[Dragaera] A passing comment of Sethra's

[Davdi Silverrock]

On 7/12/07, Scott Crain  wrote:
>
> Vlad did NOT react as a Jhereg would be expected to act;
> he reacted almost as a Dragon would,

I think not.  Well, not unless Dragons are sufficiently diverse to act
like Easterners.

> Kragar, if he'd even gone there, would have eyed the dead
> guy, then Sethra Lavode, and said, "Okay, what've you got in mind?"

Eh?  Kragar *is* a Dragon; Vlad has even remarked on him behaving like one.

> The typical scene for the Dzur hero riding up the Mountain to
> destroy the Sorceress is, apparently, 'Sethra standing in the
> open to meet the Dzur hero riding up to destroy her, Iceflame
> alive in her hand...'

You're generalizing from one example, here.  Which probably goes
without saying; nevertheless, I am in point of fact saying it.

Hm.  It's also a partial example.  I note that "destroy" is absent in
the original text.  While the context suggests that an aggressive
purpose is inferred by Sethra, the outcome is not described.

Perhaps the Dzur hero was simply coming to borrow a cup of sugar.  Or
he was just wanting a little conversation.

>
> As for provoking Aliera on the one hand and virtually belittling
> Morrolan on the other:
>
> Aliera was asking for it, was getting pugnacious, and damn near
> shoved herself in Sethra's face.  While Sethra may have given her
> the verbal equivalent of a pat on the head and then on the bottom
> and saying 'that's nice, dear, go play in the kiddie pool',

This is completely and utterly wrong.

In their first encounter, Sethra very nearly accused Aliera of
tampering with the evidence from a murder.   Not condescending, but
rather impugning her honor.

Come to think of it, that's what she did later as well: described
Aliera as flirting with Jurabin (then refused to divulge her source
for that rumor).  In that case, Aliera had not gotten "pugnacious"
first, nor shoved herself into Sethra's face.

>it's just about what any adult would do to a precocious, flouncy
> 'too beautiful for words' Paris Hilton or Britney Spears, who shows
> every public sign of not having the brains the Lords of Judgement
> gave a norska.

I object to this characterization.  Granted that Aliera is often
arrogant, bad-tempered, cruel, has a somewhat overblown sense of
entitlement, and is both beautiful and precocious in more ways than
one - she never flounces, and the context in which she meets Sethra is
the rather intellectual one of sorcerous forensics, demonstrating that
while her intelligence may not be fully matured, she is not by any
means stupid.

PS:  The Lord of Judgment do not claim to have given brains to anyone,
and certainly not to norska.  Now, if you'd said, "the brains that the
Jenoine gave a jhereg", well, perhaps I would not have grounds to
quibble.

> Morrolan did virtually the same thing -- charged up Dzur Mountain
> and demanded his proper tribute, at which point Sethra turned
> her head away from the Very Important Project she was working
> on and said, "Go away, kid, y' bother me..."

Which contradicts your earlier claim that Sethra treats him as an
equal.  Especially since, strictly speaking, she is in fact his vassal
- not his lord.

>
> Otherwise, she's generally shown courtesy according to
> the traditions of the House of the person she's dealing with.

Eh.  She's shown that she understands the House of the person she's
dealing with and communicates in a manner which gets her what she
wants. Sometimes what she wants is to be considerate.  Sometimes what
she wants is to provoke.