a-sporking-rat (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
a_sporking_rat) wrote2013-07-14 07:52 am
a_sporking_rat) wrote2013-07-14 07:52 am
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BULLET, CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN, PART ONE
Commenter Lliira is doing her own sporkings of Danse Macabre!
http://lliira.dreamwidth.org/
This one goes out to Anita and her 'noble' attempt at bisexuality! Even if hers didn't get quite this...in your face. Or rather, her face.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n39RzgVNP8
I feel a distinguishment has to be made that LKH has failed to make. That is the distinguishment regarding the term "animal to call" since it can mean two things and sometimes they overlap and it's really confusing.
The first way that "animal to call" is used refers to a specific animal species that a Master vampire can summon and control. If the Master vampire is powerful enough, this may extend to the therian counterparts of the animal (if there is one), though more powerful therians may be able to fight this. For instance, Nikolaos could call rats and thus wererats as well, though she could not control Rafael because he was too powerful. These people and animals are not bound to the vampire calling them in any way, and their free will is only lost when the vampire is controlling them, not permanently. It's roughly the same as when a vampire temporarily rolls or hypnotizes a human.
The second way the term "animal to call" is used is to refer to the therian version of a Master vampire's human servant. It's exactly what a human servant is: Bound to the vampire forever by their very life force, meaning the therian or human is immortal and ageless like the vampire but also that if one dies the other may as well, and that the therian or human is subject to the will of the vampire Master. Unlike Brides such as Nicky, they can still have thoughts and opinions in disagreement with their Master, and can even try to fight against them, though a portion of their free will is still gone, just not all of it.
So far, we have only seen therian servants in the possession of vampires whose animal to call as a species matches the species of said therian servant. For instance, Jean-Claude calls wolves and werewolves, and Richard is his specific wolf to call. We've never seen a vampire who could call snakes with a therian servant that was a werefox, nor a vampire Master with no animal species to call who had a werelion servant. Note that this does not mean that these scenarios definitely couldn't happen though, as it's never been stated that they can't/that only a vampire who calls a certain animal can have a wereanimal of that type for his or her servant.
Obviously, this gets confusing as fuck, so I propose that until LKH makes up a separate term for an individual therian who is a human servant we use a fanon one: Therian Servant. At one roleplay, the term Animal Servant was used instead, but I find that pretty demeaning to the therians to refer to them as animals. Granted, Anitaverse vampires do treat therians in very demeaning ways, but this is for our reference, not theirs. So instead of saying "Okay, Anita's animal to call is tigers, and her tigers to call are Domino, Cynric, etc." we would say "Anita's animal to call is tigers, and her therian servants are Domino, Cynric, etc." Makes a lot more sense, y/n? If yes, then that's what I'm gonna call them during sporkings from now on (same as how I use the words therianthropy and therians even though LKLH doesn't)
Some more notes on this for people who are newer to the series, using my new and improved fan-terminology:
- A triumvirate is the bonding of a Master vampire, their Human Servant, and their Therian Servant altogether. It is very, very rare, and we have only seen two besides the ones Anita is involved with, one of which belonged to Padma, a Council Vampire, showing just what a serious level of power it takes.
- A vampire having both a human and a therian servant outside of a triumvirate has never been shown, and I believe it was stated to not be possible.
- Anita is in two triumvirates, despite this being stated as impossible.
- One of her triumvirates is the normal vampire/human/therian type, consisting of her, Richard, and Jean-Claude, but the other one (Anita/Damian/Nathaniel), though it is also made up of that same combination, is radically different: Rather than Anita being the Human Servant to a Master vampire, Damian is the Vampire Servant (the first and only known ever to exist *eyeroll*) to Anita as his Master necromancer, and Nathaniel as her Therian Servant, not Damian's. Naturally this is the first and only triumvirate of its kind.
- Anita is also unique in her ability to have multiple Therian Servants, one to match each of her inner beasts. Not only has no vampire been shown to be able to posess a therian and human servant at the same time outside a triumvirate, they have also never been shown to be able to have two Human Servants or two Therian Servants at once, let alone the hoard Anita has. It has been stated in canon that vampire can only have one human servant at one time (and cannot un-make one that they already have) and presumably it is the same for Therian Servants...unless the Master in question is, of course Anita.
- Just what Master of Tigers means is vague. Clearly it means something beyond just being able to call tigers as an animal to call (since Anita and other vampires like Max Bellici have already been shown to be able to do that and it's nothing special) but just what hasn't been established. My theory is that it will basically bind all the tigers worldwide to her as if they were her Therian Servants (or even Brides) in terms of her being able to take their free will and life force, but without binding her life force to all of them as with a Bride or Therian Servant (meaning she doesn't have to worry if one of them dies, etc.) Again, this is just my theory, since it's never been made explicit what being Master of Tigers actually is except that it's clearly different from just having tigers as your animal to call.
And now...
BULLET, CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN, PART ONE
Anita has a look at the other spy. He has short straight hair that is a "pale, nondescript color" I can only imagine is beige, and she figures it's dyed. His eyes are "pale brown, almost lion amber" and she recalls how Soledad's eyes were also brown in human form but had yellow and orange eyes in tiger form. She wonders if only some golden tigers change eye colors when they shift. He doesn't look Chinese like Yiyu, whom she refers to as Jade, but like Bibiana his eyes "are uptilted and there was something exotic to the bone structure." I cannot express how much it makes me twitch that non-white = exotic. Also how it's okay for them to take little bits of PoC traits in order to look ~exotic!~ but never, y'know, actually not-white, unless you're fragile little Jade who totally isn't just like the sexualized-yet-passive China Doll stereotype at all...and by totally isn't I mean she totally seems that way to me so far.
Anita says that he isn't as old as Jade, he asks how she knows, and "his voice, like the rest of him, seemed delicate. He was like most of the older weretigers, not very big. Taller than me, but then most men were." YES. YES WE KNOW. WE KNOW. YOU'RE SO SHORT. Anita tells him that he feels younger. He shifts in the metal bindings he was put in, presumably by Wicked and Truth I guess, and she says that "they were a new type of cuff that was being tried by law enforcement for the preternaturally strong." WELL ABOUT FUCKING TIME FOR THAT. Wicked touches his shoulder, and Anita notes that his other hand holds a "naked" gun...does that mean a gun out of its holster? Because I wouldn't think he'd be holding it in his hand if it was in the holster...anyway, Anita says that this weretiger had just "given up, just let them capture him" but since he's Harlequin she's not too sure. Truth is holding "a short sword bare in his hand". Bare, naked...even the weapons walk around nude here!
Anita says that through Jade, she knows that his name is Topaz and that like a topaz his tiger is a "deep, golden yellow". A woman speaks up and says that he's not a golden tiger at all. Anita turns to see who spoke: :"It was one of the two female weretigers" with hair "a red so dark it was almost a kind of black" that is "cut just above her shoulders, so that the end edges of the hair framed her face." Her skin and hair are both darker than any of the other tigers. Her eyebrows are black, her eyes "the orange and yellow of fire." Anita must have been zoning out again like when she went on and on about how Meph's bod looked, because the red lady repeats that this dude is not a gold tiger. Anita asks why not, the woman "made a derisive sound" and crosses her arms, and Anita notes she is wearing a red designer dress made of shiny material that Anita thinks "is an unfortunate choice for her coloring, but she hadn't asked me." See? Anita is perfect for inane catty cocktail small talk! Or, wait, no, she is terrible because she insults everyone.
