Tag Archives: Theo Waitley’s attitude

Dragon Ship – Chapter 16

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Tradedesk

In which Clarence is thoroughly investigated.

In a way, this is the delayed appearance of a scene one might have expected to ensue from Clarence being recognised on the station by an unnamed party. Because he’s among friends, though, it goes a lot better than it might have done.

Probably everything Clarence says is true, but there are some gaps in his testimony that a less sympathetic questioner would have picked him up on: for instance, what was the name of the company he and O’dell used to work for? Likewise, I notice Grafton asks him if the accusation of being a Juntavas agent is true now, and neglects to ask if it was true when it was made.

The bit about how Clarence made the mistake of trusting O’dell because they came from the same place strikes an echo: one of the lessons Instructor yos’Senchul made sure Theo learned was that you can’t trust anybody just because they belong to a particular group. It seems Clarence didn’t have such good teachers, and had to learn it the hard way.

Dragon Ship – Chapter 14

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Tradedesk

In which Theo explores the shopping district and her options.

That’s two different ways the authors have signalled the correct pronunciation of “Bechimo” this book, when most of the names in this series are lucky to be accorded one. I remember thinking when I got this far the first time that the authors must have fielded a lot of queries about it, or had to put up with a lot of mispronunciations, to expend so much effort on making it clear. Or maybe only the first time was for the benefit of the readers, and this time is an acknowledgement that if people who are unfamiliar with the name are liable to get it wrong in the real world the same is true of characters in the story.

I’m going to make note of the bit about the Department being able to implant a hidden course of action into a person’s mind, in case it comes up again later. Well, it has at least once, I guess, if that’s what Agent bar’Obin used to reel in Rys in the written-later Necessity’s Child. And, of course, we might already have seen it in action without knowing it. Though I figure they didn’t use it on the guy they sent to assassinate Miri at the party, or he wouldn’t have been deflected by his personal qualms.

The sections of the story told from Theo’s point of view are increasingly including explicit references to Theo’s temper and the effects it has on others, which indicates an increased amount of self-awareness on her part.

Another interesting moment reflecting Theo’s personal evolution is when, without apparently thinking anything of it, she uses the phrase “back home” to refer to returning to Bechimo.

Ghost Ship – Chapter 35

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Runcible System
Daglyte Seam

In which preparations are made for departure.

This is the first time in a while we’ve had a viewpoint looking at Theo with a fresh eye, and possibly the clearest description we’ve had of the appearance that had people warning her about her “attitude” back at the Academy. It’s interesting how some things are far more apparent to an outside viewpoint than from behind her eyes. (Like when her viewpoint says she “felt a flicker of irritation” and his says she “looked black death”.)

It’s also intriguing to have Clarence imply that her father has a similar attitude, since we’ve pretty much always seen him through his own eyes or the eyes of others who are familiar with him or at least with his family. Now I think of it, though, I can think of a few moments which support the point.

Saltation – Chapter 34

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Primadonna
Out from Alanzia

In which Mayko Ikari explains her presence.

So, now we have some idea of when this is in relation to the rest of what’s going on: it’s after the Yxtrang invasion of Lytaxin was defeated. The question now: how much after? Not a great deal, perhaps, if the effects are only just becoming apparent — and Mayko’s remark that nobody is quite sure what Korval is up to suggests that it’s before Korval’s very public standoff with the Department.

It’s interesting, getting a bit of a look at how all that stuff appears from the outside; a reminder that the universe is wide enough to contain people to whom all that life-and-death struggle is a distant event that carries opportunity in its wake.

Saltation – Chapter 21

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Howsenda Hugglelans
Conglomeration of Portcalay
Eylot

In which Theo is introduced to the Third Son of House Hugglelans.

The moment in Theo’s encounter with Brine Batzer where she makes the effort to shift her stance to one that’s aware but not aggressive is significant for two reasons. One is that it shows Theo is working on developing an awareness of how her body language will read to others and on adjusting it appropriately (though also that it still needs work). The other is that, as Theo notes, her shift to a less aggressive stance doesn’t get an appropriate reaction from Batzer. This suggests a few things about Batzer, one of which is that despite owning five ships and presumably flying them, Batzer is not a pilot.

(Though it’s not as simple as that; we’ve had other instances of non-pilots being calmed by a pilot’s choice of body language. They weren’t consciously aware it was the body language doing it, was the difference. So perhaps it’s not just that Batzer isn’t a pilot; taking the chapter as a whole, I think it’s safe to say anyhow that Batzer just isn’t very advertant.)

Saltation – Chapter 19

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Erkes Dormitory, Suite 302
Anlingdin Piloting Academy

In which Win Ton takes Theo to dinner.

Although, as when yos’Senchul and Veradantha included Theo in their dinner plans, it might be that the flight time and experience is as great a gift as the dinner. (Which is not to knock the dinner; one is getting the impression that a dinner at Howsenda Hugglelans is no small thing itself.)

