Dragaera

Firefly (was "Re: Smothers Brothers")

Wed Feb 12 20:42:05 PST 2003

On Wed, Feb 12, 2003 at 05:43:03PM -0800, David Silberstein wrote:

> Inara is probably an Issola, but I suspect her of secretly being a
> Yendi (that is, I have a notion that her real agenda is espionage). 

Seems an odd place for it.  Unless you mean her contacts as she travels.

> Book is... hm.  Dunno.  Maybe Yendi; I suspect *him* of having a
> secret agenda as well.

Certainly secrets.  "That's no Shepherd."

> Simon & River are Hawks, or maybe Athyra.

River seemed to be turning into an athyra. :)  I think Simon's too proper to
be a Hawk.  Lyornish, maybe.  Except Lyorns don't commit crimes.

> Mal, I suppose, is a Jhereg.  Or an Orca.

Nope, way too honorable and loyal to his people for a genuine Orca.  Remember
Vlad commenting on Kragar's un-Jhereg behavior?  Probably another Dragon,
except he (and Zoe) are willing to be sneakier than I suspect a Dragon would.
Although I guess we shouldn't be too picky.  His love of fights and weakness
for the underdog has aspects of the Dzur, actually, even if he has an
un-Dzurlike tendency to run away.  A _smart_ Dzur. :)

Hmm, Vlad does discover Dragons are quite capable of being subtle and sneaky
in their campaigns.  Just won't break their honor.

Actually, I think that's a lesson of the later Vlad books -- the Houses mean
something, but it's possible to read too much into them.  Everyone thinks of
the Yendi as the sneaky ones, and they do seem to go for a particular brand of
sneakiness.  But Orca can do it in finance, Jhereg lie all the time, Dragons
sneak in campaigns, Issola, well, "strike from courtly bow".  Grita's father
was plotting a lot, and I forget his house, probably Tsalmoth, but the
important part was that it wasn't one of these.  The Phoenix Illistra plotted.
Lying is universal, except maybe for Lyorn or Dzur.

-xx- Damien X-)