BULLET, CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN, PART TWO

[a_sporking_rat]

Some headcanons of mine posted at Lashouts!
http://lkh-lashouts.livejournal.com/591793.html#comments

For those of you out there who, like me, are aspiring writers of books that contain vampires! I found these very useful and I hope you will too!
http://springhole.net/writing/plotholes-in-vampire-fiction.htm
http://springhole.net/writing/write-believable-masquerades.htm

And now, some FUN FACTS!

- Herring anuses are specially formed to squeak at a higher frequency than other fish farts. They just fart along as they all swim through the ocean, so that if one herring gets lost, he follows the sounds of his farting school and doesn't follow some other fishes's farts instead because of their very specific-sounding herring farts. THE OCEAN IS FULL OF FARTS, YOU GUYS. FULL OF FARTS. FARTS. FULL OF 'EM.

- The Key Underwood Coon Dog Memorial Graveyard in Colbert County, Alabama, is dedicated for the burial of coon dogs

- The niece of the great Mongol leader, Kubla Khan, Princess Khutulun was described by Marco Polo as the greatest warrior in Khan’s army. She told her uncle she would marry any man who could wrestle her and win. If they lost they had to give her 100 horses....She died unmarried with 10,000 horses. THIS IS WHO I WANT TO BE!

- Despite its name, the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) species often produces individuals with abnormal colourings, including albinos and melanists as well as grey, platinum, amber, and the "samson" mutation (a woolly pelt which lacks guard hairs, with a brown and gray color that reminds me of agouti rats)

- Variants of the Cinderella story occur worldwide, not only throughout Europe but also in many countries of East Asia, South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The first known recorded "Cinderella" story was written by the ancient Greek historian Strabo in the 1st century BC, concerning a Greco-Egyptian girl named Rhodopis who lived who lived in the Greek colony of Naucratis in Ancient Egypt. It seems to have been based on a tale about a girl of the same name from Thrace that was written by Herodotus about five centuries earlier, but with magical elements added such as the god Horus, paving the way for the addition of the fairy godmother in the modern Western versions.

- Humans are deuterostomes, which means that when they develop in the womb the anus forms before any other opening. Which basically means at one point you were nothing but an asshole.

Just like the main character in...


BULLET, CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN, PART TWO

Anita tells Reba to let Lacey go., and her voice echoes dramatically and something about red mist being solid. Reba says that "She's mine!" and Anita says "No, she's not!" and basically it's like two kids playing tug of war over a toy except this is a human being, one who is currently wounded and bleeding. Anita moves towards them "faster than I should have been able to move." Since Anita can, as we saw with Meph, apparently move as fast as a therian, she must be fucking teleporting at this point. "It was as if I were there beside them before I'd had time to think." Yeah, basically one step from teleportation, called it. Reba tries to slash Anita while at the same time moving Lacey "back with her" (did Lacey get away from her?) and "that one slash let me know that she didn't know how to fight with a knife."

OH COME ON YOU CAN'T EVEN FUCKING GIVE HER THAT, LKH? In addition to your misogyny and lack of logic showing (why would she bring something she couldn't effectively use? and why wouldn't she learn to use it to substitute for claws?), let me assure you that it also doesn't make Anita look at all tough or cool to go up against an opponent who not only lacks any advantage at all but whom you have in fact gone out of your way to make sure is as little a threat as possible. She is just so fucking determined that no woman ever gets any real power that she's actually willing to rob ANITA of the glory and cool points she'd get from taking out a really powerful opponent...or maybe she thinks it is cool to beat up those weaker than you, I'd not be too surprised by that.

Anita smiles, Reba says she'll cut her, Anita says she won't and moves towards her and even though Reba has therian speed "so did I, and I had the training." Anita knocks her to the floor and pins her knife arm behind her back. Lacey runs to the other tigers. Anita tells her to drop the knife or she'll break her arm. Reba doesn't drop it, so Anita starts to hurt her, so she cries out and drops it. Anita kicks it out of reach, Truth picks it up, Anita tells the readers it must be "so hard to bodyguard someone when they have to do their own fighting." GOD, THE SMUG, IT BURNS!

Anita tells her that "It's against every rule for you to use a knife to discipline your people." Wait, that's a rule? When did THAT come up? "If you aren't queen enough to shapeshift and do it right" like you do, Anita? OH WAIT YOU DON'T "then you aren't allowed to be queen at all." She never said she was queen. She said she was the dominant red, and this may fucking shock you, Anita, but in the animal kingdom dominance is NOT always determined by who has the most physical power, which you seem to be judging it on here. Since real tigers don't live in groups, there's no model to go off of how weretiger groups should determine dominance, and thus how they do it is really anyone's guess, especially since their culture is canonically very mysterious and isolationist. But since determining dominance in ways other than just 'who is the biggest/best fighter' is more common among the more intelligent mammals, which weretigers certainly are since they're human and have human intellect, I'd hazard a guess that that is indeed more likely to be how they do it. Reba can be a dominant red in this group just fine, queen or not, able to hybrid-shift or not. And frankly, you instructing someone else on how to rule their people is just SICKENING.

Reba responds with "Look who's talking, human!" and I love her EVEN MORE. Unsurprisingly, Anita ignores the existence of this remark and asks the other reds how bad Lacey is hurt. One of the men says that the blade was silver, and Anita promises Reba that if Lacey is scarred for life, Reba will be too. Yes, mark up the daughter of the Red Clan's Chang, who already distrusts you according to Reba, that is a GREAT idea, especially since you're trying to ally with all the tigers right now. JC, why are you letting this happen? You know better, I know you do. Reba clearly knows Anita is just dumb enough to do this, though, because her eyes widen and she stops struggling. Right after she stops struggling, Anita HURTS HER ARM MORE AS IF SHE IS GOING TO BREAK IT ANYWAY. "I couldn't grow claws and discipline her like a real queen" So by your own logic you aren't queen at all either "but I could do something that most dominants couldn't." Oh sweet Jesus I am afraid now. "It was a rarer gift" of course "and depending on how you did it, it hurt more." OH GOD. "I'd been gentle with the white tiger, Julia. I wouldn't be gentle with this one."

The energy of Anita's red tiger calls to that of Reba's tiger, and Anita commands for her to "Change for me." Reba says she won't, that Anita can't make her, and that "You are the survivor of an attack. You are not a pureblood." REBA, MARRY ME! Anita tries to eat Reba's anger, but finds that, of course, there's not actually much of it at all, that "it was a thin disguise for her fear" because she is a wimpy Other Woman. "She was so afraid, afraid of me, afraid of how weak she was" I really, really loathe you and your rampant Sueism so much, Anita. Also, as others pointed out last chapter, it actually probably took Reba a lot of courage to stand up to you considering your differing power levels, and to continue defying you even now through her fear. Reba has REAL courage.

