Oh gosh. This chapter. This chapter. I am… it’s bad. It’s really bad. Because it puts on blast all the problems with Atticus as a character–how he’s overpowered, how everyone fawns over him, how the author thinks he’s oh-so-clever and cool–and it’s just so dumb. Every single time Hearne goes on in-text about how great Atticus is, it highlights how badly written this character is.
Alright. So. After there’s a quick knock, Oberon informs Atticus that Brighid is at his door. Atticus, still being in the nude, has to throw on some clothes. He realizes that the Morrigan bailed because Brighid had arrived, and he thinks that it will look bad if Brighid realizes they slept together and he’s giving her exclusive lessons on how to make a magic kill anything/defend against anything amulet. So he tells Oberon to stay quiet and stay behind her.
He also works out that probably both goddesses are using him in some capacity, and angry at the idea of being used (sometimes, anyway), he straps on Fragarach, the magic cut-through-anything sword he has.
Atticus opens the door, and Brighid is there, and we’re given a lengthy description telling us how hawt she is. I’m not going to retype it because I maybe have no life, but I have better things to do than relay Hearne’s daydreams to you. There’s a whole thing where he compares it to a hot lady in a beer commercial, and he tells us that she’s more his type than the Morrigan, as Brighid doesn’t eat people. Which, y’know, fair, I guess?
It’s also at this point, before any conversation actually starts, that Atticus explains to the reader the relationship between the Morrigan and Brighid. I’m gonna put that on my ‘Things That Would’ve Been Nice to Know Before Now’ list. Basically: they’re allies, they’ve never been enemies, but they’re Not Friends. They’ve always been rivals, and the only thing keeping them from actually opposing each other is that they’ve been busy dealing with Aenghus Og and his faction.
Which is freaking weird because Atticus never even KNEW about Aenghus Og’s faction until the last book! As far as he knew, Aenghus Og was Just Some Douchebag on his own. He mentions Aenghus Og working with Lugh in Chapter 5 of the first book, but two people is hardly a faction–and I think Lugh is mentioned as being dead nowadays? The only named Irish god that we know of in Aenghus Og’s cabal was Bres, and as far as I can tell, no one liked him!
Atticus, and by extension Hearne, is acting like this has always been the dynamic between Brighid and the Morrigan, but that doesn’t make a lick of sense! Why haven’t we been told about this before? There have been plenty of opportunities for it to be mentioned–especially the part of the first book where the Morrigan warns Atticus that Brighid is coming after he kills her husband. I never got the impression they liked each other, but they hate each other that much? Nah, had no clue.
Also Atticus realizes that both of the goddesses are fighting over him for their own purposes (gag) and so we get this word vomit between Atticus and Oberon:
The scratchy sex, the ear, the second omelet…it was all the Morrigan’s Machiavellian machinations!
Atticus, you know I can hear you when you’re all spazzed up, right? That was a lot of alliteration for a doubtful Druid deliberating over a deity’s dubious designs.
I am not amused.
LAUGH, DAMNIT!: 20
Atticus and Brighid exchange pleasantries, and her words are given a bajillion modifiers to tell us that she’s sexy, I think? I don’t care. When he offers refreshment she asks for ale, and he gets it for her. She complains about how annoying the civil war in Tir na nOg was, rounding up the ring leaders and getting rid of them. But she also complains about the propaganda she had to wade through. When Atticus asks for clarification, Brighid said that one thing her enemies griped about, apparently, was that she didn’t have a consort.
If you can guess where this is going, you’ll join me in the Headdesk Ceremony.
“as if Bres ever did anything useful or practical in his long life. All he did was sit there and look pretty. He was a pretty man,” she sighed, and then her face drew down into a tiny frown. “And a petty man.”
Hm. Okay, dumb question, but do Bres and Brighid have any children? Because with rulers, generally when people talk about the point of a consort, it’s to make heirs. As far as I know, Bres and Brighid have none–which is an odd thing you see in modern day mythology stories. Authors are happy to tell you that the ancient gods are alive and well, but their families are stuck in a weird stasis where no more fully divine children are being born or taking notable positions in the pantheon for no discernible reason. Shouldn’t there be dozens of newer Irish gods (not to mention gods from other pantheons) running around by now?