The woman says that "Because gold is supposed to control us all. If there were a true gold tiger in this room we would all be bound to his will." Wow, if I were a weretiger, I would NOT want gold tigers around, ever! Don't tell them about the ones Jake brought, they might kill them! Also, I like that this implies Anita is NOT true gold since, you know, they're not all bound to her will...well, not yet. "I feel nothing." And that includes from you either Anita! "He's just a survivor with delusions." I could see that. An orange tiger whose shade of orange happens to be kinda yellowy orange and they play that up, that would actually be a kinda neat idea. Anita admits that it's true she doesn't feel any real energy coming from this guy, and that while she trusts Jade's memories she also doesn't have any proof beyond that. Honestly, I don't see why his color is an issue so much as HE IS A HARLEQUIN SPY, AND IN LEAGUE WITH THE HARLEQUIN YOU SURELY JUST ROYALLY PISSED OFF BY TAKING JADE!
Anita asks if this woman "would really want him flexing metaphysical muscle" if he could indeed control all the tigers with them. Because conversations clearly don't work on normal rules in the Anitaverse, the woman retorts that she "enjoyed the floor show, though I thought the women were sent here for Jean-Claude, not you. I don't do women." Anita notes that "she made it sound like doing them was somehow bad." Ah, yes, I see, this is to further address claims of homophobia from the haters; basically a straw-homophobe will show up for Anita to seem tolerant in comparison to. Also, Anita, maybe she just thinks doing YOU is a bad thing, given what she's just seen and your track record that she has doubtlessly heard about. That's probably why the tone. I'd hate to walk in there thinking that I would be safe from the DoomCrotch and then finding out she's now willing to rape the ladies as well.
Anita sees that Jade is "standing with Domino off to one side. She was looking away, down, her posture as if someone had struck her." Wait, is the idea that what this lady just said is why she looks upset? Versus, you know, anything that just happened with Anita?! Anita thinks about how she's not usually into girls either but "I couldn't regret anything I'd done with Jade." I can though. "Even now, I wanted to touch her" and so she does so, and Jade gives her a "shy, pleased smile that made it worth noticing her pain." WORTH noticing her pain? WORTH?! Oh...my god...I just...what?! Jade comes to cuddle against her shoulder "the way I did to some men" because of course Anita is going to be her big strong maaan, she's even taller than her because she is a delicate fragile abused China Doll OH GOD IMMA GAG.
There is now a look of disgust on the red tigress's face. We are probably supposed to see this as homophobic, but I see it as her being disgusted at Anita having raped and brainwashed someone yet again, and also the fact that I think Anita is actually doing this cuddling just to piss Red Lady off. The fact that Anita notes that this look of disgust "made me smile" strengthens my theory. Ugh she is such a teenager. Red Lady tells her that she felt Anita's power over the white tigers but that "the red clan is made of sterner stuff." Anita asks who she is, Victor says that "She's Reba, daughter of the Red Queen." Anita says she expected her brother, who, for those who don't know, is Alex, the first red tiger Anita met. He's a journalist, prince/Li Da of the Red Clan, and got pyrokinesis after Anita had sex with him. Hence the idea Bibi suggested waaay back of sending all these tigers here so she could screw them into superpowers too.
Reba tells her that "Alex is out of the country on some journalist assignment. He's catching a plane and disrupting all his plans because you and your master put on the call." Anita says that "she made it sound ridiculous" and, frankly, this whole book is ridiculous, especially the fact she needs to FUCK ALL THE TIGER MEN TO GIVE THEM SUPERPOWERS bit, so yeah, I agree with Reba here. Anita looks at the men who are with Reba, and among them is Hunter, the red tiger stripper she boned in Skin Trade with "hair the color they tell you is red in school" which is a really awakward way of phrasing it in my opinion. I'd have said something like "pigment red" or "real red, the color of an apple rather than a carrot" or something like that. Just me there. He waves and smiles at her and she thinks that "I'd rather have had Alex" Hunter has a face slightly long for her tastes, remember? "but I'd already slept with Hunter." He's good enough to bang, just not harem material! "He was one of the few in this room I could say that about." Well, yeah, the idea was for you to bone weretigers into their powers like you did Alex, right? So why send you the ones you've already slept with that failed to get powered up from that? Sending you untried ones is probably the better bet for results. I guess she's trying to do some "see, I'm not slut!" thing here, but it just makes me headtilt. God, Anita, sleeping with loads of people is NOT a problem. The problem is that it's pretty much never consensual with you or at least not something you want to do just for the sake of sex itself. Moving on...
Reba commands Hunter not to flirt with Anita, Hunter says that's why their here. Reba says that "My mother made us come, but I'm the dominant red here, and that means if I say, no, it's no." Awkward commas but I like her. Just because the men are meant to sleep with Anita doesn't mean they have to get friendly with her. Flirting will make her like them, and her liking them means she might keep them instead of just boning them. Reba is being sensible. Anita hugs Jade, kisses her head, and "sent her back to Domino." This just reads as so infantilizing to me. She then "looked down" Reba and says she'll be right back...I guess she's speaking to Jade? But she doesn't go anywhere, she just steps into the middle of the room and, big surprise, starts another pissing contest because a woman, like Jade and Julia before her, is not complying with her will.
Anita says that what she is about to do would work on everyone that she slept with in Vegas...so basically whether you become a harem member or not, one dip in the DoomCrotch means you're hers. Or not even that, as poor Jacob proved. Anita holds her hand out and tells Hunter to come to her. He smiles and starts to do it, but Reba tells the other men to grab him and "Don't let her bewitch him, too." REBA IS ON TO YOUR SHIT, ANITA! Anita's red tiger circles inside her, growls, and sniffs the air, and both she and Anita "wanted the red tigers. We wanted people who smelled of home." What is this 'home' shit with all the tigers? Also you don't want them because of how they smell, you wanted them the second you realized they might not just be handed over to you!
Anita and her red tiger have a look at what the men who are holding Hunter back, since men are still what she's only interested in now that LKH has thrown a token lady into the harem to appease the haters and/or maybe as a shout-out/dedication to the lesbian couple who replaced Darla on her staff. Both have short hair, but one has "waves that promised if he'd grow it longer it would be like the other woman" oh, there's one besides Reba "with her soft waves that fell around her shoulders." Both he and this woman have skin "that was closer to human redheads, all peaches and cream, and the red of their hair held an orange undertone to it rather than a black." I like that there can be variances like this even in groups where everyone has white hair and blue eyes, red hair and yellow eyes, etc. Although it's kind of funny to me that Anita thinks all human redheads have the same complexion when she works with a guy (Jamison Clarke, remember him? Shows up in GP and The Laughing Corpse) who is a black man with red hair. Because of this and their similarly solid yellow eyes and bone structure that makes their faces "a little long through the cheeks" she assumes they are "siblings maybe, or close cousins". She then realizes Hunter has that same facial shape and strongly yellow eyes and wonders "How intermarried was everyone in their clan?" Probably conveniently enough for the women not to be able to screw the men within this little band, as with the golden tigers.