Reba tells Anita to let go. Anita lets go of the joint lock, but not her arm, and next thing you know "I was straddling her waist, pinning both her arms to the floor." OH SHIT IT'S JUST LIKE WITH JULIA. Reba shows fear and anger in both her eyes and energy, understandably so, but she continues to be a badass and taunts Anita "Are you going to fuck me, too? Is that all you know how to do here in St. Louis?"

REBA IS PERFECT. REBA IS BEST CHARACTER. REBA NEEDS HER OWN DAMN SERIES.

Anita laughs and her eyes change to "not tiger, but vampire. My eyes if I'd been one for real."Anita feels Reba's fear overtake her anger as she pins Reba's arm down under one knee. Anita points out that Reba has the strength to fight her "but for all she tried to do she could have been human; hell most people would have fought, but she didn't."

Okay, we all know how rapey this scene is and what Anita is going to do with her; same thing as with Julia. So the fact she's making the point about Reba not fighting back is really disturbing. A lot of rape victims do not fight back, even when they physically could have. There are multiple reasons for this. Firstly, people freeze up when they are afraid. I know I can think back to a scary situation or two where I did, even though there were a lot of things I could have done that I only thought of after the danger was past. Everyone fucking says they'd do this or that or what have you if such and such happens to them, not just rape but any kind of disaster, but being in it is entirely different. Secondly, in rape specifically, many victims do not fight back because they are afraid of what their rapist will do to them for it. Reba may have super-strength, but so does Anita. Anita has demonstrated she can use hers combined very effectively with fighting training. She has also shown herself to have big-time metaphysical powers over other weretigers with the white tiger thing, and has threatened already to cut Reba up. Reba has every reason to believe that Anita can and will do her grievous bodily harm in addition to raping her if she fights back. And I sincerely believe that Anita knows this; she's already said Reba is afraid of her. She's just throwing in this "oh, well, she could fight back but she didn't!" shit for the same reason real-life rapists do: to claim that the victim wanted or deserved it.

Maybe we're supposed to find this just because of what Reba did to Lacey. Firstly, nothing justifies rape. Secondly, Anita is supposed to be the one in the right in this scenario. You are not in the right if you rape people. No, not even bad guys. Punitive rape is not okay no matter who it is against. Thirdly, who here thinks Anita is actually doing this for Lacey? Because I don't. Fourthly, while what Reba did to Lacey was horrid, yes, was it really that unique and 'wrong' in the context of therian culture? Because I think by now it's a well-established fact that therian leaders do awful things to their own people all the damn time and that's just how it is. It's sure as hell not right, but one has to wonder why only Reba here is getting penalized for it when Anita didn't do shit about how Haven was running the Pride for over a year. In fact, Anita's issue, according to her own words, is not that she cut Lacey but that she did it with a knife rather than claws. So she's not actually punishing her for what she did, just how she did it. I smell LOOKING FOR AN EXCUSE all over this.

Anita puts her hand on the back of Reba's neck and talks about how her skin is warm and her hair is silky and gives me the heebie-jeebies. Reba asks what she's doing, Anita says "Making my point" and THEN SHE FORCES A KISS ON HER. "She froze against me, as if she didn't know what to do." Which, as I've said, is a typical response of sexual assault victims. "I let my tiger spill into my mouth, and into hers." And now she's putting something into Reba against her will. "Not because I was about to change, or in danger, but because I needed her never to fight me again." So basically this is being done because Anita doesn't like a woman showing any will against her. I really cannot think of a more cliche rapist mentality.

This, by the way, is even though I got an Anthony Blake/Genderswap Anitaverse all laid out, I realize I can't write any serious fic of it. I'd just basically be rewriting all of all this grossness. I suppose there might be the benefit of 'maybe people will actually see how awful it is with the more familiar scenario of a man being the perpetrator' but I think my audience would only be people who already knew how awful it was regardless. I'd still like to use him for parody fics and stuff, because he's like an R-rated Gaston or something, but you just can't make THIS shit funny.

Anita tries to think, but her red tiger wants to kill Reba, and she has the "very practical thought that if we did this were would be no more arguing." Then she sees JC standing next to her and "knew it wasn't my thought" but admits she agrees with it, though she also says it is a "problem" that she agrees with it, which she says makes it hard for her to fight. I'm pretty sure JC would not send such an asinine thought into your head, Anita. Remember, daughter of the Chang here? Whose tigers you want on your side? Don't try and blame this idea on JC, he is way too fucking sensible for that.

Anita "had a moment of choice" and then she kisses Reba again and this time "it wasn't just the red tiger that spilled through me, it was all the other colors, only gold held back, but the other spilled into my mouth and across my lips and into her." No gold for you! "The energies tore her apart" and then there is "a wave of clear, warm fluid and blood" that "exploded across me". OH MY GOD DID SHE LITERALLY TEAR HER APART WITH THAT? No wait she must still be alive because "the violence of it tore screams from her, her body bucking under mine" yeah make this more rapey why don't you "until a tiger lay underneath me, shivering as if everything hurt." You know, you could make the argument here of Anita LITERALLY dehumanizing Julia and Reba into, respectively, hybrid and animal forms as a symbol for the figurative dehumanizing of how she's magically raping them. I almost wonder if that isn't LKH's subconscious intent. The tiger, which has fur "so dark a red it was almost as black as her stripes" looks at Anita with eyes that are "full of pain, and very afraid." Fucking happy now, Anita?

Anita gets up from her victim. She's a bit shaky so JC takes her hand to steady her. His eyes are "as blue and blind with power as mine were brown and black with it". She's also covered in blood and that weird clear shifter gunk fluid. She says that "The dress is ruined." WELL, SORR-REE. He assures her they'll buy another, then leads her over to stand in front of Topaz. Wow, I had forgotten about him. He's kneeling between the guards, and is clearly afraid of Anita. She asks if she needs to make her point again. He asks what I am--what point is that? She says the point is "That the tigers are ours." YOU ARE A SUPER VILLAIN. SERIOUSLY IF I HAD NEVER READ THIS SERIES AND THEN READ THIS CHAPTER ALONE I'D THINK THIS WAS TOLD FROM THE POV OF THE BAD GUY. "That we can be Master of Tigers. That's what you and the rest of your people came to St. Louis to find out, isn't it?"

