Victor says "Julia, this is Anita Blake, Jean-Claude's lady" This is a worldbuilding nitpick but, if Victor is the product of a matriarchal society and the prince of such a group of people, he wouldn't have thought about or phrased the JC/Anita relationship this way.
And it's complete crap (and utterly chilling) that pretty, blonde Julia "has to be" magically, physically, and mentally raped for doing the exact same thing that pretty, male Victor did not three minutes earlier. Julia isn't the one being super inappropriate or doing the overly familiar touching. Julia was trying to be polite and shake the terrifying woman's hand. She's being punished for having a romantic relationship with a man that Anita had casually banged twice. Joseph's never-seen wife was right to refuse to deal with Anita face-to-face.
Also, wasn't the point of this (stupid) meet-and-greet for the clans not to send their queens? Julia shouldn't be sneered at for lacking a standing that she was chosen and sent to St. Louis because she lacked it. Not that Anita would have respected Julia even if she had been a tiger queen.
But I totally think that Jean-Claude knows what he's doing, knows that Anita is the inappropriate one, and is making an example of the unfortunate Julia by playing on Anita's overblown ego and twisted machismo.
I'd like to point out that even though Anita thinks that this Master of Tigers thing will be forever, everyone else is thinking of it as a 'until the MOAD is defeated' thing. The golden tigers talk about the vampires that they're going to Animal-to-Call for. The other tiger clans kept their clan heads at home to keep their clans running and look after their day-today business affairs. It wouldn't surprise me if Victor is serious about Julia and Julia is trying to prove her worth to his mother so that she can ask for Victor's hand. It's currently politically advantageous for Victor to be near the throne and Anita is the perfect way to get his clan's wants/words to JC's ears. But there's going to be an After MOAD Is Defeated, which might be what Julia is playing for. Julia may not be as magically endowed as Victor but there are other ways to prove yourself a good leader and the tigers, unlike everyone else in that screwed up 'verse, may actually be practical enough to acknowledge that. (And, okay, I'm hoping that Julia is just pretending to love her rapist so that she can stay with Victor in the incubus's den and maybe eat Anita later since Anita isn't really a tiger.)
But the part where her group stands around and lets her be bullied and assaulted is chilling and awful and screwed up.
This is bad for Julia because "the white tigers were what I wanted, needed" right now, since she's fighting one. How that makes sense, I'm not quite clear. From the (admittedly crappy) phrasing, I think that Anita is using her 'panwere' status to feed on the other white tigers to make herself physically and magically stronger. She isn't better, stronger, or "more tiger" than Julia. Anita is literally using Julia's kinsmen as batteries in her assault on Julia. That bit about using the other tigers as kindling for the fire that she 'shares' with Victor seems to support that interpretation. It can get more screwed up!
...maybe they aren't helping Julia because any flexing of their power would've given Anita more magic/tiger-ness to use against their clanswoman?
And, although I know nothing about judo, I have to assume that there's an upper limit to 'counteracting' that mere, human amounts of leverage and balance can do against sheer, magical strength... unless you're magically augmenting yourself, of course.
Too bad Julia didn't think to bite Anita's face off.
And yeah, the humans rolling around in a pile probably looks ridiculous. But I found a video on YouTube of a bunch of lionesses doing that with a human guy and it didn't look stupid at all. Possibly because they were real lionesses who could easily eat him? But they, and the lions, loved his ridiculous amounts. Like, to the point that the lionesses encouraged him to touch and pet their delicate newborn cubs when they wouldn't have even let another lioness near them.
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This is a worldbuilding nitpick but, if Victor is the product of a matriarchal society and the prince of such a group of people, he wouldn't have thought about or phrased the JC/Anita relationship this way.
And it's complete crap (and utterly chilling) that pretty, blonde Julia "has to be" magically, physically, and mentally raped for doing the exact same thing that pretty, male Victor did not three minutes earlier. Julia isn't the one being super inappropriate or doing the overly familiar touching. Julia was trying to be polite and shake the terrifying woman's hand. She's being punished for having a romantic relationship with a man that Anita had casually banged twice. Joseph's never-seen wife was right to refuse to deal with Anita face-to-face.
Also, wasn't the point of this (stupid) meet-and-greet for the clans not to send their queens? Julia shouldn't be sneered at for lacking a standing that she was chosen and sent to St. Louis because she lacked it. Not that Anita would have respected Julia even if she had been a tiger queen.
But I totally think that Jean-Claude knows what he's doing, knows that Anita is the inappropriate one, and is making an example of the unfortunate Julia by playing on Anita's overblown ego and twisted machismo.
I'd like to point out that even though Anita thinks that this Master of Tigers thing will be forever, everyone else is thinking of it as a 'until the MOAD is defeated' thing. The golden tigers talk about the vampires that they're going to Animal-to-Call for. The other tiger clans kept their clan heads at home to keep their clans running and look after their day-today business affairs. It wouldn't surprise me if Victor is serious about Julia and Julia is trying to prove her worth to his mother so that she can ask for Victor's hand. It's currently politically advantageous for Victor to be near the throne and Anita is the perfect way to get his clan's wants/words to JC's ears. But there's going to be an After MOAD Is Defeated, which might be what Julia is playing for. Julia may not be as magically endowed as Victor but there are other ways to prove yourself a good leader and the tigers, unlike everyone else in that screwed up 'verse, may actually be practical enough to acknowledge that. (And, okay, I'm hoping that Julia is just pretending to love her rapist so that she can stay with Victor in the incubus's den and maybe eat Anita later since Anita isn't really a tiger.)
But the part where her group stands around and lets her be bullied and assaulted is chilling and awful and screwed up.
This is bad for Julia because "the white tigers were what I wanted, needed" right now, since she's fighting one. How that makes sense, I'm not quite clear.
From the (admittedly crappy) phrasing, I think that Anita is using her 'panwere' status to feed on the other white tigers to make herself physically and magically stronger. She isn't better, stronger, or "more tiger" than Julia. Anita is literally using Julia's kinsmen as batteries in her assault on Julia. That bit about using the other tigers as kindling for the fire that she 'shares' with Victor seems to support that interpretation. It can get more screwed up!
...maybe they aren't helping Julia because any flexing of their power would've given Anita more magic/tiger-ness to use against their clanswoman?
And, although I know nothing about judo, I have to assume that there's an upper limit to 'counteracting' that mere, human amounts of leverage and balance can do against sheer, magical strength... unless you're magically augmenting yourself, of course.
Too bad Julia didn't think to bite Anita's face off.
And yeah, the humans rolling around in a pile probably looks ridiculous. But I found a video on YouTube of a bunch of lionesses doing that with a human guy and it didn't look stupid at all. Possibly because they were real lionesses who could easily eat him? But they, and the lions, loved his ridiculous amounts. Like, to the point that the lionesses encouraged him to touch and pet their delicate newborn cubs when they wouldn't have even let another lioness near them.