This isn’t really a criticism, just something I’ve noticed in fantasy.
Anyhow, Brighid’s talks about Bres being useless seem to be about how dumb he was and how he didn’t do anything in the running of the kingdom–it doesn’t seem to be them trash talking about his sexual prowess/manliness or anything, which is odd considering the subject matter and how Hearne tends to write. Hearne tends to turn back on sex all the time. Remember, Atticus was turned on looking at Brighid in the last book when she was in full armor, so all he could see of her body was her mouth and eyes.
It’s also odd because Bres was just a consort? Unless being the prince consort for the Irish gods means something different, my understanding is that he wouldn’t have another job. I have so little idea of how the kingdom of the Irish gods works that even when belittling Bres at his job, I’m unclear what his job even IS. This insult doesn’t work if we don’t really know what the insult is!
And hey! Since we’re here: why WAS she married to Bres? He was in the myths, sure, but given Hearne is writing them as characters, he should give us some kind of reason. Maybe not to have married in the first place, but to stay married for thousands of years. How does Brighid come across as an interesting or strong ruler to her subjects when she was married for millenia to a stupid, useless man she despised, who was openly supporting her obviously treasonous brother? Don’t give me, “The Fae demanded that she have a consort” crap–are you telling me that in all of the realms that the Irish gods rule, she couldn’t find a single eligible immortal guy that she liked better than Bres?
[sips apple juice out of a curly straw]
Alright so, this is a windup, and after she laughs at something dumb Atticus says and tells him he has a sense of humor (I hate this book), she says that Atticus should be her new consort. No, really. Kevin Hearne wrote a scene in which a super hawt queen goddess appeared on his protagonist’s doorstep, flirts with him, and basically asks if he wants to marry her. For Realzies.
I want to remind you that this author would go on to write a parody fantasy series with Delilah Dawson, launched by the two meeting up and both agreeing that too much of the fantasy genre is white male power fantasy.
This comment makes Atticus spit out his beer. Brighid notes his surprise, but points out that he’s basically earned a place among the Tuatha De Danann–he’s immortal, eternally young, and strong enough to kill two of them. With her favor she says “none will dispute whom I choose to take to bed.” Atticus says he never wanted to be king and rule people, but she points out that it’s just a figurehead position but it has to be filled because the Fae expect it. Which is a weird thing to say after pointing out that Bres was a terrible consort because he didn’t do anything: “Don’t worry, you don’t have to do anything! Just like the last guy in the position, who I just told you about how bad he was at the job!”
Okay, let’s dissect this.
ONE: We finally get some acknowledgement that the difference between Atticus and the Tuatha De Danann is arbitrary. Glad we got that.
TWO: This is… all wrong. This is the second book in a series of nine novels, and our protagonist is offered the throne of the Irish gods, the main pantheon that’s appeared in the story so far. Yes, it’s a ceremonial position, but that’s what this is! The queen of the gods shows up at his door and offers him the throne. This is an insane thing to happen in the second book of the series.
I’m reminded of Percy Jackson and the Olympians in which Percy is offered godhood as a reward for his heroic deeds (and hold onto this because we’ll come back to it). Except that happens in the very last book of the five-book series, after he’s battled monsters and Titans for years and led the demigods’ defense of Mount Olympus. There was a civil war among the gods, and Percy fought on the front lines.
Here? There was a civil war among the gods and Atticus had no clue. Again, he’d been told about it, he just forgot, apparently. And yet he’s being offered the throne. A ceremonial throne, but still a throne. The only role he had in the conflict was killing the ringleaders. He’s not a soldier or officer in the conflict, at best he’s a hired thug. He had to be coerced into exerting any effort, remember?
THREE: Atticus is actually the worst person to pick for this job? I said this before, but regardless of whether or not he was acting under her orders, letting an outsider and a non-god kill two of your own, especially members of your family–like a brother and a husband–set very dangerous precedents. Basically, killing Irish gods is fair game now. And if Atticus takes Bres’s position, that means it could be established that becoming king, or consort at least, can be obtained by killing the one who previously had the post. Even if that’s not assumed, do you think the other gods will feel comfortable with their new king being someone who got his crown by killing two of them?