He says she read that from Jade's mind, JC says yup, Topaz says his master knows what he knows and that they just need gold to complete the tigers. "That was our cue, or rather Devil's and Envy's." Devil. Ugh. "We were keeping the other golden tigers hidden, but the two that were ours" Wait, Envy just had sex, that's all, when did she get metaphysically bonded like Meph? "would get trotted out." Trotted out. Like show animals. This never stops being so gross to me, ugh. Anita thinks of Dev, JC thinks of Envy, Micah leads Dev by the hand to Anita while Richard leads Envy to JC and "handed her" to him. You know, like an object or small pet. Topaz stares at them and says, "The young ones we cared for were massacred. Those of us who were hiding them never told the others, so that if one was destroyed the others would be safe. My master and I didn't know if you would have more of my kind here."

Anita tells him that she knows Jade is envious that from what she's seen he and his master seem to love one another, and assures him that "I wouldn't break a love that's survived thousands of years. That's got to be rare even among vampires." This statement is really interesting to me, because she's assuring him she won't break his Master/Servant bond as she did with Vittorio/Sebastian and Abusive Vampire/Jade. Yet she doesn't call it that. She calls it love. Now, Topaz and his master may well love one another, but Anita has no power to break that, and if it is so enduring then it probably wouldn't matter to them if she did break their magical bond. But she's referring to their magical bond as being the same as love, as being one in the same, when, as is obvious with Jade and Sebastian, with Padma and Gideon and Carswell, it's not. However, look who this is coming from; all of Anita's harem, save for the late Haven, are bound to her with metaphysical ties. They can't ever just decide to walk away from her, she owns them psychically and their very lives are tied to hers. Some more than others, but still. And to her, we've seen that's what 'love' is. So it's not too surprising she'd conflate a co-dependent metaphysical bond to being one and the same with the love the two people who are bonded happen to share.

Topaz tells her that he didn't want to give up his bond to his Master, but also that he didn't know if golden tigers would be found in time to help Anita. Wait, is he implying that he was not only sent here to see if she could be Master of Tigers, but to also sacrifice himself to her as her Golden Tiger to Call if there were no others who could do the job? OH TOPAZ YOU POOR BABY. Jean-Claude butts in to say they could part him from his master. UM, HE KNOWS THIS, JC, HE JUST SAW IT WITH JADE. HE AND ANITA JUST ESTABLISHED THAT NEITHER SHE NOR HE WANTS THAT THOUGH, AND IT'S ALSO NOT NECESSARY, WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO PULL HERE YOU CREEPER? Topaz calmly responds to JC that if they want to do that, he doubts he and his master could stop it. This prompts Anita to ask "You really did come here to sacrifice yourself for the common good, didn't you?" Haha, even Anita knows becoming her harem slave is a sacrifice and not a privilege!

Topaz goes on a paragraph-long thing about how the golden tigers have learned from their mistakes and hidden for centuries, so that now, though they're thought to be the extinct ones, they in fact outnumber the black and blue clans. He tells JEAN-CLAUDE that they want and need him to be Master of Tigers (I thought it was Anita who was supposed to be MoT? Or her and JC together? it's been slightly unclear...) because "if we do this we break with the Darkness that made us, and if she ever gains power again she will make us long for true death long before she gives it to us." If you had actually learned from the mistakes of your history, then you would have learned from Vittorio NOT TO HAVE A MASTER OF TIGERS, ESPECIALLY NOT ONE LIKE ANITA AND/OR JEAN-CLAUDE. Supernaturals across the board are just not too bright, are they?

Anita asks why they would risk the MOAD's wrath to join Anita & Co, he says that the MOAD knows what they did now, which is, as JC helpfully tells the reader, "that it was her own beloved Harlequin who put her into that long-ago sleep." Topaz nods, and Anita says "So the white tiger's myth is true" and I REKINDLE ALL MY RAGE FROM WHEN BIBIANA WAS TELLING HER THINGS THAT MAKE PERFECT SENSE IN THE CONTEXT OF THIS SERIES AND ANITA WAS POOPOOING IT AS METAPHOR AND FAIRY TALES. Topaz is like yes it is and Anita raises her eyebrows. Just...stop being a stupid asshole about this at least, Anita. You don't look logical and rational and skeptical, you look like a moron. Like if Harry Potter didn't believe in magic. Topaz tells her that they'd heard of how she broke master/servant bonds "with the lion and the Master of Chicago" wait Haven was Auggie's Servant? "and the two Vegas tigers from their queen and master." Crispin and Domino weren't bonded to Max like that, though. He was their master in the same way as Nikolaos to the wererats, maybe, but not like the Master/Servant bonds. ALSO: This is another example of why the roleplay term Therian Servant is better than just having "animal to call" referring to both the animal/therian species one calls and the specific member of that therian species that is bonded like a Human Servant to one.

Anyway. He says that they knew there was a chance she'd take at least one of the them, him or Jade, from their masters, and reminds us that one of the MOAD's own abilities was "to break all bonds and bind only to her." Anita notes that Jade didn't know this whole plan, and Topaz says "No, because then her master would have known, and we considered him corrupt." Why trust him with this then? Oh, because, as Anita points out "Without Jade's energy to raise his level, you can kill him" and Topaz admits that yes, they were banking on Anita stealing Jade from him and making him weak enough to kill because they don't trust him. Wow, this is the most impressive/clever thing the Harlequin has ever done that I know of.

Of course, then they have to go and ruin this ruthlessness by having it be so that it was also done not just because of practical reasons but because they wanted poor little Jade free from the big meanie so she wouldn't die with him since she's suffered enough. JC says that Jade thought they did not see her suffering...which contradicts what we know, since Anita got from Jade's mind that she hated Topaz and his master for watching her suffer and doing nothing and she sent everything she learned from Jade to JC, so JC should know full well that Jade knew Topaz and his master were aware of her abuse. I'd like to think he's pulling some kind of manipulation here but I think LKH just made a continuity error within the space of a few chapters, which has sadly happened all too many times before.

He says that not only can Anita & Co free Jade, they can "free us all" and Anita "gave him the look that deserved" because she is an asshole before saying "We're good, but we aren't the immortal Darkness." He says she doesn't have to be, all she has to do is be able to cut master/servant ties...yeah, I don't buy that being all it takes. JC asks Topaz what he wants of them, Topaz responds by asking if they're really going to spare him and his master from having theirs cut despite the power JC and Anita could gain from it. It never stops making me do a double take on just how strangely conversations work in this universe. Anita tells Topaz they have enough power, he says they have a lot but more would be better, Micah says they'll find more, Topaz gushes about how they're sparing him and his master for loooooove. Anita looks at all her men and asks "What else is there?"