Now that she's spent half a page on all that, she devotes a paragraph to what the second man holding Hunter looks like. If you care, his hair is "the palest red of all" pink? "falling around his ears in unruly curls and waves as if it he were growing it out" because he probably heard how you like 'em, Anita, and wanted to be sure he'd be first in line for super-powers...of course, that was before he saw what you did to Hunter here. I bet he's rethinking things now. Oh, and curiously, his eyes are "gray with green in them" and Anita thinks she likes his face best of all of them and that "it was a little like trying to pick a kitten from a little, except you aren't trying to decide which kitten you'd like to have sex with" BECAUSE THEY AREN'T KITTENS, THEY'RE PEOPLE.
Reba breaks this endless parade of descriptions by proclaiming "You aren't our master, Anita Blake. You can't even make one of us cross this room to you. My mother sent us because all the other tigers urged her to, but she believes like I do that you are just another pretender to our throne." YOU AND YOUR MOTHER ARE SMART AND I LIKE YOU. I am also intrigued by the idea they get regular pretenders. Reba then accuses Anita's "two males" of the white tigers of "teaching our secrets to outsiders" oh good, are there going to be consequences for that please? "and giving her and her vampire master delusions of grandeur." Oh, she had those WELL before them, Reba! Victor tells Reba that she hasn't "tasted" Anita's power yet and that when she does she'll understand that Crispin and Domino are no longer "ours to command."
Meanwhile, Anita "decided not to choose. I'd call whichever one wanted to come the most." Pun intended? She holds up her hand and says "Red tigers, red tigers, come to me." That doesn't stop sounding no matter how many times I read it. Like someone trying to sound mystic and majestic while saying Red Rover Red Rover Let Charlie Come Over. "But it wasn't the words that called them" because they are stupid words "it was the energy." Then why speak at all? Oh, to sound cool. And fail at it. "Once I'd accidentally called every color of unmated male tiger in the country when Marmee Noir had been trying to make me her perfect vessel" and then decided not to because she doesn't want a body riddled with supernatural STDs "but I'd learned to narrow my focus." Ah yes, her Call All Males power. I still can't believe this is a canon thing. You'd think it's a joke, but no, she calls all males. Tiger males specifically but still.
Hunter pulls free, and the other men don't fight or chase him, they just stare at Anita as Reba yells after Hunter. He of course ignores her and starts kissing Anita's hand and up her arm and since he's six feet "it was easier to drop to his knees to kiss his way up my lower arm than to bend over." Suuuure that's why LKH has men kneel before Anita. Sure. You know, when I write Lucy having people kneel before her, it's SUPPOSED to be because she's a power-control freak. Like, that's the idea. I don't try to lie to my readers (well, hypothetical readers, I'm not a real novelist yet) about it. "Every kiss grew the energy between us" remember when magical energy was raised by serious stuff like self-injury and sacrificing chickens? "Sex didn't make tiger energy stronger; that was my little extra, Jean-Claude's ardeur, and my succubus." Wait, she has an inner succubus now along with inner beast? I thought succubus/incubus were just terms to refer to Belle Morte vampires with the ardeur? KEEP YOUR CANON STRAIGHT LKH JEEBUS.
The one with the pale red hair (I guess she means it's not uber-dark-red like the others and is just regular red?) comes to her next. His name is apparently Jared, given that's what Reba calls him when she commands him unsuccessfully to come back here. SHE'S TRYING TO SAVE YOU, DINGUS, LISTEN TO HER! He does at least stop in his tracks, "obviously torn." Oh thank heavens, he still has a chance! But then Hunter bites Anita's neck which for some reason "tipped the energy closer to sex" however that makes sense and Anita starts making "small noises" and he runs his hand up her thigh so high it's tracing the edge of her thigh-highs and then a third pair of hands starts up her other leg, and, surprise, it's Jared! And the other male too, the one that looks like the other woman. On his knees like a good boy, of course. His fingers go "just at the edge of the cloth of the thong. Either it was a way of teasing me, or he was waiting for permission to cross that last lacy barrier." THIS WOMAN LITERALLY CANNOT STOP WRITING ABOUT SEX NO MATTER WHAT IS GOING ON.
"I felt the energy spike, red tiger, hot and angry, and it wasn't us." Gee, I wonder who it could be? Oh, looks like Reba has a knife in her hand, drawn from a thigh holster under her dress. See, Anita, you're not the only one who can come prepared! And, unlike you, she actually had good reasons for wanting to bring a weapon to a party, namely self-defense against the exact shit you're pulling now. But, of course, because Reba is meant to be a Jealous Hater and thus a terrible person in all regards, she doesn't attack Anita but has instead slashed open the face of the other red tiger woman. She then roars "You can't have us!" at Anita. I like the sentiment, but slashing the girl helps how? Anita wasn't going to call her, so it can't be to prevent her from going over? I guess it's meant to be a threat to the men that she'll do more if they don't call back, because the as-of-yet unnamed male who resembles the woman says "Lacey." and starts to go over to Reba and her. I find it odd that she has just had her FACE SLASHED OPEN and yet there's a period after her name, not an exclamation point. Hunter informs Anita that this woman and man are twins.
Rather than try to call for any help for Lacey, Anita just antagonizes Reba further by noting that she must have used a blade on her because she can't just shift her hands only; if you'll recall, we learned in Skin Trade that really powerful therians can selectively shift just small parts of their bodies, such as hands into paws/claws, if they so wish it. Anita, just because she didn't do something doesn't mean she can't. Maybe she doesn't want to use the energy that would take because she knows she'll probably have to conserve it all to fight against the ridiculous power level you posses as a Canon Sue. Maybe she just likes blades the way you like guns even though you never need to use them anymore except on your badly behaving boyfriends. Jared says that Reba only has one form, and Anita tells us that "I'd never seen a wereanything use a blade on another wereanimal before." BLATANTLY UNTRUE, YOU LYING LIAR WHO LIES! Ava used a knife on Rick in Skin Trade, and they were both weretigers. And while you didn't SEE it, Meph informed you that Thorn gave him the scar on his back with a knife, and we know that Fredo uses knives to fight. I'm betting there's a lot of examples from other books too, so if you out there in the comments remember any, feel free to add them!
"Reba had just admitted that she was too weak to shapeshift fast enough to fight." No, using a blade does not admit that. It doesn't admit anything, for the reasons I stated above. I mean, yes, Anita will of course turn out right, but her reasons are still illogical and stupid. "She only changed into a big tiger, no half-human form for her. So weak." YEAH, SHE JUST BECOMES A GIANT TIGER, SOUNDS REAL WEAK TO ME, SURE. Seriously, even by the standards of this series in-universe, turning into a big freaking tiger is still a threat unless that happens to be your animal to call, and even then it's not a sure bet with a wereanimal, as shown with Nikolaos/Rafael, Vittorio/Victor, etc. It looks like Lacey is probably also 'weak' as well, since when Reba pulls her arm enough to hurt, Lacey just makes small sounds instead of trying to fight back or get free. Can I just note that at this point every single female weretiger we have met has been weak as either a character or in terms of power?
- Bibiana seemed awesome at first, but then she got whipped by Vittorio while Victor and Rick were the only tigers powerful enough to stand against him. She's also depicted as second banana to her husband, even concerning what HER tigers do.