When the kissing gets started, Win Ton kisses Theo’s temple, her neck, and her ear; it’s Theo who kisses Win Ton on the lips, a move he’s not expecting. We’ve seen this before with couples kissing across the Liaden-Terran cultural divide; between Liadens, face-to-face kissing is an especially intimate gesture not usually added to the repertoire until a relationship is considerably further advanced than this.

Saltation – Chapter 17

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Ops
Anlingdin Piloting Academy

In which Theo’s advisors advise her.

It’s clear from the conversation Theo’s advisors have with her when they get back to the Academy that their hand-talk discussion on the trip back covered a lot of ground on the topic of What Are We Going To Do About Theo? — not just in general, and for the future, but also in quite a bit of detail regarding how they would approach Theo with their conclusions. The moment when yos’Senchul surprises Theo to make the point about how she reacts to the unexpected — right when Veradantha is drawing her attention by talking about how she reacts to the unexpected — has the feel of having been choreographed in advance.

I wonder if there was any particular reason for Veradantha to pick Jankalim and Theopholis for her list to demonstrate that aspects of culture are universal. (It happens that Jankalim and Theopholis are respectively the first and last planets visited by the protagonists in Conflict of Honors. Theopholis has some striking cultural details, including a peculiarly unpleasant penalty for pre-meditated murder; Jankalim we didn’t really get to see much of, culture-wise.)

Saltation – Chapter 14

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Sturtevan Hall Dispensary
Anlingdin Piloting Academy

In which Theo consents to a healing.

I get the idea that Theo got more healing than she realises. The med-tech is, by his appearance and speech patterns, Liaden, which opens the possibility that he is not only a healer of bodies but also cha’dramliz, one who can ease troubles of the mind and the heart. In this case, offering both the immediate assistance of soothing Theo so that her body’s healing may proceed with best effect, and also looking to the longer-term and planting a few seeds that will help Theo avoid leaping into a fight too soon without hampering her fighting ability when (and, as the med-tech says, it is when and not if for a courier pilot) the time comes that she does need it.

All of which largely goes past Theo, who has never met a Liaden Healer and wouldn’t know what to expect; Win Ton did try to explain to her about the cha’dramliz once, but he didn’t get very far before being interrupted and as far as we know he never got back to the topic. I might have expected the Healer to provide more of an explanation when requesting her permission to proceed, but perhaps this is another instance of someone thinking Theo is more Liaden than she really is. (And the thought occurs that perhaps the Healer is not free to make an explicit offer; if the regulations require him to issue pain medication that he knows won’t be necessary, that suggests that his form of Healing doesn’t enjoy wholehearted official support here.)

Saltation – Chapter 13

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Ozar Rokan Memorial Flight Center
Anlingdin Piloting Academy

In which Theo loses her temper.

The thing that strikes me about this conversation on Wilsmyth’s side is that he clearly hasn’t bothered to learn much about Theo before trying to reel her in. I suspect he has some kind of mental picture of What Junior Students Are Like and has planned his strategy based on how his hypothetical Junior Student would react, instead of taking the time to work out how this particular junior student interacts with the world — with unfortunate results when it turns out that Theo differs from his ideal student in… pretty much every significant respect.

It doesn’t entirely surprise me, since he’s basically trying to pick up Theo as a tool to his own advancement, that he’s not thinking of her as a person with her own viewpoint, but it does kind of surprise me that he doesn’t at least realise what’s likely to happen when he threatens her: he was right there when her reputation for reacting aggressively started. (On the other hand, he was right there and didn’t back down until somebody else pointed out the danger he might be in, so maybe he’s just not very good at spotting what’s going on outside his own head.)

The thing that strikes me about this conversation on Theo’s side is that the subtext of the conversation goes straight over her head without her even feeling a breeze. You can tell she hasn’t been raised Liaden: I don’t know if a Liaden her age would have been able to negotiate a graceful exit from the conversation with Wilsmyth so determined to get what he wants, but she would at least have noticed that he was trying politics on her.

Saltation – Chapter 9

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History of Piloting
Anlingdin Piloting Academy

In which Theo meets Kara ven’Arith.

Theo is learning a lot of family history without knowing it, lately. Although I suppose that was to some extent inevitable once she started learning piloting, considering how much the history of piloting is bound up with the history of Korval.

I think Inspector Johansen is being unfair, here: it would have been one thing to be down on Theo for not doing all the assigned reading, if that was what she had done, and I would even allow that it would have been reasonable to be somewhat disappointed by the class’s lack of initiative — but to mock them for not doing something they hadn’t been called on to do seems to me to be pushing it, especially since I get the impression that Johansen was counting on them to have not done it so she could be grumpy about it. Or maybe I’m being unfair now, and she was just in a bad mood about something.

Kara, with her own version of having grown up between Liaden and Terran cultures and a willingness to share her understanding, could be a useful friend for Theo to have. (Not that I’m saying, of course, that usefulness ought to be an only or a primary criterion for a friendship.)