One thing I find really interesting about Cordelia as a character is the separation of her reputation and her character, and that it gets called out only subtly in the Vorkosigan saga. Spoilers below the jump.
So, for a good chunk of the Vorkosigan saga, Cordelia is referred to by the other characters (Miles especially, but also Kareen and her parents, Duv, etc.) as the utterly composed, utterly competent, razor incisive, and emotionally controlled Captain and Vor lady that everyone else can only aspire to.
And there’s no question that Cordelia is an amazing woman who has done amazing things.
Cordelia is also a person who fell in love with a self-destructive aristocrat on the other side of a war, fled her home and family, built a new family, watched Barrayar try its best to eat the new family, and came out fighting on the other side.
So, Cordelia is amazing, but she’s also crazy. And she knows it! We don’t see much of Cordelia’s thoughts once we’re in Miles’ narrative, but the book that clinches it for me is Mirror Dance. Miles is missing, presumed dead, and then Mark appears, and then Aral goes through heart failure, and Mark is the one that sees how hard Cordelia is working to hold it all together. Because Cordelia wanted to build a family with Aral and a horde of little babies, and instead Barrayar tried to eat her first son, and now she has one chance to build a relationship with her second son (maybe), and all of three of them are doing their utmost to get themselves killed, and she can’t help that her heart is riding on all of them making it. She is just trying to help each of them by being the partner or mother they need.
She is, as she calls herself, a fool for love. And it’s not a happy thing.
And so I think it’s very special (and is more headcanon than text) that Mark is the one who gets a glimpse of Cordelia in Mirror Dance and realizes that she has an inner life with its own thwarted wants and twisting pains. Because it helps him realize that she’s not perfect and untouchable, and if she can keep moving, maybe he can, too. I’m not sure Miles has ever had this view of his mother.
All of that is part of why I really like Gentleman Jole and the Req Queen. It gives Cordelia a chance to find some ease. And the coda to all of the above is the way in which Cordelia lets go of her fears about baby injuries as she raises Aurelia. To paraphrase Illyan, being Miles’ mother must have been a privilege and a terror. It must be so different to have a chance to pursue happiness.
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