GAG ME WITH A SPORK

Topaz smiles up at them and his face is "shining with love close to adoration" but Anita tells us she's pretty sure it's because he's thinking of his master, not them. You know, probably. Topaz says that's what they were hoping to hear, Anita asks "So, you gambled centuries of happiness, your free will, and your very existence, on love?" SO SHE'S WELL AWARE SHE'S TAKING PEOPLE'S FREE WILL LEFT AND RIGHT HERE. He shrugs and asks if there's anything else worth gambling everything for and she tells him there isn't while "standing there holding everyone's hands" and "I believed that." OKAY BUT WHAT DOES IT HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING?!

This book is 96% over...chances of anything cool happening in the remaining pages seem very, very slim.

Comments

[watersheerie.livejournal.com]

This chapter...I just can't anymore...

LKH goes out of her way to paint Reba as this woman who is so much more weaker than Anita and absolutely terrified.

Yet Anita goes out of her way to make things as painful as possible: ...and depending on how you did it, it hurt more. , I'd been gentle with the white tiger, Julia. I wouldn't be gentle with this one.

She knows this woman is afraid and seems to enjoy it: it was a thin disguise for her fear, She was so afraid, afraid of me, afraid of how weak she was, full of pain, and very afraid.

Anita fights this woman knowing that she is much stronger than her, knowing that she is terrified of her. And she goes out of her way to make the experience as painful and frightening as possible for Reba, not because it's necessary, not because anyone is in danger (Not because I was about to change, or in danger,Making my point). She does it because she can. Anita is a bully with a lot of power, a lot of strength, and she has no issue using her power to bully others into be terrified of her for no reason beyond "I can." Having the ability is not reason enough to use it, she's in a position to be the better person and instead she goes out of her way to hurt others and make them afraid of her, not because they hurt her (no one can hurt her), but because she simply doesn't like them or the things they say. There was no reason to for this torture of Reba. It shows Anita as an over-powered psychopath with little self-control who will pistol-whip anyone at the drop of a hat. The other tigers shouldn't be impressed by her 'strength', instead they should be contemplating how safe it is to be linked to someone who will essentially torture and humiliate people over the slightest of insults. They should be wondering if there will be a day when they are on the floor with Anita straddling them as she forces them to change, (force = rape).

They should be thinking about uniting against Anita.

Yeah, Reba is terrified of Anita now. Fear is not something you want to do to your enemies, or your allies. People who are afraid are not rational, they are not going to make reasonable and logical decisions. They are afraid and they will do anything to escape their fear, you have backed them into a corner and now their only way out is through you. You do not want enemies in that position, you definitely don't want your allies in that same corner too. People in that position will not think clearly, they simply want to escape and will do anything to escape, they will make wild and erratic decisions that you can't predict and that puts you in a weaker position. When you make your allies and enemies absolutely terrified of you, you have given them only one options. Escape. They have nothing to lose now and an enemy with nothing to lose is possibly one of the worse kinds to fight. An ally who has nothing to lose and is completely terrified of you is the worse kind of ally.

Why is Anita in a position of leadership? She is the worse leader. She plays favorites, she lets her emotions literally run the show, her powers are not under her control, she is easily angered and will lash out as hard as possible at the drop of a hat, she admits to outright ignorance and seems to think it is a legitimate excuse when people get hurt. And most of all, she never takes responsibility for anything. Even in this situation, she goes out of her way to try and paint this picture of Reba forcing Anita to do this. You can't be a leader without taking responsibility of you actions, that is a fundamental part of being a leader. You are in charge, you take control, you are responsible. No one wants an irresponsible leader, that is a recipe for disaster.

Sorry for the rant, but this chapter is just so fucking pointless and simply exists to show how much of a 'badass' Anita is. Except all I see is a strong and powerful bully torturing a weaker woman who is afraid of her, simply because she can. She's a bully, and like Captain America, I don't like bullies.

So, you gambled centuries of happiness, your free will, and your very existence, on love?
standing there holding everyone's hands
I believed that.

Yeah, you believe in love, yet use fear and pain to rule over others.

[a-sporking-rat.livejournal.com]

I can see making your enemies too afraid to attack you as a good move, but the way Anita is doing it here? Nope, not a good idea. That's pretty much WHY my bad guy Ruthven doesn't do shit like 'randomly rape swans who get out of line' because he knows what you just said---that's not the kind of fear that will put them in line, it's the kind that will push them too far and willing to risk anything to get the fuck away from you, including their lives. You have to leave them with something to lose, some way it can still get worse if they fail.

Anita's also a fucking fail leader in that she never actually DOES anything. Haven was running the Pride for OVER A YEAR in a way we only just now found out was violent to everyone and especially oppressive to the women. Anita is supposedly Regina yet had no clue, and showed no remorse for her negligence when she found out what had been going on right under her nose. She does nothing for the wolves as Lupa or leopards as Nimir-Ra either except offer this vague 'protection' that we haven't seen hide or hair of in quite some time, and ignores them generally except for the one or two from each group that's fucking her.

No, rant away, I made this community for just that!

[baeraad.livejournal.com]

Which basically means at one point you were nothing but an asshole.

I have been known to say that being an asshole is the starting point and that our goal should be to evolve beyond it. I guess I was more literally right than I thought? ^_^;

Punitive rape is not okay no matter who it is against.

The fact that this is a point that needs to be made is a sign of just how fucking disturbing this novel has gotten...

Just...stop being a stupid asshole about this at least, Anita. You don't look logical and rational and skeptical, you look like a moron. Like if Harry Potter didn't believe in magic.

I believe the TV Trope for it is Flat Earth Atheist. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FlatEarthAtheist)

A character like that doesn't have to look like an idiot - just because one magical thing is real it doesn't mean that they are all real (if every weird thing anyone ever thought of was real, we'd be really crowded, for one thing). But Anita's skepticism is just as arbitrary as everything else about her, and just as prone to sudden changes based on her mood and on who she most feels like insulting and second-guessing today. I swear she can flip between professional-skeptic "how silly that these primitive people believe in such superstitious nonsense" condescension to woo-peddlar "how sad that some people are so afraid of believing in things that do not fit within their narrow scientific reference frame" snottiness and back again in a heartbeat, and without ever being aware that she's changed her tune!

It never stops making me do a double take on just how strangely conversations work in this universe.

