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Post by flowsthead on Apr 16, 2021 21:37:51 GMT
Oh boy. Not that Annie hasn't acted spoiled before, she absolutely has, but what does Idra know about it? That feels...weird to me. It feels like she makes a lot of quick judgements based on little evidence. "All the attention of the Court and Coyote" makes it sound like Annie had a happy fun time with everyone fawning over her. Even if we take as given that Annie is spoiled (although really, compared to who?), I don't think Idra's perspective is justified. She absolutely knows that Annie has been the forest medium, after nearly being the court medium, after hanging out with a literal God, her dragon slayer boyfriend talking about her, etc... and we do not know just how much more evidence Indra has. We know that there have been conversations off panel, and there has been the passage of time. And even just the basics of "hangs around with nigh-godlike beings of the forest and we ended up hosting her", that is already grounds to consider someone having been potentially "spoilt" in some metrics. That does NOT mean that her entire life was sunshine and rainbows. The word is loaded, and often used to an extreme, but you can be spoiled in specific subsets. Such as getting used to not needing to care about schoolwork. That is not a positive thing. And I know that the readers perspective is different, but...from Idras perspective, it is not an unreasonable thing to say. It is a vague statement with clearly known and obvious causes, so I don't hold it against her that she's unexpectedly accurate for having so little obviously shown knowledge. "So she got a bit spoilt and rowdy for a bit" is pretty solidly what she did, with the "ha ha, they can't stop me" phase. It isn't even really a judgement of anyone. This feels very much like Red dressing Annie down for endangering her friends when literally everyone involved knew how dangerous Jeanne was and volunteered. Fairly unjustified an out of left field. Almost like Tom is trying to lead the reader somewhere specific and not organically. Yes, they knew how dangerous Jeanne was. And Antimony knows how important names are for the fairies, so using that to lead Reds friend into a nearly deadly encounter was, and is, kinda a dick move and it was always justified that Red would be upset about it. It is in fact, extremely normal. It just isn't a traditional narrative convention, because stories generally tacitly accept that everyones friends will randomly risk their lives for each other, or out of general obligations like making a ghost feel upset, or setting you up with your boyfriend. I'd agree that the story is leading somewhere that some people don't want it to go. Is Tony a flawed human being who has made terrible mistakes? Yep. Is he still her dad? Yep. Do some characters and readers think he should be cut out of her life? Yeah. Is it their call? No. Should annie make that call? Is annie a flawed human being who has made terrible mistakes? Do you think it would make sense for annie to decide she'd rather be an orphan? Because I think it's more that it would feel narratively satisfying. In a "bad guy gets destroyed" kind of way. Idra feels a bit too much like a soapbox or a mouthpiece here. She's presenting incredibly strong opinions for someone who....literally doesn't know Tony, has no investment in Antimony or Tony, or any business inside their lives regarding events she wasn't even there for. Idra is presenting views, not specific to knowing Tony, but of "parents are still important". That's a common and broad perspective, so seems pretty simple why she'd have it as a default starting stance, even without the note that she's used to growing up in big family groups. And that the other characters(and certain readers) basically swapped between "It sucks that he wasn't around, he should be" and "he shouldn't be around" is pretty surface level easy to question, I'm glad she did. That she has no direct investment is probably exactly WHY she can make some simple and straightforward comments, though.. I guess I'm coming from the standpoint that making those kinds of judgements about people you don't know isn't really good behavior. Sure, Idra has an outsider perspective, but she isn't being told that Annie is spoiled and then replying that "Annie sounds spoiled" she's making a statement that at least one other person there (Anja) has disagreed with. It's judgmental. I wouldn't want Idra as a friend or a partner. And the tone is not one of figuring this out from this moment, but of having already decided long ago that Annie was spoiled and looking for justifications in the things Eglamore is saying. That's not exactly a healthy attitude towards someone you don't know. And by the way, while Annie certainly was a dick for the way she involved Ayilu and Red, I just want to remind everyone (again) that it was Parley that didn't want to involve Jones. www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=782 People lay the Jeanne situation on Annie like she masterminded the whole thing and pressured her friends into going this solo, but that's not what happened. |
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Post by drmemory on Apr 17, 2021 2:29:51 GMT
I think Jimmy Jims may have bit off more than he can chew with Idra. I'm not sure of this, but I've been sort of assuming that she's around his age. That is, a grown adult, with some sort of job/career and certainly with her own experience and strongly held beliefs.
Tom gave us his usual lines around the eyes hint as to her age, but I was thinking that anyway based on her behavior. She is very self-possessed and not afraid to express her opinions. If you look back at when we met her, she was the one that figured out that she was fighting Parley (well Cvet did, but Parley didn't get it right away) and act on it. She was also mature about being beat up, and prepared (resigned even) to being locked up once she was found.
No deep point here, just thought it was interesting that James went from not dating anyone (that we know of) since Surma to an age-appropriate, strong-willed woman with her own baggage. I wonder if he's really ready for this?
I'm a bit curious about what family was being referred to here. Little brothers and sisters? Do we really know for sure she is single?  I went back through Annie in the Forest and didn't see Idra anywhere, but that means nothing really. I was mainly curious whether she was shown in the square when Annie showed up or at the party. Results inconclusive. |
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I went back through Annie in the Forest and didn't see Idra anywhere, but that means nothing really. I was mainly curious whether she was shown in the square when Annie showed up or at the party. Results inconclusive.