Emotions in the Elderling Realm (SPOILERS all books)

[Farseer]

I agree with the assessment of Kyle as actually pretty moderate by Chalcedean standards.

I am going back a long way to the first page of this thread...back to an old discussion on Kyle and his treatment of Wintrow, Althea, women in general etc. We've talked about him elsewhere, and also about the 'bad' people that seem to come out of Chalced, and thus a lot of what we have seen in Kyle's behaviour we've blamed on his Chalcedian upbringing.

It's interesting to note that while we consider the role of women to be far different in Bingtown and the Rain Wilds than in Chalced, such as being allowed to grow as an individual rather than just as an extension of a husband, given certain freedoms and rights to take on leadership/Trader roles etc, it has not always been this way.

For me, Jathan Carrock in 'Homecoming' shared many similarities to Kyle and he was from "Sa's own city", Jamaillia. He was an absolute pig in his treatment of Carillion, in my opinion. Even more, his sentiments regarding women were shared by many of the other men and nobles in the group of Rain Wild colonists.

At that time and place, women did not seem to even have a say, let alone possess anything like the power of a Trader's vote. I think one man even berated Carillion for showing anger or displeasure in a man's presence. Of course, this is not unlike our own history but that ones such as Retyo and even Tremartin are able to treat the women otherwise, well, it just goes to show that it is not so much the where/what/why/how/when of things that affect a person that is important but what the person chooses to do despite/or in the face of what affects them?

It's a little different possibly but I suddenly find myself thinking of Althea here. Despite what happened, she could find it in herself to allow Kennit's mother and Etta to mourn Kennit without interference, and yet Kyle could not bring himself to allow that to happen. If I had been Althea, I am fairly certain I'd have done quite a few things differently...for the worse!

Kennit also could have chosen a different path, despite what happened to him, but he chose not to. He was a Bingtown Trader's son and not from Chalced.

Of course, we have such ones as Hest as well, also a Bingtown Trader's son, despite his Chalcedian connections. He doesn't HAVE to be that way...he just chooses to do so.

Possibly the greatest example is the Satrap Cosgo himself. He is supposed to be "of Sa" and yet, on many levels, shows himself to be far 'less' than many of his subjects and others within the realm.

I don't really have a point to all of this ...just that, again, it is my opinion that it is far too easy for certain ones to excuse their behaviour and blame it on upbringing, their nature etc rather than simply own up to what they do.

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But the thing that got me most weepy in the books was actually Kettle's story about killing her twin, and when Fitz was skill linked with her and recalling two girls playing on a beach. Attribute to that the fact that I'm a twin (not by myself - there's another one) and the thought of my sister dying is just... actually, it's unthinkable.

For much the same reason I felt a bit of a pang when Nettle told Fitz that the twin Nim was going around 'like half a person'. I found it hard to like Swift after that (right up to the point where he shot Rawbread-as-Dragon). It was stated afterwards that they were dissimilar so maybe they weren't as close as me and my twin, but the thought of one twin leaving another heartbroken is fairly harsh to me. Besides, I see being a twin as a unique bond. If Swift bonds to another living thing, will that leave Nim as a twin 'bonded' to somebody who is bonded to somebody else? Poor Nimble! It's bad enough that his name is a brand of low calorie bread.

Never having been a twin , these connections did not hit home for me until I read your post. Thanks for the insights, Omie!

It's an interesting point you raised re Swift's bonding. Surprising also that while Kettle (Kestral) and Gull were both Skilled, only Swift proved to be Witted.