Random thoughts

So, to build off of a post from Blackboard, I think Gran’ma Ben has some unexplained actions that go along with Thorn’s sudden transformation.

But I suppose I should back up for a minute. The argument was that Thorn’s character goes from being confused/helpless/lost/despairing about her destiny to domineering/take-charge/badass leader in about 3 seconds. Page 596-601 is where we see this “new” Thorn. And from then on, she seems to have no difficulty accepting her role as a veni-yan-cari or adapting to her new powers, etc. I definitely agree with this; either 1) the author left out some important backstory/information about what the “turning” is all about (perhaps an attribute of becoming a veni-yan-cari is that you conform to your new self this quickly?), or 2) the text is already so huge that in order to advance the plot in a timely fashion, the reader has to take a few things like this for granted.

Okay, so I was thinking about all of this while glancing back through the story, and I noticed that something similar also happens with Gran’ma Ben – She also seems to quickly accept Thorn’s status as a leader at this point. For example, when the group is walking through the ash fields/ghost circles, Gran’ma Ben doesn’t hesitate to let Thorn lead them – now, obviously, Thorn can see the ghost circles when no one else can, and so on the surface, this doesn’t seem strange. But Gran’ma has been trying to protect Thorn for her entire life – why doesn’t she express concern about this? And she is also quick to give the sword over to Thorn even earlier than this. It just seemed strange to me that someone who takes as much pride in her own independence and strength seems so willing to hand this kind of a position of leadership to her granddaughter without feeling some sort of resentment.

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And on a completely different topic…

Another discussion on Blackboard was Phoeny’s character. I can’t stand him! But I don't know if I dislike him or the fact that he was written this way more. The thing about this kind of character is that they're supposed to learn something in the end - even if they go back to their old ways, they're supposed to have a new angle on it, to know that what they're doing is wrong, to have an appreciation for the goals they're trying to achieve but re-think the way they go about it. Phoney doesn't. The last we see of him, he's just the same as the beginning. There were several times when he'd almost get to the turning point (like right before he passes out when he's walking with Wendell and Euclid and he's awed at Lucius's selflessness on page 754, or toward the end [sorry, can't find the page] when he tires to run away because he thinks he's the one they want). But then he just goes right back to being obnoxiously greedy and self-centered. I guess I can't say that Smith was totally off to have used a character this way - I suppose there are those few people out there who will never change, even after going through something as epic as this...but it just seems very unlikely to me.