How does it reflect on Brighid if she marries her husband’s murderer? Won’t that go over badly with the other gods? She can say all she wants that the consort is a secondary, ceremonial position, but what it looks like is that Atticus is some kind of conqueror who gained the dominant position over her by killing her last husband. Now we know that Atticus wouldn’t be in charge, because that’d involve effort on his part (and he can’t have that), but any decision Brighid makes will be questionable. Observers might wonder if it was Atticus’s idea, or if he’s making her do these things: after all, he killed her husband and brother! For all they know, he could be threatening her or holding her hostage! He’s a god killer, after all!
If anything, this isn’t silencing the negative talk of the opposition, this is feeding it. Marrying Atticus is the worst PR decision Brighid could make right now. If you thought about it, if you had any idea how monarchy or public relations works, you’d have realized this.
Did Not Do Homework: 12
Now to be clear, by the end of the chapter it’s revealed that Brighid has ulterior motives for making this proposal. So no, we’re not meant to believe that Atticus is just sooooo attractive that every goddess will throw herself at him with little prompting. It’s still annoying though, because that doesn’t change that we’re not halfway through the second book and our protagonist has had sex with two goddesses and is being propositioned by another. It’s still wish fulfillment.
“I mean, yeah, my protagonist gets to have sex with literal goddesses but it’s not male wish fulfillment! They’re only doing it to get something from him!”
Atticus tries to get out of going to Tir na nOg, since he would only be a figurehead, and he doesn’t want to leave his house. Brighid assures him that he “will have other duties” and it says that “she purred in that triple voice that turned my insides to Jell-O” but I don’t even know what the eff that means. Atticus is very insistent that he likes the mortal world too much.
“But I rather enjoy this plane. There’s so much change and advancement to appreciate and an abundance of knowledge to absorb.”
[takes deep breath]
There is so much wrong with this response.
Let’s… okay, let me give this a try: Atticus’s stated reasoning for not leaving the world for Tir na nOg is because he thinks the world is just awesome. Except look at what he’s saying! “There’s so much change and advancement to appreciate and an abundance of knowledge to absorb.”
This isn’t actually a bad idea. It’s very common to see in fantasy fiction, when someone is offered godhood, that they reject it because of some part of the world they’re still attached to. In a series like Percy Jackson it’s because the title character can’t let go of the people he loves (which is generally how these things go), but hey, for someone who lives alone and is mostly unattached to the people around him, saying he likes seeing humanity’s character development is not a bad answer.
But let’s look, actually LOOK at what Atticus does on a regular basis. This is the kind of stuff he does daily:
-He wakes up, cooks breakfast, and then goes to work at his New Age shop selling trinkets to randos, drugs and teas to college kids, and rare books to collectors (occasionally).
-The REALLY valuable rare books of secret knowledge and hidden treasure, he keeps locked up in cases and has no intention of sharing or acting on that information, ever.
-As a Druid, his mission is supposedly to commune with and protect the Earth using magic, but as far as we can tell he never spends any of his time magically healing the Earth of pollution, or even cleaning the Hell blight from the climax of the last book that he said was a priority for him. We haven’t see so much as seen him picking up litter or promoting recycling.
-He goes to the same Irish pub in town and always orders fish and chips. That’s breaded fish and cuts of potato that are deep fried, in case you didn’t know. Hardly revolutionary or cutting edge in the culinary world.
-He goes hunting with his dog so he can kill animals in public parks.
-He and his dog watch movies together. He’s very fond of… I don’t know, pop culture movies. I don’t think Hearne developed his taste in movies other than that.
-He reads enough Shakespeare to be able to quote it on the spot. He also reads fantasy fiction, as the next book indicates that he’s a huge fan of Neil Gaiman.
-He hangs out with Leif, and the werewolf lawyers, I guess? We’re told they practice sword fighting, but it’s unclear what else he does with them other than run to them when he needs something.
-He apparently gets laid regularly enough, from comments he’s made.