- Ava did not shift and she used a knife, not any tiger powers, which by Anitaverse logic means she was a 'weakling' too
- Envy was not noted as having any significant power at all, and no role beyond a sex toy
- Jade seemed powerful but it turned out to be the power of her vampire master; Jade herself is emphasized as fragile, and had to be fucked into 'freedom' aka new enslavement by Anita
- Julia was proclaimed "no queen" and no contest for Anita
- I don't think Christine ever did anything of note
- Soledad did attack Anita, but she failed to kill her, and I think was killed by her. I haven't read the book she appears in, so I can't say whether she was a worthy opponent or not.
- Reba is...well, you're reading it.
This would be annoying enough in general, but it's even more so from a species where the reader was promised the females were the stronger ones.
Anita says that Lacey being hurt "pissed me off, and better yet it pissed off the red tiger." No, I think what pisses you off is the attention got taken off you for a second there. "She'd missed her own kind." Again, what is with these tigers and wanting to be around other tigers, especially based on color morphs? "They all smelled like home" I am getting tired of this phrase, what does it even mean "and she didn't like them getting hurt." Unless it's Anita hurting them, of course.
http://lliira.dreamwidth.org/
This one goes out to Anita and her 'noble' attempt at bisexuality! Even if hers didn't get quite this...in your face. Or rather, her face.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n39RzgVNP8
I feel a distinguishment has to be made that LKH has failed to make. That is the distinguishment regarding the term "animal to call" since it can mean two things and sometimes they overlap and it's really confusing.
The first way that "animal to call" is used refers to a specific animal species that a Master vampire can summon and control. If the Master vampire is powerful enough, this may extend to the therian counterparts of the animal (if there is one), though more powerful therians may be able to fight this. For instance, Nikolaos could call rats and thus wererats as well, though she could not control Rafael because he was too powerful. These people and animals are not bound to the vampire calling them in any way, and their free will is only lost when the vampire is controlling them, not permanently. It's roughly the same as when a vampire temporarily rolls or hypnotizes a human.
The second way the term "animal to call" is used is to refer to the therian version of a Master vampire's human servant. It's exactly what a human servant is: Bound to the vampire forever by their very life force, meaning the therian or human is immortal and ageless like the vampire but also that if one dies the other may as well, and that the therian or human is subject to the will of the vampire Master. Unlike Brides such as Nicky, they can still have thoughts and opinions in disagreement with their Master, and can even try to fight against them, though a portion of their free will is still gone, just not all of it.
So far, we have only seen therian servants in the possession of vampires whose animal to call as a species matches the species of said therian servant. For instance, Jean-Claude calls wolves and werewolves, and Richard is his specific wolf to call. We've never seen a vampire who could call snakes with a therian servant that was a werefox, nor a vampire Master with no animal species to call who had a werelion servant. Note that this does not mean that these scenarios definitely couldn't happen though, as it's never been stated that they can't/that only a vampire who calls a certain animal can have a wereanimal of that type for his or her servant.
Obviously, this gets confusing as fuck, so I propose that until LKH makes up a separate term for an individual therian who is a human servant we use a fanon one: Therian Servant. At one roleplay, the term Animal Servant was used instead, but I find that pretty demeaning to the therians to refer to them as animals. Granted, Anitaverse vampires do treat therians in very demeaning ways, but this is for our reference, not theirs. So instead of saying "Okay, Anita's animal to call is tigers, and her tigers to call are Domino, Cynric, etc." we would say "Anita's animal to call is tigers, and her therian servants are Domino, Cynric, etc." Makes a lot more sense, y/n? If yes, then that's what I'm gonna call them during sporkings from now on (same as how I use the words therianthropy and therians even though LKLH doesn't)
Some more notes on this for people who are newer to the series, using my new and improved fan-terminology:
- A triumvirate is the bonding of a Master vampire, their Human Servant, and their Therian Servant altogether. It is very, very rare, and we have only seen two besides the ones Anita is involved with, one of which belonged to Padma, a Council Vampire, showing just what a serious level of power it takes.
- A vampire having both a human and a therian servant outside of a triumvirate has never been shown, and I believe it was stated to not be possible.
- Anita is in two triumvirates, despite this being stated as impossible.
- One of her triumvirates is the normal vampire/human/therian type, consisting of her, Richard, and Jean-Claude, but the other one (Anita/Damian/Nathaniel), though it is also made up of that same combination, is radically different: Rather than Anita being the Human Servant to a Master vampire, Damian is the Vampire Servant (the first and only known ever to exist *eyeroll*) to Anita as his Master necromancer, and Nathaniel as her Therian Servant, not Damian's. Naturally this is the first and only triumvirate of its kind.
- Anita is also unique in her ability to have multiple Therian Servants, one to match each of her inner beasts. Not only has no vampire been shown to be able to posess a therian and human servant at the same time outside a triumvirate, they have also never been shown to be able to have two Human Servants or two Therian Servants at once, let alone the hoard Anita has. It has been stated in canon that vampire can only have one human servant at one time (and cannot un-make one that they already have) and presumably it is the same for Therian Servants...unless the Master in question is, of course Anita.
- Just what Master of Tigers means is vague. Clearly it means something beyond just being able to call tigers as an animal to call (since Anita and other vampires like Max Bellici have already been shown to be able to do that and it's nothing special) but just what hasn't been established. My theory is that it will basically bind all the tigers worldwide to her as if they were her Therian Servants (or even Brides) in terms of her being able to take their free will and life force, but without binding her life force to all of them as with a Bride or Therian Servant (meaning she doesn't have to worry if one of them dies, etc.) Again, this is just my theory, since it's never been made explicit what being Master of Tigers actually is except that it's clearly different from just having tigers as your animal to call.
And now...
BULLET, CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN, PART ONE
Anita has a look at the other spy. He has short straight hair that is a "pale, nondescript color" I can only imagine is beige, and she figures it's dyed. His eyes are "pale brown, almost lion amber" and she recalls how Soledad's eyes were also brown in human form but had yellow and orange eyes in tiger form. She wonders if only some golden tigers change eye colors when they shift. He doesn't look Chinese like Yiyu, whom she refers to as Jade, but like Bibiana his eyes "are uptilted and there was something exotic to the bone structure." I cannot express how much it makes me twitch that non-white = exotic. Also how it's okay for them to take little bits of PoC traits in order to look ~exotic!~ but never, y'know, actually not-white, unless you're fragile little Jade who totally isn't just like the sexualized-yet-passive China Doll stereotype at all...and by totally isn't I mean she totally seems that way to me so far.
Anita says that he isn't as old as Jade, he asks how she knows, and "his voice, like the rest of him, seemed delicate. He was like most of the older weretigers, not very big. Taller than me, but then most men were." YES. YES WE KNOW. WE KNOW. YOU'RE SO SHORT. Anita tells him that he feels younger. He shifts in the metal bindings he was put in, presumably by Wicked and Truth I guess, and she says that "they were a new type of cuff that was being tried by law enforcement for the preternaturally strong." WELL ABOUT FUCKING TIME FOR THAT. Wicked touches his shoulder, and Anita notes that his other hand holds a "naked" gun...does that mean a gun out of its holster? Because I wouldn't think he'd be holding it in his hand if it was in the holster...anyway, Anita says that this weretiger had just "given up, just let them capture him" but since he's Harlequin she's not too sure. Truth is holding "a short sword bare in his hand". Bare, naked...even the weapons walk around nude here!
