this “werewolf women cant have babies” and the story about the woman killing her own child and losing her humanity and having to die is kinda weird considering the other books set it up as theres people that the wolf would never hurt like bran was straight up psycho for decades or centuries and he didn’t hurt samuel ever and all other wolves like Chelsea and Adam with kids are super protective over them. Also its a PB Novel so no mommies allowed!!!!! Duh! but truly, I think a better way to do this would be for the lady wolf to have killed someone that got too close to her den like a hiker or ranger or another werewolf - whatever before she gave birth and then when charles kills her they find out her plan after the fact.
and lmaooo anna’s “okay but im different” response there’s literally no empathy or sympathy for the woman or charles for having to witness that shit
and Samuel is freaking out thinking she’s gunna try and she’s like ugh better change the subject i guess girl what
Read all the mercy Thompson and alpha and omega books in like a week and I hate that Samuel just disappeared and then reappears after like multiple plot points (in his story) have happened, I love him sm can we get his side quest book
Okay so this is an old contemplation of mine that i forgot to post but why do Samuel and Charles have slightly different views of their father and Leah?
Samuel in Iron Kissed:
''Despise'' huh? That's a strong word. Is that how Samuel sees his father act to Leah?
Charles in Cry Wolf:
Charles seems unsure about it all compared to Samuel.
What's interesting about all of this, is that Bran felt the need to hide and twist the truth about his mating to his sons, the people he's closest and dearest to.
love all your posts on pb’s books! I’m so glad I came across your blog! what’s your opinion on Leah’s relationships with men outside of bran and Charles? namely Sam, Asil, and Tag? to varying degrees they’re pretty contentious (I’d say with Tag being the least threatening towards her)
not many thoughts about tag and asil! sorry! i never stopped to ponder about their relationship with leah too deeply as they are not very relevant to her overall story. i will keep this ask in mind for future re-reads and post something once i form a more definite opinion.
sam's trickier. his dislike for leah seems stronger than charles's and yet more shallow. a couple of reasons for this, i think:
1) charles dislikes leah as a person. he may not spend much thought on the finer points of her subjectivity and there's a rigidity to their interactions partly engendered by leah's role as bran's wife. but this role is something charles heeds mostly as a practical consideration in order to avoid his father's chastisement. overall, he sees leah as a human being not as bran's appendage. on the other hand, anyone correct me if i am wrong, i think i have only seen sam refer to leah in relation to her impact on one of his family members. somehow telling.
2) sam's relationship with bran has some ideological fractures, but it is not strained by a lack of love or respect: he perceives his place in bran's heart to be very secure. charles, who has suffered firsthand from bran's neglect and has spent a lifetime executing his darkest endeavours, is in a better position to empathise with leah and mistrust that bran's actions towards leah have the best intentions.
3) sam is also much more callous in the fundamental belief women are sexual objects and reproductive factories over which men have automatic rights. if he wasn't, he would have been much less casual and much more conflicted over his treatment of mercy, a teenager he seduced by deliberately assuming a protective role with the sole intention of making her bear his children. leah "refusing" to mother charles and "depriving" bran of the chance for a happier union must mark her as very unnatural in his eyes. and this opinion would have been reinforced by leah targeting mercy since she was young. that she tried to harm mercy is maybe the only element of personal offence he can muster against her. still it seems he only started intervening when he had the brilliant idea that mercy would make a good mate, so...
i don't think there is much more than this on his part tbh, he doesn't spend enough time considering her (as far as i can tell) for anything else to be there.
as for leah, i think she is jealous of him too, but it takes on a different quality compared to her jealousy for charles. sam was in some ways the closest thing bran had to an equal before sherwood reemerged. despite being the third to charles's second, the fact he and bran are so close in age and have so much shared history leaves an understanding between them that no one else can really penetrate. when leah came to live with bran, charles was a child and his opinion probably mattered as such. sam was already sam and probably the only person bran really trusted in the entire continent. i am theorising here, but logically i think at the beginning leah must have been simply intimidated by him and his disdain, probably angry too. overtime, as the goal for her to be bran's life partner became clearer, i think she may have started to resent his role in bran's life. with charles the competition is a bit more fair: bran loves him and will never love her, but at least the playing field to earn his respect trust etc started out somehow more even. how do you compete with samuel?
Uuuuuh trying to draw Bran and his sons. And figure out what a “generic man” looks like. Sometimes i wish Mercy was more descriptive or at least dropped more details for me to try and imagine.