Why am I listing all of this out? Because it doesn’t sound like someone so enthralled with the knowledge, advancement, and change in the world at all, does it? Does this sound like someone who cares about the human race and its evolution? This reminds me of his comment in the end of the last book, in which Atticus claims he “lives simply.” If Atticus really was so interested in the way the world changes and all of the scientific advancement currently happening, wouldn’t he be interested in reading scientific journals, if not hanging around the scientific community? Or at the very least, have some kind of interest in science-fiction? Can you imagine what kind of cool stuff he could explore with his Druid powers? He could visit the bottom of the ocean, or inside a volcano, or something like that. And wouldn’t he actually do his job and see how best to heal the world with his magic instead of staying in the suburbs for most of his routine?
If he was so interested in learning how things have changed over time, wouldn’t he be traveling around the world to see how it’s all different now? Going to universities and studying the latest breakthroughs in science? He’d be happy to associate with tons of different people from all over. He’d be adventurous about different kinds of food, because he’s tried so many over his immortal life that it’s harder to surprise him. And there are people out there doing weird things with how to cook and serve food–shouldn’t that interest someone who likes how things adapt in the modern world? The guy should be all into theories of how societies and languages evolve over time. His film tastes would be into weird movies that push the boundaries of what you can say in a movie. His book tastes should be constantly changing to see the stranger fiction that pushes the envelopes of how narratives can be told.
But he is none of those things. He isn’t absorbing knowledge about the world, except what he thinks will be useful to blend in (and we see how that is). So when he says that he doesn’t want to go to Tir na nOg because he likes the world so much, it isn’t because the human world has so many fascinating developments. It’s because he doesn’t want to be taken out of his usual routine of waking up in his nice suburban house, bicycling to work to sell useless junk to stoners, watching movies with his dog, screwing with his neighbor, and getting laid.
In summary: Atticus is turning down GODHOOD and kingship because he doesn’t want to be taken out of the usual boring routine of his life. He’s declining Brighid’s offer out of sheer laziness, guys.
This is the character Hearne has written.
Brighid tells him that he can still make trips to the human world all he wants, but who cares? He’ll be able to hang out with the gods, and there are meetings with other pantheons. Also he’ll be busy with other things (if you know what I mean) that she thinks are much more interesting than “the latest technological toy.”
Atticus asks about bringing Oberon and his Druid apprentice. Brighid is happy to bring Oberon on board, but says she can’t promise Granny’s safety because it can be a dangerous realm for mortals unused to the Fae. When he says he gave his word to have her fully trained, she relents, though admits she “cannot guarantee her safety.”
“This is a most generous offer and yet wholly unexpected. To become the consort of one’s own goddess is beyond the scope of any man’s ambition. I confess myself unprepared to give you an answer at this moment
Yadda yadda, I hate this dialogue. Brighid calls this “So formal”, making me think that this is meant to be read as impressive, old-fashioned speech, but it’s really stilted. This isn’t a person speaking in a way that’s excessively polite and old-fashioned, it sounds like someone is a twit. Which I suppose Atticus is, but because of the disconnect between what we get and what we’re clearly supposed to get, I’m giving it a
Better Than You: 6
So Brighid, queen of the gods, makes a grab at Atticus’s crotch and is disappointed to find that he doesn’t seem to be too into this right now. He tries to pass it off as he’s really tired and says that he’d be down to do the do with her another time. Brighid knows something is up though, and after a couple of sniffs, she tears open his shirt, revealing all the wounds he got from sex (rape?) with the Morrigan. Knowing that he’s slept with her, Brighid flames on and blasts Atticus like she should have done years ago.
Sadly, it doesn’t work because of his stupid fix-everything amulet. Atticus tells Oberon to remain behind her, and then he draws Fragarach and uses its Sword of Truth powers on Brighid. Remember that it can do that? No? Well it means that she’s immobilized by magic, and has to tell the truth while the sword is pointed at her. Brighid is understandably not very thrilled by this development and demands that he let her go.
“You’re giving me commands? You just tried to fry me and you want me to obey you now? That’s not how it works. And you’re the one who said I was fit to wield the sword.”
She’s your goddess, Atticus, this is exactly how this works.
Seems a good time to point out that Brighid had absolutely no reason to declare him worthy. She points out here that she made that proclamation with his word that he’d never turn it against her, which shows you how much value his word actually has. I mean, yes, she did just try to fry him like a Kentucky chicken, but I think that’s a reasonable reaction to Atticus existing. She also threatens to fry Oberon, but Atticus says he will kill her if she does that. If I cared about these characters I’d say it’s sweet he’s so defensive of his dog, except since I know both Atticus and Oberon are obnoxious poop stains, welp, I don’t care.
