Sep-04-2012, 09:11 PM (UTC)
This has nothing to do with Fitz or the Fool, and actually not that much to do with Wintrow either, but I'm rereading LST and I just had to make a little observation about Kennit. In SOM, when he's on the Marietta and Etta is trying to talk to him about capturing a liveship, I noticed this:
"I have been thinking about the liveship that eluded you today," she dared to say. She lifted her eyes to his, dark eyes too bold for his taste. She seemed to sense that, for she cast them down again, even before he barked, "Don't speak to me of that."
"I won't," she promised him gently. But after a moment, she broke her word, as women always did. - "Plots And Perils", page 573
Wait up there, Kennit. Where did that come from?
What struck me was that it didn't seem a particularly chauvinistic comment. It sounded more to me like...I don't know. Bitter? Like he's been let down really badly in the past and that's jaded his view of the entire gender. Now I could understand if he was talking about men - then, I could just pin the blame on Igrot because he was Kennit's main influence in how he views males. But where on Earth did he get to have a problem with girls?
I have a feeling that him thinking Sorcor is ridiculous for wanting to court Faldin's daughter, even though he earlier thought of her as half of "the first offer from Divvytown, no need to be hasty in choosing", which to me said that at some point, he'd get married if he thought it was going to be advantageous to his plans, also has some relevance here but I'm not sure quite where it fits.
I don't think I've ever heard of a same-sex abused child who grew up to have real negative feelings towards or about the opposite sex, although I'm sure it's happened in the real world.
And does that have anything to do with how he feels about Wintrow - who's small, quite feminine according to SOM, but still male? Maybe part of why Kennit likes him is because he thinks Wintrow's more likely to mean what he says, to be honest with him?
Does anyone have any ideas as to where this mistrust came from? The only thing I can think of is his mother - say, if she said anything along the lines of I won't let him hurt you again and then obviously failed to live up to what she'd promised him, then that would understandably leave him thinking girls don't keep promises. But the image I got was that Kennit was taken away from his mother very young and didn't see her after that until he was a young adult and took over his first ship.
What I also find confusing is that even after his upbringing, which must have really made him think of sex as a punishment and something he hated doing, he still has a sexual relationship. Etta said she'd known him for three years, so she's probably not his first 'girlfriend', for want of a better word. So at some point, the adolescent Kennit after Igrot's death must have decided to do it even if he hated it for...what? The sake of his image? To try and convince himself that Igrot never happened? Because he thought he had no choice?
And in Wintrow's case, Kennit even likes the idea of a physical relationship. This is just probably a Kennit-ism with no real explanation behind it, but it just threw me a bit.
Bleurrrrgh, long post alert, and I'm probably talking nonsense again. I'm pretty sure it's becoming a habit
But I thought I'd jot this down here anyway, even if it makes no sense at all, because this is the only place I can talk about Hobb and have people know what the heck I'm on about 
"I have been thinking about the liveship that eluded you today," she dared to say. She lifted her eyes to his, dark eyes too bold for his taste. She seemed to sense that, for she cast them down again, even before he barked, "Don't speak to me of that."
"I won't," she promised him gently. But after a moment, she broke her word, as women always did. - "Plots And Perils", page 573
Wait up there, Kennit. Where did that come from?
What struck me was that it didn't seem a particularly chauvinistic comment. It sounded more to me like...I don't know. Bitter? Like he's been let down really badly in the past and that's jaded his view of the entire gender. Now I could understand if he was talking about men - then, I could just pin the blame on Igrot because he was Kennit's main influence in how he views males. But where on Earth did he get to have a problem with girls?
I have a feeling that him thinking Sorcor is ridiculous for wanting to court Faldin's daughter, even though he earlier thought of her as half of "the first offer from Divvytown, no need to be hasty in choosing", which to me said that at some point, he'd get married if he thought it was going to be advantageous to his plans, also has some relevance here but I'm not sure quite where it fits.
I don't think I've ever heard of a same-sex abused child who grew up to have real negative feelings towards or about the opposite sex, although I'm sure it's happened in the real world.
And does that have anything to do with how he feels about Wintrow - who's small, quite feminine according to SOM, but still male? Maybe part of why Kennit likes him is because he thinks Wintrow's more likely to mean what he says, to be honest with him?
Does anyone have any ideas as to where this mistrust came from? The only thing I can think of is his mother - say, if she said anything along the lines of I won't let him hurt you again and then obviously failed to live up to what she'd promised him, then that would understandably leave him thinking girls don't keep promises. But the image I got was that Kennit was taken away from his mother very young and didn't see her after that until he was a young adult and took over his first ship.
What I also find confusing is that even after his upbringing, which must have really made him think of sex as a punishment and something he hated doing, he still has a sexual relationship. Etta said she'd known him for three years, so she's probably not his first 'girlfriend', for want of a better word. So at some point, the adolescent Kennit after Igrot's death must have decided to do it even if he hated it for...what? The sake of his image? To try and convince himself that Igrot never happened? Because he thought he had no choice?
And in Wintrow's case, Kennit even likes the idea of a physical relationship. This is just probably a Kennit-ism with no real explanation behind it, but it just threw me a bit.
Bleurrrrgh, long post alert, and I'm probably talking nonsense again. I'm pretty sure it's becoming a habit
But I thought I'd jot this down here anyway, even if it makes no sense at all, because this is the only place I can talk about Hobb and have people know what the heck I'm on about 
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