Anita says that through Jade, she knows that his name is Topaz and that like a topaz his tiger is a "deep, golden yellow". A woman speaks up and says that he's not a golden tiger at all. Anita turns to see who spoke: :"It was one of the two female weretigers" with hair "a red so dark it was almost a kind of black" that is "cut just above her shoulders, so that the end edges of the hair framed her face." Her skin and hair are both darker than any of the other tigers. Her eyebrows are black, her eyes "the orange and yellow of fire." Anita must have been zoning out again like when she went on and on about how Meph's bod looked, because the red lady repeats that this dude is not a gold tiger. Anita asks why not, the woman "made a derisive sound" and crosses her arms, and Anita notes she is wearing a red designer dress made of shiny material that Anita thinks "is an unfortunate choice for her coloring, but she hadn't asked me." See? Anita is perfect for inane catty cocktail small talk! Or, wait, no, she is terrible because she insults everyone.
The woman says that "Because gold is supposed to control us all. If there were a true gold tiger in this room we would all be bound to his will." Wow, if I were a weretiger, I would NOT want gold tigers around, ever! Don't tell them about the ones Jake brought, they might kill them! Also, I like that this implies Anita is NOT true gold since, you know, they're not all bound to her will...well, not yet. "I feel nothing." And that includes from you either Anita! "He's just a survivor with delusions." I could see that. An orange tiger whose shade of orange happens to be kinda yellowy orange and they play that up, that would actually be a kinda neat idea. Anita admits that it's true she doesn't feel any real energy coming from this guy, and that while she trusts Jade's memories she also doesn't have any proof beyond that. Honestly, I don't see why his color is an issue so much as HE IS A HARLEQUIN SPY, AND IN LEAGUE WITH THE HARLEQUIN YOU SURELY JUST ROYALLY PISSED OFF BY TAKING JADE!
Anita asks if this woman "would really want him flexing metaphysical muscle" if he could indeed control all the tigers with them. Because conversations clearly don't work on normal rules in the Anitaverse, the woman retorts that she "enjoyed the floor show, though I thought the women were sent here for Jean-Claude, not you. I don't do women." Anita notes that "she made it sound like doing them was somehow bad." Ah, yes, I see, this is to further address claims of homophobia from the haters; basically a straw-homophobe will show up for Anita to seem tolerant in comparison to. Also, Anita, maybe she just thinks doing YOU is a bad thing, given what she's just seen and your track record that she has doubtlessly heard about. That's probably why the tone. I'd hate to walk in there thinking that I would be safe from the DoomCrotch and then finding out she's now willing to rape the ladies as well.
Anita sees that Jade is "standing with Domino off to one side. She was looking away, down, her posture as if someone had struck her." Wait, is the idea that what this lady just said is why she looks upset? Versus, you know, anything that just happened with Anita?! Anita thinks about how she's not usually into girls either but "I couldn't regret anything I'd done with Jade." I can though. "Even now, I wanted to touch her" and so she does so, and Jade gives her a "shy, pleased smile that made it worth noticing her pain." WORTH noticing her pain? WORTH?! Oh...my god...I just...what?! Jade comes to cuddle against her shoulder "the way I did to some men" because of course Anita is going to be her big strong maaan, she's even taller than her because she is a delicate fragile abused China Doll OH GOD IMMA GAG.
There is now a look of disgust on the red tigress's face. We are probably supposed to see this as homophobic, but I see it as her being disgusted at Anita having raped and brainwashed someone yet again, and also the fact that I think Anita is actually doing this cuddling just to piss Red Lady off. The fact that Anita notes that this look of disgust "made me smile" strengthens my theory. Ugh she is such a teenager. Red Lady tells her that she felt Anita's power over the white tigers but that "the red clan is made of sterner stuff." Anita asks who she is, Victor says that "She's Reba, daughter of the Red Queen." Anita says she expected her brother, who, for those who don't know, is Alex, the first red tiger Anita met. He's a journalist, prince/Li Da of the Red Clan, and got pyrokinesis after Anita had sex with him. Hence the idea Bibi suggested waaay back of sending all these tigers here so she could screw them into superpowers too.
Reba tells her that "Alex is out of the country on some journalist assignment. He's catching a plane and disrupting all his plans because you and your master put on the call." Anita says that "she made it sound ridiculous" and, frankly, this whole book is ridiculous, especially the fact she needs to FUCK ALL THE TIGER MEN TO GIVE THEM SUPERPOWERS bit, so yeah, I agree with Reba here. Anita looks at the men who are with Reba, and among them is Hunter, the red tiger stripper she boned in Skin Trade with "hair the color they tell you is red in school" which is a really awakward way of phrasing it in my opinion. I'd have said something like "pigment red" or "real red, the color of an apple rather than a carrot" or something like that. Just me there. He waves and smiles at her and she thinks that "I'd rather have had Alex" Hunter has a face slightly long for her tastes, remember? "but I'd already slept with Hunter." He's good enough to bang, just not harem material! "He was one of the few in this room I could say that about." Well, yeah, the idea was for you to bone weretigers into their powers like you did Alex, right? So why send you the ones you've already slept with that failed to get powered up from that? Sending you untried ones is probably the better bet for results. I guess she's trying to do some "see, I'm not slut!" thing here, but it just makes me headtilt. God, Anita, sleeping with loads of people is NOT a problem. The problem is that it's pretty much never consensual with you or at least not something you want to do just for the sake of sex itself. Moving on...
Reba commands Hunter not to flirt with Anita, Hunter says that's why their here. Reba says that "My mother made us come, but I'm the dominant red here, and that means if I say, no, it's no." Awkward commas but I like her. Just because the men are meant to sleep with Anita doesn't mean they have to get friendly with her. Flirting will make her like them, and her liking them means she might keep them instead of just boning them. Reba is being sensible. Anita hugs Jade, kisses her head, and "sent her back to Domino." This just reads as so infantilizing to me. She then "looked down" Reba and says she'll be right back...I guess she's speaking to Jade? But she doesn't go anywhere, she just steps into the middle of the room and, big surprise, starts another pissing contest because a woman, like Jade and Julia before her, is not complying with her will.
Anita says that what she is about to do would work on everyone that she slept with in Vegas...so basically whether you become a harem member or not, one dip in the DoomCrotch means you're hers. Or not even that, as poor Jacob proved. Anita holds her hand out and tells Hunter to come to her. He smiles and starts to do it, but Reba tells the other men to grab him and "Don't let her bewitch him, too." REBA IS ON TO YOUR SHIT, ANITA! Anita's red tiger circles inside her, growls, and sniffs the air, and both she and Anita "wanted the red tigers. We wanted people who smelled of home." What is this 'home' shit with all the tigers? Also you don't want them because of how they smell, you wanted them the second you realized they might not just be handed over to you!
Anita and her red tiger have a look at what the men who are holding Hunter back, since men are still what she's only interested in now that LKH has thrown a token lady into the harem to appease the haters and/or maybe as a shout-out/dedication to the lesbian couple who replaced Darla on her staff. Both have short hair, but one has "waves that promised if he'd grow it longer it would be like the other woman" oh, there's one besides Reba "with her soft waves that fell around her shoulders." Both he and this woman have skin "that was closer to human redheads, all peaches and cream, and the red of their hair held an orange undertone to it rather than a black." I like that there can be variances like this even in groups where everyone has white hair and blue eyes, red hair and yellow eyes, etc. Although it's kind of funny to me that Anita thinks all human redheads have the same complexion when she works with a guy (Jamison Clarke, remember him? Shows up in GP and The Laughing Corpse) who is a black man with red hair. Because of this and their similarly solid yellow eyes and bone structure that makes their faces "a little long through the cheeks" she assumes they are "siblings maybe, or close cousins". She then realizes Hunter has that same facial shape and strongly yellow eyes and wonders "How intermarried was everyone in their clan?" Probably conveniently enough for the women not to be able to screw the men within this little band, as with the golden tigers.
