Discover Top Posts Tagged with #dragonquest reread

All I want for Christmas is for Jaxom and F’lessan to be more distinct foils of each other

#there’s so much POTENTIAL #both raised with the weight of expectations by someone other than their parents #lessa gave up everything for jaxom and nothing for f’lessan #jaxom inherits both gemma and lessa’s inheritance but f’lessan would never inherit benden #lessa being unable to look at jaxom because he reminds her of fax and her dead family #and lessa being unable to look at f’lessan because he reminds her of the children she can’t have #fax killing f’lon and f’lar killing fax and lessa debatedly almost killing gemma #the fact that in another life they could have been friends or rivals in the holds #all culminating in:#jaxom the son of a villain set up to repeatedly save the world and f’lessan the son of heroes set up to do not much at all #jaxom getting protagonist specialness with his special dragon #and f’lessan honestly being more of an ordinary dragonrider than most of the major characters #the beginning of dragonflight drawing this extremely clear line of right v wrong good v evil #and then that getting blurred as the story goes on #pern #dragonriders of pern #dragonflight #dragonquest #dragonquest reread #character analysis #jaxom #f’lessan #lessa #fax #stubbornly tagging pern characters names #also what’s up with f’lessan’s name #why could he not drop the last syllable like everyone else in his family

Thinking about the consequences of doubling up and the southern weyr venture

If Lessa is completely physically drained whenever she times it (admittedly she’s tripled and I think eveb quadrupled in some times), and F’nor reports that southern became increasingly exhausting and unsustainable over the years they spent in the past, what are the long term effects?

Like, does it cause brain damage? Do some of the seventy two riders who were part of the project develop depression later in life? Is it similar to physical damage like cte, and they end up with memory and judgement loss and mood disorders? Is it more cognitive? Does N’ton have nightmares about his younger self? Does F’nor start jumping at his own shadow?

Does it maybe explain some of Kylara and T’bor’s canonical emotional instability? Neither are exactly level headed when they’re introduced in dragonflight, but could Kylara’s “egomania” have been amplified by doubling up? Is T’bor perhaps overly obsessed with her, is he overly prone to dangerous emotional outbursts? (Does he actually have a drinking problem or did I make up that memory?) Would the two of them have the angry, abusive, dysfunctional relationship if they hadn’t spent six years under serious emotional and physical strain?

Assuming most of those seventy two riders stay together in the modern timeline Southern Weyr, by the time they get to High Reaches and everything is exacerbated by Prideth and Wirenth dying, what kind of full blown mental health crisis are they dealing with?

#to be clear I think there’s a LOT more to Kylara’s character than this #obviously #pern seems like a place that wouldn’t believe in therapy #maybe this creates a need for it #worldbuilding #character analysis #heavy speculation tag #dragonflight #dragonquest #dragonflight reread #dragonquest reread #kylara #t’bor #f’nor #stubbornly tagging pern characters names #pern #dragonriders of pern #anne mccaffery

For people (like me) who didn’t initially notice some of the details in the scene I’m talking about here, here’s some bits of the text:

(Sorry for my crappy photos of the book)

At the hatching feast after Jaxom’s impression, Lessa tries to Jedi mind trick some of the lords because they’re being difficult, and they all have reactions along these lines:

Now here’s F’nor in the scene where Lessa is telling Brekke she’s worried about F’lar going to the Red Star and F’nor’s trying to reassure her:

So clearly she’s using her mind powers on him, and also she and Brekke have their little moment where Brekke figures out exactly what’s going on

Right before F’nor leaves, he even realizes it! Not necessarily that Lessa “pushed” him, but definitely that both she and Brekke were aware of the situation

I wonder if “Lessa’s tactics” refers to the way she’s influenced him or to surviving a giant between jump? (Also I feel like there’s more to unpack in the fact that both he’s not even upset about it because of what she’s done. Something something about dramatic sacrifice and romanticizing dying a hero)

Here’s some of Lessa’s feelings on the matter:

Like I mention in that other post, I’m torn between whether Lessa choosing to risk F’nor instead of F’lar is personal sacrifice on her part (intentionally risking someone she loves because F’lar needs to live for pern’s sake) or selfishness (forcing F’nor to take the risk because she could handle his death better)

#dragonquest #dragonquest reread #f’nor #brekke #lessa #character analysis #pern #dragonriders of pern #anne mccaffery

Imagine you’re Lady Famira and it’s your wedding day and your kinda crazy sister who disappeared ten years ago who you did not invite shows up wearing a wedding dress. All anyone is talking about is politics. You get a pretty cool wedding present but your crazy sister already has one. There’s a public duel and a major political figure is stabbed nearly to death. The entire sociopolitical structure of the planet changes. Half the guests leave to deal with a work emergency.

I feel like she deserved to get a little annoyed.

#ridiculously minor characters tag #dragonquest reread #kylara #lady famira #stubbornly tagging pern characters names #pern #dragonriders of pern #anne mccaffery

This is a known fact but the level of influence Benden has over the other weyrs is kind of insane. The Lord Holders have their Conclaves and the craftsmasters seem to have something similar but the weyrs go straight from complete autonomy to absolute power.

Obviously this is formally established when the oldtimers are exiled, and of course Benden is Our Heroes and so it’s ok, but oh my god where are the checks and balances

By the time we get to atwop, two non-benden weyrwomen and three weyrleaders are benden hatched and trained. T’gellan and K’van are even weyrbred. I’m rereading dq and F’lar is basically training up N’ton as a spiritual successor all while positioning him to be Fort weyrleader. Benden established Eastern/Monaco Bay entirely on their own prerogative and then just straight up appointed T’gellan and Talina as leaders. Adrea and K’van transferred into Southern at exactly the right time to succeed D’ram. So not only has Benden officially arranged things so they have absolute control, they set it up so if anyone wanted to challenge that or make things more democratic they’ve got people who will defend them unconditionally.

It’s just soooo unsubtle that you kinda start to feel for T’ron complaining about F’lar undermining other weyrs’ authority. And what’s going to happen with that precedent set and different people in power?

(That’s not even getting into the craziness of Harpers, who of course are always the good guys but CONTROL ALL EDUCATION AND LAW. Oh my god. Give me a book about pernese propaganda.)

#pern #dragonriders of pern #anne mccaffery #dragonquest #dragonquest reread #all the weyrs of pern #pern protagonist specialness #pern political problems #lessa #f’lar #t’ron #n’ton #t’gellan #talina #adrea #k’van #d’ram #stubbornly tagging pern characters names #ridiculously minor characters tag

Uh oh what is Lessa up to now

(Giant aside: I’m a big fan of consolidating pern characters and I think T’bor could be stuck together with K’net, the bronze rider Lessa manipulates into stealing food from holders and almost starting a war. It a) decreases the number of unnecessary named characters b) makes T’bor younger (impressing from the same clutch as Lessa) which I think makes sense with his character and c) means he’s being directly influenced by Lessa way earlier. This goes hand in hand with there needing to be more Lessa and Kylara interactions in dragonflight. The more Lessa and F’lar have to dramatically blame themselves for the Kylara and T’bor situation the better. That’s good drama.)

#dragonquest reread #dragonflight #dragonquest #t’bor #lessa #kylara #stubbornly tagging pern characters names #character analysis #pern #dragonriders of pern #anne mccaffery

How can anne mccaffery manage to keep the exact meal Mirrim brings F’nor from the hatching feast when he’s taking care of Brekke consistent across two books but switches up T’ron’s NAME