On Mon, 4 Aug 2003, David Silberstein wrote: > On Mon, 4 Aug 2003, Philip Hart wrote: > >I don't in retrospect understand how T could bother with one wimpy > >Hawklord. ... > ... No doubt her teacher(s) had impressed upon her that as a Dzur, she > must always be aware how much better she was than the other Houses at > fighting, but I can easily see her forgetting this in the excitement > of her first true fight for her honor, which had, after all, been > grievously insulted. I don't see her as very excited. Furthermore, if this is her first fight, I would imagine she's thought about it as much as an old-fashioned woman her first wedding and wouldn't allow the Hawklord caterer to, uhh. Well, you get my point. > However, she easily defeated her opponent, and I suspect that as she > pondered Here I get stuck on explanation #1. > The second time, though, she had a specific goal in not merely winning, > but in addition, she wished to strongly impress the handsome young > Hawklord who had happened to catch her eye. Naturally, she wished to > increase the odds against her so that her eventual success would be > all the more impressive, so she suggested to her opponent that he > gather some of his friends to help oppose her, no doubt casting > amorous glances at her paramour all the while. While I would agree re the glances, as it happens she didn't even manage to draw her sword in this instance, using a flashstone instead (whether this is acceptable in the Dzur code I don't care to speculate). Also, it's my feeling that this is simply her m.o. and indeed the standard Dzur m.o., which they presumably imbibe with their tiger milk. > The third explanation is one I believe you have heard me make before, > which is to say, to keep in mind that all this is coming third or > fourth hand from a narrator who does not so much apologize for his > lack of complete accuracy, indeed, for his total unreliability, but > rather, he unabashadly revels in it. History, indeed! Yeah, see my later post for a biased-Paarfi take on this particular point. Care to join the Sethra&Aliera-framed-Mario camp?