[spoilers for Issola & Phoenix] On Mon, 31 Mar 2003, Philip Hart wrote: >Following David Silberstein's recent announcement of an instance where >Sethra sees Vlad reacting to something Loiosh says, I've been looking >haphazardly for an instance where a GW wielder shows the same behavior. >I may have found one: in Issola, pg. 191, S. is looking at V.'s wounded >arm and they are bantering in a macho way. V. says with faux >off-handedness, "Nice wine", and S "smiled as if sharing a joke with >herself..." On the other hand I can't think why Iceflame would care about >wine - maybe S harvests grapes with it. Remember, we have no idea what the context is to these inner conversations; it may have had nothing to do with wine at all. If Iceflame is as snarky as Loiosh, maybe he/she said something like "Well. The Easterner is learning some manners. Maybe I *won't* eat his soul." Assuming that's even what she was smiling about. > >On page 90, Morrolan asks V if he had "ever been held captive by >someone other than the Empire". Apparently he forgot his involvement >in the events of _Phoenix_ not long before. This bugs me. > Weak defense: Morrolan may have meant "other than by Humans" (that is, Dragaerans). Greenaerans are of the same species as Dragaerans, for all that they are not part of the Empire. Hmm. That is pretty weak. OK, let's see if I can do a little better, given that I am away from books: Vlad never told Morrolan that he was held prisoner by the Greenaerans. He was pretty close-mouthed about the whole affair, as I recall. As long as I'm talking about Phoenix, here's some thoughts: those events that he partook in are why Vlad was so pissy when he met Verra again in "Issola". I think that in "Phoenix", when Vlad accepts the commission, he had some vague notion that since his Goddess wanted this assassination, it was somehow for the greater good of all. For all his vaunted cynicism, I think there were *some* things he thought of idealistically. The revelation that it was (a) a murder of an innocent man who happens to be the ruler, and appears to have been loved, or at least liked, by his people (b) part of a deliberate & callous provocation towards war, (c) in fact aimed at screwing with his people, Easterners of South Adrilankha, and (d) didn't even *work* because the result she predicted didn't happen ... all came as several nasty shocks. So Vlad was pissed off at himself for being her pawn, and pissed off at Verra for being so damn manipulative, and so he very nearly got himself into trouble when he met up with her again in her place of power, and he let some of that anger out. Of course, poor Lady Teldra had no idea why Vlad was being so rude, but I think her forgiving attitude -- especially when she says that Vlad "always" acts appropriately -- says quite a bit about her, although I am still not sure if it's because she likes Vlad (along with everyone else), or was a little bit in love with him even then.