free to tell me to stop hijacking your reading / watching list any time
Will do! Promise, this isn't even close to too much. ;)

[hamsterwoman]

Yeah, it's that thing where I respect Brust as an author for not just sticking to a formula for the Vlad books, and I think it makes the series more interesting as a work of, you know, literature, 'cos genre can be literature too. But, personally, I would love these books just as much, I think, if they stuck to a formula provided that formula was Taltos ;) But I dunno, maybe I wouldn't be as obsessed with the series if there wasn't all this underlying cool thematic/evolving stuff and I just don't realize it.

Hope you're enjoying the tone of Orca more than Athyra -- I definitely think it's one of the fun ones, and it was really nice to get back to Vlad's narration, even if narrator duties are shared with Kiera.

Promise, this isn't even close to too much. ;)

Oh good! :)