[Dragaera] Dragons and The Worm Ouroboros

[Philip Hart]

On Mon, 13 Sep 2010, Jerry Friedman wrote:

> From: Philip Hart philiph at slac.stanford.edu
>
>> Serious spoilers for The Worm Ouroboros.
>>
>>
>> Eddison spoilers follow...
>>
>>
>> Turn back now, unless you don't care.
>>
>>
>> So I just read The Worm Ouroboros,
> ...
>
>> The good guys utterly defeat the (in part very) bad guys after a long and
>> costly war in which fleets and armies and uncounted civilians are destroyed; and
>>> their reaction is to sink into depression, because there are no more worthy
>> opponents.  When it's suggested that they rule over an age of peace and
>> prosperity for the whole world, their response is that they would rather risk
>> their nation's existence again than give up knightly warfare.  As I read this I
>> realized that these people, a couple of whom are not just heroic but pretty
>> funny and capable of deep feeling, are basically just psychopaths.  The book
>> ends with the gods granting their prayer that the bad guys be resurrected and
>> rearmed.
>
>> Anyway, I wonder if I'll ever have cause to feel this way about Morrolan and
>> Co.
>
> You don't feel they're psychopaths?  But they're not *just* psychopaths, any
> more than Eddison's characters are.

I think the Demons are pretty different from what we've seen of the 
Dragons.  When Adron is presented an honorable peace treaty with the 
Easterners, he's pleased.  If Sethra or Aliera could permanently banish 
the J, they would do it in a flash.  If M uses Blackwand as a Morganti 
blade when slaughtering Teckla and Easterners, then ok, I can't defend him 
(unless Verra tells him to, in which case things are a bit more complex); 
but what else is there to hold against him beyond his enjoyment of what 
comes down to being ultimately harmless god-sponsored entertainment for 
consenting adults?  (Or are some of the foot soldiers in _Dragon_ 
conscripts?)  I can't see Lord Juss buying a bakery to distribute bread 
to the rabble.

> I must admit I hadn't connected the two sets of psychopaths, though.  
> That's interesting.  (Next, "Rogue Moon"?)

Lord Brandoch Daha might be a bit of a model for M as he appears in 
_Taltos_.