Now that she's spent half a page on all that, she devotes a paragraph to what the second man holding Hunter looks like. If you care, his hair is "the palest red of all" pink? "falling around his ears in unruly curls and waves as if it he were growing it out" because he probably heard how you like 'em, Anita, and wanted to be sure he'd be first in line for super-powers...of course, that was before he saw what you did to Hunter here. I bet he's rethinking things now. Oh, and curiously, his eyes are "gray with green in them" and Anita thinks she likes his face best of all of them and that "it was a little like trying to pick a kitten from a little, except you aren't trying to decide which kitten you'd like to have sex with" BECAUSE THEY AREN'T KITTENS, THEY'RE PEOPLE.
Reba breaks this endless parade of descriptions by proclaiming "You aren't our master, Anita Blake. You can't even make one of us cross this room to you. My mother sent us because all the other tigers urged her to, but she believes like I do that you are just another pretender to our throne." YOU AND YOUR MOTHER ARE SMART AND I LIKE YOU. I am also intrigued by the idea they get regular pretenders. Reba then accuses Anita's "two males" of the white tigers of "teaching our secrets to outsiders" oh good, are there going to be consequences for that please? "and giving her and her vampire master delusions of grandeur." Oh, she had those WELL before them, Reba! Victor tells Reba that she hasn't "tasted" Anita's power yet and that when she does she'll understand that Crispin and Domino are no longer "ours to command."
Meanwhile, Anita "decided not to choose. I'd call whichever one wanted to come the most." Pun intended? She holds up her hand and says "Red tigers, red tigers, come to me." That doesn't stop sounding no matter how many times I read it. Like someone trying to sound mystic and majestic while saying Red Rover Red Rover Let Charlie Come Over. "But it wasn't the words that called them" because they are stupid words "it was the energy." Then why speak at all? Oh, to sound cool. And fail at it. "Once I'd accidentally called every color of unmated male tiger in the country when Marmee Noir had been trying to make me her perfect vessel" and then decided not to because she doesn't want a body riddled with supernatural STDs "but I'd learned to narrow my focus." Ah yes, her Call All Males power. I still can't believe this is a canon thing. You'd think it's a joke, but no, she calls all males. Tiger males specifically but still.
Hunter pulls free, and the other men don't fight or chase him, they just stare at Anita as Reba yells after Hunter. He of course ignores her and starts kissing Anita's hand and up her arm and since he's six feet "it was easier to drop to his knees to kiss his way up my lower arm than to bend over." Suuuure that's why LKH has men kneel before Anita. Sure. You know, when I write Lucy having people kneel before her, it's SUPPOSED to be because she's a power-control freak. Like, that's the idea. I don't try to lie to my readers (well, hypothetical readers, I'm not a real novelist yet) about it. "Every kiss grew the energy between us" remember when magical energy was raised by serious stuff like self-injury and sacrificing chickens? "Sex didn't make tiger energy stronger; that was my little extra, Jean-Claude's ardeur, and my succubus." Wait, she has an inner succubus now along with inner beast? I thought succubus/incubus were just terms to refer to Belle Morte vampires with the ardeur? KEEP YOUR CANON STRAIGHT LKH JEEBUS.
The one with the pale red hair (I guess she means it's not uber-dark-red like the others and is just regular red?) comes to her next. His name is apparently Jared, given that's what Reba calls him when she commands him unsuccessfully to come back here. SHE'S TRYING TO SAVE YOU, DINGUS, LISTEN TO HER! He does at least stop in his tracks, "obviously torn." Oh thank heavens, he still has a chance! But then Hunter bites Anita's neck which for some reason "tipped the energy closer to sex" however that makes sense and Anita starts making "small noises" and he runs his hand up her thigh so high it's tracing the edge of her thigh-highs and then a third pair of hands starts up her other leg, and, surprise, it's Jared! And the other male too, the one that looks like the other woman. On his knees like a good boy, of course. His fingers go "just at the edge of the cloth of the thong. Either it was a way of teasing me, or he was waiting for permission to cross that last lacy barrier." THIS WOMAN LITERALLY CANNOT STOP WRITING ABOUT SEX NO MATTER WHAT IS GOING ON.
"I felt the energy spike, red tiger, hot and angry, and it wasn't us." Gee, I wonder who it could be? Oh, looks like Reba has a knife in her hand, drawn from a thigh holster under her dress. See, Anita, you're not the only one who can come prepared! And, unlike you, she actually had good reasons for wanting to bring a weapon to a party, namely self-defense against the exact shit you're pulling now. But, of course, because Reba is meant to be a Jealous Hater and thus a terrible person in all regards, she doesn't attack Anita but has instead slashed open the face of the other red tiger woman. She then roars "You can't have us!" at Anita. I like the sentiment, but slashing the girl helps how? Anita wasn't going to call her, so it can't be to prevent her from going over? I guess it's meant to be a threat to the men that she'll do more if they don't call back, because the as-of-yet unnamed male who resembles the woman says "Lacey." and starts to go over to Reba and her. I find it odd that she has just had her FACE SLASHED OPEN and yet there's a period after her name, not an exclamation point. Hunter informs Anita that this woman and man are twins.
Rather than try to call for any help for Lacey, Anita just antagonizes Reba further by noting that she must have used a blade on her because she can't just shift her hands only; if you'll recall, we learned in Skin Trade that really powerful therians can selectively shift just small parts of their bodies, such as hands into paws/claws, if they so wish it. Anita, just because she didn't do something doesn't mean she can't. Maybe she doesn't want to use the energy that would take because she knows she'll probably have to conserve it all to fight against the ridiculous power level you posses as a Canon Sue. Maybe she just likes blades the way you like guns even though you never need to use them anymore except on your badly behaving boyfriends. Jared says that Reba only has one form, and Anita tells us that "I'd never seen a wereanything use a blade on another wereanimal before." BLATANTLY UNTRUE, YOU LYING LIAR WHO LIES! Ava used a knife on Rick in Skin Trade, and they were both weretigers. And while you didn't SEE it, Meph informed you that Thorn gave him the scar on his back with a knife, and we know that Fredo uses knives to fight. I'm betting there's a lot of examples from other books too, so if you out there in the comments remember any, feel free to add them!
"Reba had just admitted that she was too weak to shapeshift fast enough to fight." No, using a blade does not admit that. It doesn't admit anything, for the reasons I stated above. I mean, yes, Anita will of course turn out right, but her reasons are still illogical and stupid. "She only changed into a big tiger, no half-human form for her. So weak." YEAH, SHE JUST BECOMES A GIANT TIGER, SOUNDS REAL WEAK TO ME, SURE. Seriously, even by the standards of this series in-universe, turning into a big freaking tiger is still a threat unless that happens to be your animal to call, and even then it's not a sure bet with a wereanimal, as shown with Nikolaos/Rafael, Vittorio/Victor, etc. It looks like Lacey is probably also 'weak' as well, since when Reba pulls her arm enough to hurt, Lacey just makes small sounds instead of trying to fight back or get free. Can I just note that at this point every single female weretiger we have met has been weak as either a character or in terms of power?