I find it helps if you just assume that every other character is like Anita, and answering the other characters to about 25% and answering their own inner monologue to 75%,

[a-sporking-rat.livejournal.com]

A character like that doesn't have to look like an idiot - just because one magical thing is real it doesn't mean that they are all real ...But Anita's skepticism is just as arbitrary as everything else about her...without ever being aware that she's changed her tune!

Yeah, that's a big problem with how this trait is handled, plus the fact it's not just that she fails to accept a certain magical thing, but that said magical thing was not incongruous with what she already knew. If Bibi had told her something that did not fit at all with the rules of this universe and what Anita already knows to be true, it would be one thing, but she basically told her 80% what she already knew...and yet somehow Anita thinks it must be nonsense. That's what really baffles me. I don't demand she immediately fully believe the other 20%, but not even giving it a thought, as well as even poo-pooing the 80% she already knows is right, just goes into a Flat Earth Atheist done really, really horribly, in addition to the reasons you described.

I find it helps if you just assume that every other character is like Anita, and answering the other characters to about 25% and answering their own inner monologue to 75%,
Oh my gosh, it does! It makes so much more sense now! And is also kind of hilarious!

[mocha-latta.livejournal.com]

Butts, butts, butts. You're becoming like LKH. (I, of course, raced to post the herring fact on Facebook THE WORLD NEEDS TO KNOW)

So Anita's systematically disempowering literally all the females in the room and raping all the males? FEMINISM! How do you capture our goals and ideals so well, LKH?

My god, Anita's a (not-quite-)white(-bread) savior. Why didn't I see this before? "You're doing your culture wrong, let me step in with no experience or knowledge of it and rock the shit out of it".

"She was so afraid, afraid of me, afraid of how weak she was"
NO SHIT, YOU'RE INSANE (Is it okay to use that term here? I mean it in a literal 'not in control of yourself, and a danger to others, not as a slur. I'm mentally ill myself, but that doesn't mean others wont be offended)

"I'd been gentle with the white tiger, Julia. I wouldn't be gentle with this one."
:C I'm trying not to break down in profanity here. This reads as though she's a villain and it's rape O'clock. I have written the closest thing to an evil character that I'll ever get, and even he would be rolling his eyes. At least justify your actions internally, dammit.

I'm going to leave this quote from Blood Noir riiiiight here "Before I knew you, I thought brave was not being afraid. You've taught me that bravery is being terrified and doing it anyway.”
Unless you're a stupid GURL.

Anita says "Making my point" and THEN SHE FORCES A KISS ON HER
The point that she wouldn't sexually assault her?

"The dress is ruined."
Girl, that dress was ruined the second you put it on.

[ex-naomi-ja.livejournal.com]

I read your last comment in Bender's voice :D

I have a character (Ethan Banning) who has a demon living in his head that feeds on negative energy and constantly tries to force Ethan to hurt and/or rape people. The more I read about Bullet, the more I picture that demon as Anita Blake.

[a-sporking-rat.livejournal.com]

BUTTS BUTTS BUTTTTTTS~!

So Anita's systematically disempowering literally all the females in the room and raping all the males? FEMINISM! How do you capture our goals and ideals so well, LKH?
Don't forget raping a woman of color while painting her as an Imperialist stereotype who exists only for her pleasure! And lesbianism performed for the enjoyment of straight men!

NO SHIT, YOU'RE INSANE (Is it okay to use that term here? I mean it in a literal 'not in control of yourself, and a danger to others, not as a slur. I'm mentally ill myself, but that doesn't mean others wont be offended)
Well, since you do mean it in its literal clinical sense, it's perfectly fine and quite apt honestly. Anita is indeed out of control, a danger to others, and very, very delusional.

Girl, that dress was ruined the second you put it on.
Oooooh! *z-snap formation*

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

And we're supposed to think Anita's strong and powerful. What Anita has isn't power. It's might, but might isn't power. She always needs to force people to do things; they don't do it because she's persuaded them or helped them.

This is something I've been thinking about for a very long time, before I even knew LKH existed, because of my own life. The point of dominating someone isn't to force them to do things in any way; it's to give them a wonderful experience of purposefully giving up power because they want to. Anita is not dominant. She's nothing but a bully, and a bully can never be a dominant. She's weak, she's nasty, she's scared, and she's selfish. She prefers if the person she's doing things to doesn't want it, because that makes her feel strong. But deep down, she knows this proves what a weak person she truly is.

LKH's brain must be a very scary place.

ETA: wait Haven was Auggie's Servant?

In Danse Macabre Auggie's animal to call is lions, and he runs the lions in Chicago. But I don't think Haven is his specific "Animal to Call" (is Therian Servant what you call that?). He brought Haven to Anita specifically as a pomme de sang candidate, thinking she'd like him because he was so strong and dominant. Anita's all nooo might doesn't make right and dominants aren't superior to non-dominants and even though I want to fuck Haven I don't want him taking over Joseph's lions. Which, uh, yeah, we all know how that worked out. But Anita still has a teeny tiny itty bitty bit of morality in Danse Macabre.

[a-sporking-rat.livejournal.com]

The point of dominating someone isn't to force them to do things in any way; it's to give them a wonderful experience of purposefully giving up power because they want to. Anita is not dominant.
Do you mean as in BDSM domming?

LKH's brain must be a very scary place.
Like looking upon an Elder God

is Therian Servant what you call that?
It's what *I* call it and will be referring to it as in sporks and discussions here. The series doesn't use that term, though, and thus it gets very confusing with "animal to call" referring to both a species a vampire can call AND to individual therians who are bound to a vampire like a human servant.

[watersheerie.livejournal.com]

And we're supposed to think Anita's strong and powerful. What Anita has isn't power. It's might, but might isn't power. She always needs to force people to do things; they don't do it because she's persuaded them or helped them.


Reminds me of this one quote I've always liked:

“Nothing is so strong as gentleness. Nothing is so gentle as real strength.”

-Ralph W. Sockman-

Take note, Anita.

[ex-naomi-ja.livejournal.com]

I am so on board with Reba needing her own series. Just the concept of a weretiger princess who might not be as metaphysically strong as others but fights against the bad guys anyway and learns to utilise skills beyond her shapeshifting ones...Yes. I am interested in that. Very interested.

