That was very helpful, thank you.
I'd kind of suspected that stuff about Serwa myself but I can't say why. Might have just been blind faith that Bakker wouldn't make a boring "Dunyain-lite" character. Still, didn't like her all that much initially until re-reading Aspect Emperor and the first time reading TGO. Now she's one of my favorites of this cycle. Unholy Consult Spoilers: Figures that she's probably dead. Bakker can't let us have nice things.
I'd never considered what you said about Thelli. Speculation sure, but I rather like the idea.
Edit: Slightly off topic, but is it just me or is it much easier to articulate why one dislikes something than why one would like it?
I'm glad I could get my point across clearly enough.
Well, the "Dûnyain-lite" characters might have their fans too. I think Bakker wanted to show how Kellhus and Esmenet's children were affected by the combination of their parents' traits, and it makes sense one or more would fall in the more stable side of the half-Dûnyain spectrum. With their variety of personalities, opinions will vary as well.
On Serwa:
Sadly, I agree, I don't think she survived her injuries for long even if she was still (barely) alive by the end of TUC. Too bad, because I would have much preferred to have her around in TNG than Kayûtas (I'd actually prefer having both survive, but if I had to pick only one, it'd be Serwa).
We may never know for sure, but after rereading and seeing how upset Thelli was with the mention of her trauma at the hands of Inrilatas, it seems likely she could have planned for him to die. It's plausible she would figure that Maithanet confronting Inrilatas (with Kelmomas being there too) had a high enough chance to result in Inrilatas' death. Thus, revenge by proxy - there were even more tracks in the snow than Kelmomas considered...
It does seem easier to detail the reasons for disliking characters than for liking them. No idea why, though. There might be some scientific explanation for this, but I'm not aware of it.
Great post, ThoughtsofThelli! I feel alot of the same ways you do about the same characters.
ETA- had to correct where credit was due! Sorry, ToT.
Thanks.
Theliopa is actually a pretty cool character. I kind of identified with many of her quirks...
She is great, her quirks just make her a more rounded character (unlike that first impression I got when reading). I really wish she could have stuck around for more books, but such are the dangers of liking characters.
First time poster, long time lurker:
I'm a woman and I love the books, it was me (I? I'm not a native speaker, logically it should be "I" but that sounds so wrong?) who got my husband into the series not the other way around.
I can see where the question is coming from, a lot of stuff going on in the books would put off most of my female friends from reading it plus the sometimes "dry" philosophical parts... yes, probably not as many female readers as male ones.
But I honestly don't think the books are really that misogynistic, it's a medieval, patriarchal world with it's inhabitants behaving accordingly.
The women themselves are written quite well, they feel real and are quite different from each other, not like in WoT where I wished death and disease on every single female character by book 4 because they were mostly just annoying clones.
First of all, welcome!
I feel much the same, you can have series with a more misogynistic setting such as this and still have compelling female characters that manage to have their own arcs and a fair amount of agency (well, as much as their particular circumstances allow).
I only managed to read through 3 books of WoT before I had to stop, those were definitely characters I could not care about either (it probably got worse later on, but that series wasn't working for me anyway).