- Bibiana seemed awesome at first, but then she got whipped by Vittorio while Victor and Rick were the only tigers powerful enough to stand against him. She's also depicted as second banana to her husband, even concerning what HER tigers do.
- Ava did not shift and she used a knife, not any tiger powers, which by Anitaverse logic means she was a 'weakling' too
- Envy was not noted as having any significant power at all, and no role beyond a sex toy
- Jade seemed powerful but it turned out to be the power of her vampire master; Jade herself is emphasized as fragile, and had to be fucked into 'freedom' aka new enslavement by Anita
- Julia was proclaimed "no queen" and no contest for Anita
- I don't think Christine ever did anything of note
- Soledad did attack Anita, but she failed to kill her, and I think was killed by her. I haven't read the book she appears in, so I can't say whether she was a worthy opponent or not.
- Reba is...well, you're reading it.
This would be annoying enough in general, but it's even more so from a species where the reader was promised the females were the stronger ones.
Anita says that Lacey being hurt "pissed me off, and better yet it pissed off the red tiger." No, I think what pisses you off is the attention got taken off you for a second there. "She'd missed her own kind." Again, what is with these tigers and wanting to be around other tigers, especially based on color morphs? "They all smelled like home" I am getting tired of this phrase, what does it even mean "and she didn't like them getting hurt." Unless it's Anita hurting them, of course.
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But then, I guess that's the reasoning you get when you decide that conventional heroism was a dumb idea and that you have a duty to make yourself as safe as possible, and to hell with how many people you have to kill or enslave to do it. From that perspective, anyone weaker than you who attacks you is acting immorally (because putting yourself at risk = choosing death = immoral behaviour) and therefore have already proven themselves to be in the wrong.
Rather than Anita being the Human Servant to a Master vampire, Damian is the Vampire Servant (the first and only known ever to exist *eyeroll*) to Anita as his Master necromancer, and Nathaniel as her Animal Servant, not Damian's.
I think you meant to say "Therian Servant" there - you said a little earlier than you didn't like the term "Animal Servant"?
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Not to mention it's un-heroic not only for moral reasons, but also because, well, defeating someone weaker isn't impressive at all.
I think you meant to say "Therian Servant" there - you said a little earlier than you didn't like the term "Animal Servant"?
Whoops! I'm still used to calling them that because that was the term used in roleplay *goes to fix*
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Or maybe it’s because the woman is STRAIGHT? Is this going to be another rehash of “Oh, Richard is SOOO homophobic because he doesn’t want to sleep with my harem!” again?
/WORTH noticing her pain?/
Oh, poor, poor Anita. Don’t think of the woman who was actually hurt, dear readers. No, think of how it hurts ANITA to see somebody else hurt.
Let’s see: rape, misogyny, rape apologia, now let’s throw in “manpain” to add to Anita’s growing list of “honorary male chauvinist” traits.
/"hair the color they tell you is red in school"/
…What? Okay, just another sign that Anita is emotionally and mentally a kindergartner.
/God, Anita, sleeping with loads of people is NOT a problem. The problem is that it's pretty much never consensual with you or at least not something you want to do just for the sake of sex itself./
And the fact that she thinks of all the people that’s she banged as objects to possess and abuse at will.
/Anita hugs Jade, kisses her head, and "sent her back to Domino." This just reads as so infantilizing to me./
That’s because it is. *Looks down on imaginary checklist* Okay, now let’s add “creepy fantasy where protagonist plays dual role of father/lover to younger, foreign woman with an Electra Complex” to the list.
/she just steps into the middle of the room and, big surprise, starts another pissing contest because a woman, like Jade and Julia before her, is not complying with her will./
Oh, my Lord. Is this going to happen with every single woman in this room? Come on. This is so pathetic and ridiculous. Anita is simultaneously acting out lines from the Misogynistic Abuser’s Handbook by lashing out at any woman who dares to question her authority while desperately trying to prove to all of the men in the room: “Look at me, look at me! I’m so much better than these ickie women, boys! Don’t you see how awesome I am? Don’t you want to have sex with me right now? Look at MEEEE!”
/Anita holds her hand out and tells Hunter to come to her./
*à la Darth Vader* Join me, and together we can rule St. Louis as mistress and slave!
/I like the sentiment, but slashing the girl helps how?/
It doesn’t. LKH is just trying (and failing) to make Reba look worse than Anita.
/YEAH, SHE JUST BECOMES A GIANT TIGER, SOUNDS REAL WEAK TO ME, SURE./
Whereas Miss Perfect Anita can’t shapeshift at all. So, in addition to sounding incredibly stupid, Anita just sounds like a sniveling little sore loser. “Pfft, she can shift into a giant tiger that can devour me whole! No big deal.”
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Sweet cheeses, that is EXACTLY it!
LKH is just trying (and failing) to make Reba look worse than Anita.
And it really says something that she is indeed failing.
Whereas Miss Perfect Anita can’t shapeshift at all. So, in addition to sounding incredibly stupid, Anita just sounds like a sniveling little sore loser. “Pfft, she can shift into a giant tiger that can devour me whole! No big deal.”
Ahahahaha, that is an excellent point! I made a :D face in real life.
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That's exactly what I was thinking. LKH has branched out, and now she's going to make any woman who doesn't want sex with her own gender terrible as well.
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Says Anita who disdains nasty girly things like clothes and fashion and has to be dressed by others to make sure she gets it right. I can't imagine why anyone would ask Anita. And of course, the nasty ebil jellus hater tiger-lady also dresses badly. Of course.
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Someone has been reading too much Twilight. Topaz actually comes in a variety of colors including blue, green, pink and other colors. Pure topaz is colorless, it hasn't been tinted by impurities which are what give gemstones their colors in the first place.
"is an unfortunate choice for her coloring, but she hadn't asked me."
Why does Anita constantly comment on the fashion and beauty choices of women, then in the same breath talks about how she isn't into such 'girly' things like fashion? Two other women had to help dress Anita, she is not in the position to make judgement calls on another woman's fashion, particularly when she seems to see fashion or any interest in such as being useless and 'too girly.'
She was looking away, down, her posture as if someone had struck her.
BECAUSE YOU JUST FUCKING RAPED HER. THIS IS THE BEHAVIOR OF A RAPE VICTIM. PLEASE LKH, STOP TURNING SEX INTO RAPE VICTIMS AS SOME SORT OF FETISH.
"I couldn't regret anything I'd done with Jade." I can though. "Even now, I wanted to touch her"
There, right there. Anita is attracted to rape victims, she enjoys seeing their pain and terror. It's like a fucking turn-on for her.
"They all smelled like home" I am getting tired of this phrase, what does it even mean
I don't even understand it myself. Tigers aren't even pack/group animals. What the fuck is this supposed to mean? I think that LKH trying to justify why she has to gather tigers of every color, just to soothe the tigers inside her or some bullshit. Again, tigers aren't pack animals, and tigers don't give a fuck about needing other tigers. Tigers will fuck other big cats like lions or even leopards (seriously look those up, very pretty hybrids).