Frankly I would be interested in anything that elevates therians in the Anitaverse above the level of badly house-trained mentally challenged pets who need to be kept and trained and broken in and tamed and controlled. It's ridiculous given the metaphysical powers they're supposed to have, particularly the tigers, that they haven't just said, "fuck this noise" and taken out their vampire keepers. They can move in the day when the vampires are dead, they have inside knowledge of pretty all vampire politics and business affairs. If they wanted to stage a coup, what could stop them really? What do they gain from their "arrangement" with vampire society beyond enslavement, rape, and being used as walking snacks? WHO WOULD PUT UP WITH THAT? Especially when you have super strength, super speed, and magical control over the elements?! And there are like, thousands of shifters in St Louis alone. They need to stage an uprising. They would win.

[a-sporking-rat.livejournal.com]

SERIOUSLY IT'S SUCH A COOL CONCEPT. Y'know, like this series used to be!

And, ditto, the whole therian situation is horrible AND makes no sense!

[lady-fellshot.livejournal.com]

I want to do nothing more than take Reba, Julia, Yiyu and everyone else that Anita has raped either metaphysically or physically and wrap them up in a a cocoon of hand knitted sweaters and shawls, give them all a cup of tea and start plotting on how best to ensure Anita and JC never do this again. I'm all for using tax evasion, human trafficking, 1st -3rd degree murder, racketeering, rape, and illegal use of magic charges for a start.

I hope that LKH's next contract drives her into self publishing.

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

...Ironically, tax evasion and (possibly) racketeering would probably be the easiest ones to prove. You'd still be able to send her away for practically forever on those alone, though.

(I'm spiteful enough to want Anita to live a long, long time after her fall from power.)

[a-sporking-rat.livejournal.com]

Every time I thought it couldn't get worse . . . well, I stand corrected. Holy shit. Holy shit.
Yeah, I keep having this experience, unfortunately.

I am in awe of LKH's ability to write a perfectly sociopathic, self-obsessed villainess
It's really astounding. I keep having to consciously THINK AND TRY really hard to get Lucy this properly, horrifyingly evil as a Big Bad in my original stories, I'm both envious and terrified that LKH does it without apparently even realizing.

[jessica collett (from livejournal.com)]

Reba exploded and was instantly replaced with a Zygon shapeshifter from the Hannah Blake universe. The real Reba was transported to lead a guerilla squad whose aim was to retake Chicago from the alien invaders of Earth.

Slowly but surely, all the good female characters from the AB universe will migrate to join Hannah and her fight for freedom.

[a-sporking-rat.livejournal.com]

THIS IS GOOD AND I LIKE IT VERY MUCH

[collectively.livejournal.com]

THE BOOK IS 96% OVER? What the fuck? Nothing has happened! Or, well, a little bit happened at the beginning, but since then there's been almost zero plot development! I mean, this isn't really surprising, based on past books, but it's more startling when I can't see the dwindling number of pages myself, and start rolling my eyes when I realize it isn't going anywhere, again, some more, as usual.

(I'm also utterly horrified by the content of the chapter, but everybody else has commented pretty well on that, so I'll leave it alone for now.)

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

As a random aside, I love your lashouts canon post. I *have* heard of the existence of Russian were-tiger stories but they all come from one specific, tiny peninsula on the far side, which is overrun with things that tigers like to eat... and ridiculously smart tigers.

Anita moves towards them "faster than I should have been able to move." This is so random and unfair. I mean, the whole series is but this strikes me as even more so somehow. It doesn't help my sense of outrage that Anita goes back to mere therian-speeds later.

"that one slash let me know that she didn't know how to fight with a knife." I wish that Reba had been lying about this.

Since real tigers don't live in groups, there's no model to go off of how weretiger groups should determine dominance
They live in artificial groups in zoos and, from what I've seen while doing admittedly half-assed research, it's not a size/strength/fighting thing. It's a personality thing. Female tigers can, and will, boss and play with male lions. (Although, male lions will let medium-sized dogs boss and play with them so I'm not sure how much of an accomplishment that is.) But there's a pair of tigers in a zoo in England where the brother refuses to be parted from his sister. He apparently throws fairly terrifying tiger-tantrums so the keepers darted him, made him infertile, and left them alone. But maybe living in very small group (whose members were determined as cubs/puppies/infants) is an instinct left over from childhood? There was a trio of siblings that stayed together after their mother was killed by poachers. They stuck together until adulthood when the first sister simply left to find her own hunting ground because she seemed to feel the other two were holding her back. (She was right. The photographer accidentally ran across her later and she was pretty chubby. So were her cubs.) The other sister and the brother stuck together until he started not sharing kills and then she left too.

"I couldn't grow claws and discipline her like a real queen" By Anita's knife-logic, Anita shouldn't be allowed to "discipline" anyone either. And of course Anita has to show off her 'rarer gift', which I'd like to point out is actually Richard's gift. It isn't hers at all!

The energy of Anita's red tiger calls to that of Reba's tiger, and Anita commands for her to "Change for me."
This is literally a case of someone saying something that Anita doesn't like and Anita trying to literally remove their ability to say it. And, of course, Reba understandably defies her, refuses to give up her right/ability to protest, and continues to complain/act out. Thus Reba has to be 'raped into submission' and forced to accept silencing by Anita.

[a-sporking-rat.livejournal.com]

As a random aside, I love your lashouts canon post.
Why thank you!

And, ooh, very interesting about those tigers.

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

Anita promises [to scar Reba for life]... [Reba's] eyes widen and she stops struggling. Right after she stops struggling, Anita HURTS HER ARM MORE... Anita tries to eat Reba's anger, but finds that, of course, there's not actually much of it at all, that "it was a thin disguise for her fear"... "She was so afraid, afraid of me, afraid of how weak she was"... Reba tells Anita to let go. Anita lets go of the joint lock, but not her arm, and next thing you know "I was straddling her waist, pinning both her arms to the floor."... Reba shows fear and anger in both her eyes and energy, understandably so, but she continues to be a badass and taunts Anita "Are you going to fuck me, too? Is that all you know how to do here in St. Louis?"... Anita feels Reba's fear overtake her anger as she pins Reba's arm down under one knee. Anita points out that Reba has the strength to fight her "but for all she tried to do she could have been human; hell most people would have fought, but she didn't."
Assuming that magical penetration is a crime in the AB-verse (and the throw-away sentences about magic users implies that it could be) and its elements were framed like the general elements of rape, this right here is enough to convict Anita of the following magical rape, even in those jurisdictions that require a rape victim to give clear verbal indications of their unwillingness and/or physically resist the upcoming rape.

