[Dragaera] Vlad's passivity

[Alexx Kay]

I'm rereading Jhereg now, and was struck by a resonance in the first
chapter.  Kragar discusses briefly with Vlad the notion that he (Vlad)
isn't expanding to meet his potential, and Vlad responds with "No. If and
when something comes up, we'll deal with it. In the meantime, I have no
intention of hunting for dragons."  Of course, something immediately comes
up, derailing the conversation.  But it occurs to me that that quote is
emblematic of Vlad's entire life.  He is almost completely *reactive*, and
practically never initiates anything.  Out of the major plots of the
books, only two are even arguably started by Vlad: In _Jhegaala_, he
decides to investigate his mother -- but _Dzur_ suggests that he does so
only due to being prompted by a dream from Verra.  In _Orca_, he actively
seeks out professional help for Savn -- after a full year of, apparently,
just hoping he would get better by himself, but taking no positive actions
to make that come about.

Even in the less plot-oriented aspects of his life, Vlad is never the
active party.  His grandfather decides that he needs to get a familiar. 
(Digression: why did Vlad end up with a jhereg familiar, anyways? Is this
an actual choice he made?)  Kiera proactively trains him, then recommends
him for a job in the Organization.  Kragar gets assigned to him.  His boss
decides he's ready to do 'work'.  Cawti proposes to him.  As far as we can
see, he only expands his territory as a response to external threats. 
Well, I guess he did make the original choice to *take* territory from
Tagichatn.  But even that was in response to a growing sense of annoyance
with "god-boss".

If Vlad ever makes a positive decision about something he wants (or wants
to become), and actively pursues it, I expect he has the wherewithal to
accomplish such goals.  But, so far, he seems entirely lacking in such
motivation.

Alexx

"There are things that are so serious that you can
 only joke about them."      -- Heisenberg