There is this disturbing focus on racial purity. Pure were-tigers and pure were-tiger colors. And Anita is very intent on collecting only the purest of men, only the purest were-tigers are the strongest and only the purest are fit to 'breed' with her tiger queens. I don't have to explain why this is wrong on so many levels, but for some reason LKH must be the most oblivious person in the world to miss this. Does she just live in this happy, sunshine filled world that is completely free of racism?
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Not to mention we've never been given any sort of rationale regarding why the weretigers do value pureblood so much. In Harry Potter, there was the belief that having children with "less pure" people would cause said children to be weaker in their magical ability, so that continuous intermarriage of that nature would lead to them losing their magic as a race and the collapse of wizarding society. It was an erroneous belief, just like its many real-life counterparts, but it at least explained why the bigotry was a part of wizarding culture. With the tigers, there's no justification, it's just....there. The closest we get is the golden weretigers being important to defeating MOAD and so their race had to be saved from extinction, but that doesn't seem to necessarily connect in any way to the purebred-obsession that all the tigers as a culture have. I think LKH just figured it sounded neat and would give cheap angst to hotties and ways Anita could be superior to other people ("Unlike those shallow tiger women, I don't reject you, Angsty Mixed-Blood Weretiger Hottie!" ) and never bothered to think through WHY that belief would be there...probably because she has no understanding of/has never had to think about how bigots rationalize and believe what they do, especially as a culture versus just as individuals.
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I had the exact same feeling. It's so disheartening when the characters you want to cheer for are always the ones you know will be defeated and humiliated.
but since her DNA still says male she was drawn to Anita as well and Reba was trying to snap her out of it by any means necessary
Which reminds me of something I thought to myself last night: It was stated that Anita's call-all-males thing caused every unmated male tiger in the country to try to go to her. Every. Unmated. Male. Every single one. Meaning that either there are inexplicably no gay or asexual men among the weretigers, or Anita's male-calling overrides natural sexual orientation. Likewise, there's no mention of lesbians trying to come to her, so clearly it is just a gender thing that has nothing to do with whether the person being 'called' actually likes women or not. This would fit with Anita's need to bone even gay men (such as Byron) and LKH now making it so no one can complain if she bones a 'gay' weretiger now---"It's not that he's changing for her, really, it's just that her call all males thing did it!"
Not that I'm equating transgender women with gay men, just that the mention of where LGBT folks in general would fit in with this ridiculous mess made me remember that idea.
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Actually, about Soledad... (http://lkh-lashouts.livejournal.com/332049.html)
"At any rate, Anita understands what Peter is trying to tell Cisco, and she throws her head back as Peter drops to his knees to shoot out Soledad's legs. It wasn't the best plan, because she went down while her claws were still dug into Anita's stomach, and thus tore up quite a bit of it on the way down. There's a tussle, and Soledad attempts to attack Peter. Anita keeps her off of his throat, and Peter empties an entire clip into Soledad's head. "
"Finally, Anita realizes that Soledad's body hadn't "reverted to human form" the way a dead shifter's body normally does. The body "sprang up" and made a lunge at Peter and Cisco."
"Somehow, Peter was able to shoot a hole through Soledad's chest, while Cisco is still on the floor, sans his throat. Edward and Olaf aren't ruffled by the chaotic scene, and stand side-by-side, "like they were on a shooting range" and repeatedly fire perfect, accurate rounds into the tiger. Despite all the silver-bullet firepower, Soledad still hasn't gone down completely, which amazes Anita because she's never seen a shifter that can do that. Eventually, she realizes that Soledad is recovering like one of the rotting vampires, and she screams for someone to light Soledad on fire. "
"Olaf hears "fire", and it must be his Manchurian trigger word, because he takes off down the hallway. While he's gone, everyone else is running out of ammo, and since Anita's about to get clawed again, Claudia steps in and starts fighting "hand to claw" with Soledad. After a bit more scuffling about, Soledad takes off, ostensibly to warn Mercia and Nivia that Anita and her brigade of bodyguards are aware of their hiding place. Everyone scampers after her, until finally she's surrounded in a circle.
Soledad tells the group that killing her won't stop the Harlequin from doing away with them, since the "wild hunt" is still coming"
"In the meanwhile, Olaf comes running back with a can of WD-40, as well as "a torch made of rags bound to what looked like the end of a metal mop handle." Apparently, they had an "ordnance" in the car, but he figured the janitor's closet was closer. Edward lights up the torch, and Olaf tells Anita to cover him as he moves into the circle with the torch and "his squeezy can of accelerant." Anita shoots Soledad in the face again, and Olaf stuffs the torch into the hole.
After much wailing and moaning, Soledad is finally no longer moving, and Anita calls for an axe. Where's Gimli when you need him? While she's waiting, she tells Edward that Soledad had the healing capabilities of a rotting vampire from Morte d'Amour's line. She offers Olaf the heart while she deals with the head, and before long, everything is finished. "
To be fair, that was before LKH decided to make Anita the Most Special Rainbow Tiger Ever, so she undoubtedly would get worse treatment now. But I'd say that's a pretty impressive death sequence, wouldn't you? Has to be taken down by three elite sociopaths and several sidekicks. Highest praise Anita's world has these days.
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Alrighty, Soledad gets to be our One Cool Female Weretiger!....
....and thus the one that is dead.
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Also, aren't mixed breeds looked down upon in this culture? Why is everyone oooing and awing over Anita's panwere status? Shouldn't they be looking down their noses at her? Hey, it'll be another excuse for Anita to bitch about her not-quite-white-bread-ness
I love (and by love I mean fuck you) how Reba literately parrots Anita's earlier sentiments concerning sex with women, and we're supposed to boo her for her intolerance.
Reality warping Sue, indeed.
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And hahaha, right?
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2. ... I'm just gonna sit here giggling about the EYES having BONE STRUCTURE. Because she didn't say ANYTHING about the FACIAL STRUCTURE. Just the EYES. Eyeballs have bones in Anitaverse.
3. Um, LKH? You realize topax comes in an array of colors, right? Dumbass... So "like topaz" doesn't really qualify.
4. SOMEONE GET THAT GUN SOME CLOTHES. IT'S INDECENT.
5. IT'S FIRETRUCK RED, GOSH. WHY DON'T YOU GET THAT.
6. YOU.... YOU AREN'T PICKING KITTENS. THEY'RE PEOPLE. AND AND OH MY GOD THERE'S SO MUCH WRONG WITH THIS.
7. THIS PISSES ME OFF SO MUCH. I WANT GHISLAINE THERE RIGHT NOW. Anita would have no chance. They'd all just be like "...the fuck are you doing with the moaning shit?" except maybe those she's already tainted with her Doomcrotch. They'd be harder to win back over. A little.
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2) Considering how much eyes seem to convey in this universe, I totally believe this
4) SO SCANDALOUS!
5) FER REALS, THAT'S A WAY BETTER WAY OF CONVEYING IT
6) "Its like picking kittens! Only not!"
7) Rewriting the entire book with Ghislaine really wouldn't be a bad idea at all.
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7. I like it. She'd definitely side with Reba.
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It'll never happen, but I can dream.
(Also Reba's mother is badass in Hit List by making Anita jump through all kinds of power plays that she doesn't even understand but the lady never actually appears on screen. Anita just gets pissy and threatens to Call All The Men and even then the Red Queen is like lololwhatever.)
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And your idea sounds WONDERFUL
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