Saying that "After Anita pinned her to the floor, she didn't fight as hard as she could have so it's her own fault that this happened to her" wouldn't work in real life rape cases, especially in an encounter like this where the threat of violent escalation is present and overt. (There have been long and involved arguments and entire cases that hinged on the threat of violence and whether it was present and overt in a rape since the elements of rape vary between jurisdictions and in some jurisdictions are rather antediluvian.) That's like saying, "After I climbed through a window and threatened to cut her up (especially her face) if she didn't let me have sex with her, she asked for a condom so she must've been consenting to have sex with me," or that, "Because she stopped saying that she wanted to leave after he took her car keys away and locked the door, she changed her mind and consented to the sexual encounter." (Both are true cases in which the rapist was found guilty. Taking steps to minimize the harm that is about to be done to you, in these cases the transmission of diseases and getting stabbed/cut/beaten up, is not the same as consent.)

Firstly, people freeze up when they are afraid.
Some people freeze up, others run, and a certain portion of the population takes refuge in breath-taking violence. A scientist, who discovered that he was related to an alarming number of convicted ax-murderers, did some research which found something he named 'the warrior gene' in a subset of the population. It's literally encoded into some people's DNA to resist with brutal efficiency and NOT encoded into others' DNA to fight back. That's why, when one of that scientists' ancestors found herself being beaten by her new husband, she took an ax to him. She WAS the lady in that nursery rhyme who chopped her husband with an ax twenty times and then once more for good measure. (And then she got hung for being an unabashed ax-murderess.) But the entire population doesn't have this gene mutation which is where you get the gamut of human responses to danger/harm from. (Although, I found it super interesting that, even without knowing what was in each other's gene pool, the scientist and his wife both waited to marry someone who had 'the warrior gene.' He had it from both sides, had it from one side of her gene pool, and their son had it from both sides. But they all seemed like super nice, super peaceful people, which is an argument that nurture can be just as strong a determinant as nature.)

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

"very practical thought that if we did this were would be no more arguing." Then she sees JC standing next to her and "knew it wasn't my thought" but admits she agrees with it, though she also says it is a "problem" that she agrees with it
I think that Anita has the roles reversed. Anita, after all, kills people for simply not acknowledging her "badass-ness". JC arranges the deaths of his oppressors. I think Anita is the one that wants to murder Reba to cut down on the arguing (because all of these raped & brainwashed people were so opinionated and resistant before Anita & Micah cut that out of them and rearranged their brains. I think JC is the one who is going 'no, this is a terrible idea...but I sort of agree with it... un oh.... WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME?!'

And yeah, from a certain perspective (one that is splattered with goo and blood), Anita DID literally tear Reba apart. It's just fortunate for Reba that she had a second form... and Reba probably knows that. (And it probably hurt A LOT.)

And yeah, I totally agree about the literal dehumanization being alarming... especially since I can't decide if the point of the text is to convey that all women are dumb beasts or just the ones who were'weak enough to allow themselves' to be (metaphysically) raped. (And that Anita's whole response to deliberately exploding another human being is to complain that the exploded person got fluids on her is beyond alarming. It'd be funny in certain contexts but not this one.)

Random thought: If JC is 'blind with power' how did he see that Anita needed a hand up, much less see where her hand was? There's a reason that phrase is usually metaphorical.

...But there's nothing "super" about Anita or her villainy. Mostly because it's so utterly stupid.

He asks what I am--what point is that? She says the point is "That the tigers are ours."
This is probably meant to sound tough. It sounds more like a crazed dictator who will have ALL THE TOYS.

Your note that, to Anita, the Master/Servant bond = love = co-dependent metaphysical bond is incredibly interesting to me. And, perhaps, is the heart of this series.

[a-sporking-rat.livejournal.com]

Agreed, that's Anita's thought going into JC she's sensing, not vice versa.

Your note that, to Anita, the Master/Servant bond = love = co-dependent metaphysical bond is incredibly interesting to me. And, perhaps, is the heart of this series.
Yeah, it's right there in the text, and it's really freaky!

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

Jean-Claude butts in to say they could part him from his master.
Maybe JC has trouble imagining a life in which the oppressed love their oppressors and want to be bound to their whims? JC was originally bound to Nikky as ones of her subordinates, after all, and that in no way stopped him from getting her murdered by Anita and Edward. (Hell, I think Edward said that he was in town to kill Nikky on a contract. Who do you want to bet would time a contract on the master of the city at the most perfect-est time to help Anita. In the early books, Edward was always discerning about his targets but it was never stated that he was just as discerning about who paid him. Of course, this theory implies that JC plans to ride the power-wave while he's got it and have a fiery demise at the hands of his oppressed nations. (Not that he wouldn't try to survive their retribution and claw his way to the top again.)

Under this theory, I'd strongly suspect that, while all vamps want to be the vamp in charge, very few survive very long after making it to the top of the heap. Y'know, in a logical universe.

Or maybe he just wants Anita's Golden Tiger to Call to be someone with an intact spine and a thousand years of practice resisting his master enough to have his own thoughts/opinions. (But, seriously, how often do you see ANYONE in this series who is willing to give ANYTHING up and put the big picture over their petty personal concerns? Topaz, his master, and Jade's abusive master are the only one that I can think of.)

Topaz goes on a paragraph-long thing about how the golden tigers have learned from their mistakes and hidden for centuries, so that now, though they're thought to be the extinct ones, they in fact outnumber the black and blue clans.
HOW THE HELL WOULD HE KNOW THIS? No, seriously, he JUST said that his master's golden tigers were wiped out. His master thought that he and Jade were the last ones left so he arranged for them to be sent to St. Louis.

He tells JEAN-CLAUDE that they want and need him to be Master of Tigers
Maybe Topaz and his master made an executive decision that they'd rather it be JC, who seems cold-bloodedly rational and a murderer, rather than Anita, who is a violent, rape-tastic, utterly stupid, murderer. And, if he bound Envy or can just call her mind-to-mind, then maybe he really IS stealing Anita's powers. (And will kill her when he's done stealing powers from her because powers!theft is his line's special, secret ability that he doesn't want Anita to know about. Yeah, I'm still pulling for this crack theory.)

JC says that Jade thought they did not see her suffering
It seems unlikely that JC or any other vampire would worry about Jade or her suffering. JC knows that people have seen, deeply enjoyed, and didn't care about his suffering. It's par for the vampiric course. Also, LKH seems to have forgotten that, until relatively recently, women were seen as property and no one gave a shit what a man did to his wife/wives/daughters, provided that it wasn't too loud and didn't impinge on their lives. And it's STILL that way in many parts of the world. Vampires, who seem to mostly be old farts, consider male/female human servants, animals to call, therian servants, and baby!vampires to be personal property. None of them are going to care how another uses his/her personal property provided that it doesn't impact them.

