It makes no sense that Tavi would do anything other than say something like:
"Woman! Do I charge up to you while you're sneaking up on our enemies? Or when you're trying to burgle cold stones? Do I, woman? No. So you shouldn't storm in while I'm lying in a twisted mass of broken bones working with Alera. I handled the Marat, the Alera Imperia, the Legions and the Canim...You take care of Kitai and let me take care of politics."
So you would have Tavi be an arrogant, overbearing, heartless, hardass politician, who does not care about the woman he supposedly loves?
That would have made me think twice about him...
As far as me pointing out that Kitai talked to a woman who pimps hookers, that's exactly what that woman's qualifications were. That doesn't qualify her as a more skillful political decisionmaker than tavi, as Tavi has a vaunted record with politics that I just mentioned.
Cymnea... who has about 30 years of experience with people from all over the realm, who is someone who more or less has been "leading" the camp followers, or at least is someone with some authority among them. Who certainly has experience dealing with intrigue among the citizenry, Who Tavi regards with a certain measure of respect. Who he himself made Tribune Logistica of his Legion.
This is not a dig at the woman in the book who pimps hookers...
...But why on earth should Tavi suddenly give up implict control of his decision making to a woman who use to pimp hookers visa vis his irrational girlfriend and supposed best friend?
His best friend, who is, despite of his outwardly careless fassade, well versed and way more experienced than Tavi in the ways of the citizenry, and the problems one can conjour up if one is not careful to observe and adhere to certain codes of behaviour.
His girlfriend who has saved his life more than once, who has stood beside him all the way, never asking for anything (except maybe to be allowed to ride horeses a lot), who has been remakably selfless all along. Who is by all accounts a very intelligent, observant and somewhat wize woman whom he trusts implicitly.
Why on Carna would he
not regard the opinions and advice of those people as valuable
The implicit meaning of Kitai's tantrum and Max's carefully orchestrated follow up marketing campaign is that Tavi is suddenly incompetent to make decisions without Kitai's tantrums to guide him.
Would you care to logically/rationally prove that statement?
I don't think you can.
Tavi's connection to Kitai is not something he thinks about much. It's a very emotional and basic part of his being.
Max and Kitai realizing that said connection could prove problematic in the Future, while Tavi remains ignorant to it, is totally in line with the picture I have of Tavi.
Therefore Max and Kitai teaming up to force him to realize it makes sense to me.
Tavi reacting to that threat and choosing to do something about it once having been made aware of it... totally in character.
I really don't know what else i could say about all this without being redundant.
Honestly none of your arguments makes much logical sense to me in the first place.
Tavi is the hero of the books, who has always found a way to deal with the situations that he was faced with.
Him needing to "romance his girl" in addition to all that big time stuff he has to deal with adds a human component to the story that makes it more complete, and way more fun to read. I don't care about theoretical moral stuff. I care about a good and fun to read Story. And Kitai barging in, furycrafting like a pro and laying a tantrum on Tavi was simply hilarious. :-)
It set Tavi up for even more stuff to handle, and makes him just the more heroic in the end.
The hero who not only managed to save the world, but found the time to take is girl to a romantic dinner at the shore as well. I like it.
You found his reactions to be out of character, ... i did not, as did apparently enough people to make the book a major success.
Few great stories work without a lovestory inside them. So why should this one be any different.
On a loosely related note: There is one argument of your's that is easily disputed. You said that to new readers Tavi' reaction would be totally out of character... how could it possibly be out of character for new readers who have absolutely no knowledge of Tavi's character in the first place. How would they know that, how you put it,"Tavi is James Bond" ??
Easy. They wouldn't.
They would read the following sentence
Then...I suppose that while I'm finding a way to get the rest of Alera to accept the Canim's help, and figuring out how to defeat the vord, and coming up with enough support to actually be the First Lord, I'll have to work an epic romance into the schedule.Which I, and apparently a lot of other people, read like this:
"Great... all this stuff... and now I've got to add romance to it... hey... whats one more thing. Is my life great, or what ? "
Do i need to add a <dripping with Irony> tag to that ?
If you read it differently... thats your thing.
But interpretation of text is a very subjective thing, and you have been claiming logical errors, or at least a logical basis for your complaints.
I think this basis is very much subjective. Which, from where i'm standing, pretty much makes your argument obsolete.
Ok, this was longer than intended, and i'll be going now and i don't think I'll post in this thread again. I really don't see the point.
And that is not to be taken as a personal attack or anything. I just think we have totally different views on how some of the stuff in the book is to be interpreted, and that makes the discussion fruitless. And I really don't have time to waste on writing looong fruitless posts :-)
