http://subtle-shades.livejournal.com/ ([identity profile] subtle-shades.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] a_sporking_rat 2013-02-10 12:28 pm (UTC)

I at no point called Bran 'the worst husband ever' or Mercy a 'spoiled brat'. I said he might not be the best hubby every and 'spoiled brat' doesn't even begin to cover the negative impression I was left with of Mercy after reading that (admittedly) one book, but, again, I didn't call her that. But, yeah, I do consider Leah a victim of circumstances beyond her control.

Here's the thing. You and other people further down thread give me the impression of a bunch of guys who are only concerned with THEIR opinions/needs/feelings. I'm told that werewolf society is Old-Fashioned and that's why the men get to decide for themselves, among themselves, whether or not a woman should be allow to decide if SHE can do this changing thing. Never mind that personal autonomy is a thing apparently granted to all males. You yourself SAY that werewolves go back to at least Beowulf's time when 'women were thought to be the weaker sex.'

(An assessment of history that I don't entirely agree with. Also, you keep mentioning that it would hurt the menz folks to have their mate die during the change... which she's going to do anyway in the fullness of time. So, either she dies trying or she dies of old age. Not a great choice, but one that SHE should make since this is a society set in modern times where, I assume, women have the vote, are held accountable for their violent crimes, and are capable of holding jobs in more traditionally male job fields. Frankly, this OH NO! SHE WILL DIE! thing sounds like cheap angst fuel to me. At least in Highlander, the explanation was one that I could stomach.)

But then you get upset and disgusted when I impute ancient opinions and standards of behavior, especially regarding rape, to this ancient Bran character. Either he's an old-fashioned chauvinist or he's not. If he's not, he has no excuse for letting the men folk decide whether or not a woman can be changed. And he's got no excuse for not thinking that women are just as intelligent, capable, and durable as men. If he IS an old-fashioned chauvinist, then it's not unfair of me to assume that he has a different standard of behavior regarding modern social issues, including spousal rape. (There are also questions regarding why the author would want to set up these particular magical rules but that isn't the point of this post.)

And, honestly, I've been giving him a break since someone down thread pointed out that, apparently, werewolf women without mates gets raped, as standard operating procedure. And that werewolf men have ABSOLUTE CONTROL over their werewolf mates as per some magical geas crap. So really, I could assume MUCH worse things about Bran's relationship with the hapless Leah.

Samuel's wolf picked Mercy as a mate, but he ignored it for years, until it was too late. --> This implies that the relationship they had, or the lack of one, was all of Samuel's choice. I don't particularly like Mercy as a character but relationships are generally chosen by BOTH people involved, save for groups which consider women as property or stalkers and the like. Additionally, you're the one who keeps banging on about how 'wolfish' the werewolves are. If this Samuel-guy's wolf is so authentically wolf-like, I don't think it'd choose a were-coyote. But, regardless of the circumstances, Mercy is probably lucky that the relationship ended as un-traumatically as it seems to have ended.

Post a comment in response:

This account has disabled anonymous posting.
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
No Subject Icon Selected
More info about formatting