He says that not only can Anita & Co free Jade, they can "free us all"
...free as in 'put me on top' or free as in 'the freedom of death' JC? And maybe all of this talk of 'freedom' is making Topaz nervous. He's just seen Anita demonstrate her collector's avarice, after all.

while "standing there holding everyone's hands"
HOW MANY HANDS DOES ANITA HAVE?

[a-sporking-rat.livejournal.com]

Y'know, in a logical universe.
Ahh, if only we had one of those!

Hell, I think Edward said that he was in town to kill Nikky on a contract. Who do you want to bet would time a contract on the master of the city at the most perfect-est time to help Anita. I
OhohoHO!

And will kill her when he's done stealing powers from her because powers!theft is his line's special, secret ability that he doesn't want Anita to know about. Yeah, I'm still pulling for this crack theory.)
That's...actually not so cracky. We know Anita got the ardeur by being the Human Servant of JC, right? We learn in this book that she's basically like Rogue of the X-Men to vampires, permanently stealing any vamp power used against her, hence why she can call beasts like Padma, eat fear and anger like the Moroven and the Dragon, and do the life-draining thing like Obsidian Butterfly. Maybe that's not her power. Maybe stealing powers is JC's bloodline ability, and the reason she has it is the same reason she has the ardeur, through a tie to him. That makes an uncanny amount of sense.

btw, I started the first Harry Dresden book today. I just finished Chapter 5 and I just already can't stand the guy and his othering of women and shit. Like, even if it's totally meant by the author to be a flaw and for him to get in trouble for, it's just not a view I want to be encountering a world through. At first I found that kind of odd of me, considering how much I liked Lolita and Despair by Nabokov, both of which are told by really shitty people, but I think that's because pedophiles and murderers and such are really far removed from my life, whereas people like Harry are a much more common encounter.

[nic echo (from livejournal.com)]

Doesn't really pertain to this chapter, but if anyone is interested: Remember forever ago when we were discussing The Council and all their wacky scents and how they ought to come up with a fashion/perfume line. Well, I just finished creating all their fashion logos. I'll post the perfume ads as they get made as well, but those will take longer. Anyway, hope you enjoy.

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

*flails at you* THIS IS AMAZING!

[nic echo (from livejournal.com)]

Here it is, guys! The first ad I created. This one is for the ladies from Belle Morte's line. Feel free to share/use but please credit me!

Stock used:
Rose: http://lieveheersbeestje.deviantart.com/art/Rose-II-306491026
Bottle: http://everydaystock.deviantart.com/art/Perfume-Bottle-3-80484147
Moon: http://moon-willowstock.deviantart.com/art/full-moon-stock-135967176

[a-sporking-rat.livejournal.com]

GORGEOUS

the 'beauty blooms in the night' bit is perf, it sounds like a real ad!

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the links!

/She is just so fucking determined that no woman ever gets any real power that she's actually willing to rob ANITA of the glory and cool points she'd get from taking out a really powerful opponent...or maybe she thinks it is cool to beat up those weaker than you,/

Apparently, LKH never heard the common writing maxim that your hero is only as good as your villain. If the antagonist is a complete pushover, why should the reader care if the protagonist wins? Why should the reader find the protagonist impressive?

/"She was so afraid, afraid of me, afraid of how weak she was"/

SHE’S A WERETIGER. The only reason that she’s “weak” is because your author is making her weak on purpose, just so you can stomp all over her and call it justice. Because God forbid you have a fair fight with anyone, especially another woman.

/"Are you going to fuck me, too? Is that all you know how to do here in St. Louis?"/

*waves a banner for Reba* You tell it like it is, sister!

/I smell LOOKING FOR AN EXCUSE all over this./

So do I. The only reason that Anita’s doing this is because Reba dared to talk back to her. In other words: ANITA IS A MISOGYNISTIC RAPIST MONSTER, Ms. Hamilton. If she were male, she would fit right into John Norman’s books. Don’t you dare try to claim that your books are feminist or pro-woman or anything of the kind when your “heroine” talks and acts JUST LIKE A RAPIST.

/Reba asks what she's doing, Anita says "Making my point"/

Yep, you heard it from Anita! This act of violence isn’t in self-defense or for the defense of someone else or for the greater good. No, it’s to MAKE A POINT. Wow, I bet that if a male character savagely beat Anita up and left her for dead, she’d feel really glad that he did just to make a point about how she dared to challenge his authority.

/shivering as if everything hurt."/

IT DID HURT. YOU *RAPED* HER, YOU MONSTER.

/She says that "The dress is ruined."/

-_-

The dress is ruined. That’s what bothers you. The dress is –

*explodes*

GO DROWN YOURSELF IN QUICKSAND! YOU HEARTLESS, NARCISSISTIC, SOCIOPATHIC, UNFEELING WASTE OF FLESH! YOU HATEFUL, MONSTROUS –

*calms down*

/"standing there holding everyone's hands"/

What does she mean, “holding everyone’s hands?” How many people are there? How many arms does she have?

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

Apparently, LKH never heard the common writing maxim that your hero is only as good as your villain. If the antagonist is a complete pushover, why should the reader care if the protagonist wins? Why should the reader find the protagonist impressive?
Seriously. And Reba is really the only physical fight Anita faces in this book. She wards off the MOAD-posessed Belle and Padma by touching her men, and she shoots Haven after other women fight him for her (whereas she actually hides for most of said fight). So it's not as if there's other, more impressive, more challenging fights to make up for it in this regard either.

SHE’S A WERETIGER. The only reason that she’s “weak” is because your author is making her weak on purpose, just so you can stomp all over her and call it justice. Because God forbid you have a fair fight with anyone, especially another woman.
Said weaknesses makes even less sense when one considers weretiger women are supposed to be really tough, that their matriarchy is based on an actual for-real superiority to the males versus a culturally-constructed one, and considering the men are already therians and thus a serious threat, the women should be a really big-time challenge...and then this. I almost wonder if LKH wants to *punish* them for being a matriarchy or something. Because what could be more evil than women who aren't Anita being in power?

Wow, I bet that if a male character savagely beat Anita up and left her for dead, she’d feel really glad that he did just to make a point about how she dared to challenge his authority.
She actually has shown some victim-blaming towards herself before when it came to gross shit being done to her by men, so I actually might be able to see this depending who the guy was (like, if it were Micah or JC).

[wanderingworlds.livejournal.com]

I just... I can't even comment properly with this chapter. That's how rage I am.

Ghislaine has to take over in SvS... or the world needs to end.

First thing's first, she needs to find Reba.