On Sun, 9 Nov 2003, David Silberstein wrote: > On Sun, 9 Nov 2003, Mark Englehart wrote: > > >At 10:55 PM 11/9/2003 -0500, Jag wrote: >>> Vlad on the other hand has been taught to be loyal to Verra by his >>> grandfather, thus giving her a measure of control over [him]. >>>Jag > >Excuse me? Verra control Vlad? Admittedly, so far whenever she's > >needed him he's answered the call, but this was because he felt his > >life was threatened (Phoenix) or the world was going to be destroyed > >and his friends lives were threatened (Issola). > > More to the point, I think Vlad has lost nearly *all* of the respect > he once had for the Demon Goddess of his ancestors after seeing her > being utterly fallible, in /Phoenix/. > And in /Issola/, at one point he thinks she's fighting like a tag in a > brothel. If that's respect, I wouldn't want to see what his contempt > looks like... Otoh, it's a bit odd for Vlad to body-block a death ray aimed at a nearly-respectless tag. In my opinion, Vlad acts more like a late preteen (or an early teenager, or - well, can't remember or don't know any developmental psych) towards tDG in _Issola_ than an adult, veering between attention-seeking and adulation and disappointment and disdain. For the record, Veera is pretty ostentatiously fallible for an interventionist god. Also: the Jenoine seem to bring out the worst in people (well, except Lady Teldra.) > >Dolivar was, apparently, a rat bastard. Do we have any solid evidence for this? Kieron didn't like him, but it sounds as if Sethra had a soft spot for him.