But given that this was the book about Nita and Kit navigating their relationship and defining what being a boyfriend/girlfriend meant to them, including sex, it felt like not a lot of navigation was done, or definitions.
Right! Like in Lifeboats they hug a lot, they cuddle and hold hands and wrap arms around each others' waists and lean heads on shoulders, and to an extent it almost feels like that action was stepped *back* in GWP. A chronology thing again, I guess, but yeah.
given that DD's stated reason for not including LGBT characters in the past was because she didn't want it to be tokenism ... that is exactly what we got.
Yes. It felt pasted on to me, too. And, like, you know, I'm glad she wanted it in there enough to paste it on! But it could have been more organic. Matt could just have mentioned a boyfriend - in this book or in Wizards at War - and there's not even really a need for Nita to react to it, just like, oh, OK. She doesn't need to have a conversation with him about assuming his heterosexuality! That's weird! Of course she doesn't know until she's told, how else are you supposed to know?
I suspect you're right about Mehrnaz's family originally being non-wizardly. Because THIS:
The time spent on Lissa's Special One talk really could have gone to resolving this as honestly it was more important. Because how can you be a wizard if you are not at heart a good person?
We've seen the Lone Power overshadowing people and we've seen wizards who are, basically, a bit of a dick, but I agree with you: it would have been worth more time to me to see exactly how these wizards became so corrupted that this is going on in their family and, at the very minimum, nobody noticed. (I mean, the Powers did, and they got Dairine involved. I can handwave some of what happens in this book as Mehrnaz' family running the wizardly power structures to the extent that stuff that would have been passed up to Advisories and Senior wizards and ultimately to Irina just stopped and went nowhere, and so Irina really wasn't aware of what was happening, even when she spoke to Dairine - but I really would have preferred that explicit, especially because Mehrnaz is evidently not the only person who has experienced this kind of abuse in that family.)
YW fic fest? Tell me more!
I'm hoping that Lifeboats is a return to form - it's a better story than GWP, it allows Kit to actually be the intelligent, clever, awesome character he is meant to be, and demonstrating why he is Nita's equal, rather than her sidekick. Also Kit with the sibik was adorable and I will fight anyone who thinks it wasn't necessary.
I am also hoping that - that GWP was an intermediate book that she struggled with, and that ultimately she can get back on track. And 100%, I loved Lifeboats as a Kit story, it was terrific. And I liked the idea of her doing stuff that is tonally different as little side stories!
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Date: 2016-02-04 04:23 am (UTC)Right! Like in Lifeboats they hug a lot, they cuddle and hold hands and wrap arms around each others' waists and lean heads on shoulders, and to an extent it almost feels like that action was stepped *back* in GWP. A chronology thing again, I guess, but yeah.
given that DD's stated reason for not including LGBT characters in the past was because she didn't want it to be tokenism ... that is exactly what we got.
Yes. It felt pasted on to me, too. And, like, you know, I'm glad she wanted it in there enough to paste it on! But it could have been more organic. Matt could just have mentioned a boyfriend - in this book or in Wizards at War - and there's not even really a need for Nita to react to it, just like, oh, OK. She doesn't need to have a conversation with him about assuming his heterosexuality! That's weird! Of course she doesn't know until she's told, how else are you supposed to know?
I suspect you're right about Mehrnaz's family originally being non-wizardly. Because THIS:
The time spent on Lissa's Special One talk really could have gone to resolving this as honestly it was more important. Because how can you be a wizard if you are not at heart a good person?
We've seen the Lone Power overshadowing people and we've seen wizards who are, basically, a bit of a dick, but I agree with you: it would have been worth more time to me to see exactly how these wizards became so corrupted that this is going on in their family and, at the very minimum, nobody noticed. (I mean, the Powers did, and they got Dairine involved. I can handwave some of what happens in this book as Mehrnaz' family running the wizardly power structures to the extent that stuff that would have been passed up to Advisories and Senior wizards and ultimately to Irina just stopped and went nowhere, and so Irina really wasn't aware of what was happening, even when she spoke to Dairine - but I really would have preferred that explicit, especially because Mehrnaz is evidently not the only person who has experienced this kind of abuse in that family.)
YW fic fest? Tell me more!
I'm hoping that Lifeboats is a return to form - it's a better story than GWP, it allows Kit to actually be the intelligent, clever, awesome character he is meant to be, and demonstrating why he is Nita's equal, rather than her sidekick. Also Kit with the sibik was adorable and I will fight anyone who thinks it wasn't necessary.
I am also hoping that - that GWP was an intermediate book that she struggled with, and that ultimately she can get back on track. And 100%, I loved Lifeboats as a Kit story, it was terrific. And I liked the idea of her doing stuff that is tonally different as little side stories!