He also makes her put out the fire in his kitchen. If you were concerned about that.
Brighid accuses him of being a bad host, and after putting out the fires he reviews the events up until the murder attempt and concludes that actually, she’s the one breaking hospitality rules (although as a goddess, one wonders if the same standards apply?). She points out that he had sex with the Morrigan, but he says he didn’t do when she was there, so it doesn’t count.
Answer my question.”
Sullenly, Brighid said, “The part where I ripped off your shirt was a minor breach of hospitality.”
“We are making excellent progress,” I enthused. “How about the part where you tried to kill me? Was that not also poor conduct for a guest?”
“Yes–strictly speaking. But you gave me cause!”
“No, Brighid, I did not.
Atticus is talking to the queen of the pantheon he worships in a condescending tone as if he’s correcting a petulant child. Even if he’s justified in doing so in context, he’s talking down to someone in a position of extreme power. She doesn’t have that power at the moment, but given that he doesn’t kill her now, considering how she’s characterized it’s entirely possible that she would go home and immediately have Atticus put on her hit list. It’s even more likely when he’s basically rubbing in her face how he’s better than her at following hospitality rules.
And again, Hearne’s going for, “Look how clever and powerful my protagonist is! He’s putting an arrogant goddess in her place!” Which makes me think it deserves another
Better Than You: 7
Also let’s think about the three goddesses that we’ve seen in the series thus far:
-Morrigan, an ax-crazy vamp who frequently disrobes in front of Atticus, feels him up and is constantly trying to please him by warning him of danger and helping him fight Aenghus Og.
-Flidais, a hunter goddess who doesn’t understand how kitchen appliances work, jumps immediately into bed with Atticus, and manipulates him (into doing what he should have done in the first place).
-Brighid, the queen of the Irish gods who was married to a man she hated for millenia, needs Atticus to fix her problems, wants to sleep with him, and throws a hissy fit when she finds out he slept with another goddess.
AGAIN, I remind you, part of his aim with Delilah Dawson in writing their later book Kill the Farm Boy was to talk about how fantasy is often a white male power fantasy. This feels relevant to bring up when we’re reading a series in which an all-powerful white male gets to talk to a queen goddess being treated like a child in a tantrum and gets the better of her to show how calm, intelligent, and level-headed he is by comparison. The man in this book is so much cleverer than those silly goddess wimmins, isn’t he?
Atticus says that if he really was “the Morrigan’s creature” he could have killed Brighid when she came in, but why would the Morrigan want Brighid dead? What would she get out of it? I never got the impression that the Morrigan even wanted political power for herself, much less a throne.
Brighid asks what the Morrigan was here for, and Atticus explains to heal his ear, which she admits she didn’t even know was injured. Atticus also gets her to admit that she had Oberon kidnapped to move him into action in the conclusion of the last book, which we knew already, but all of last book Atticus acted shocked every time a Plot Point was repeated, so I guess we should just be thankful he doesn’t act shocked here.
Through this conversation it’s revealed that the REAL reason Brighid wanted Atticus to be her consort was because she wanted to study his magic amulet and learn how to make it so she could finally be better than the Morrigan. Again, why is this first chapter where we’re hearing that their rivalry is this intense? Both of these characters have appeared before now, and have been relevant to the story, and just now we’re learning that they hate each other that much? For no discernible reason?
ALSO! Atticus is supposed to be Brighid’s worshiper. If she wanted to know about the amulet so bad, why didn’t she just ask about it any of the hundreds of years before this point? Isn’t that how religions are supposed to work? Is paganism so different from the monotheism I’m used to, that your deity can’t ask you for something? Why resort to any sort of trickery or seduction at all?
I’m disgusted with you both. And you know what really chaps my hide here?”
Testify!
SHUT UP OBERON.
“It’s that you’ve come down so dramatically from your pedestal. I can’t even have a proper crisis of faith and vacillate between the image of perfection and my shattered illusions, because you’ve left no doubt that there is nothing divine about your nature. Do you not see how you have debased yourself, or do you persist in thinking that you acted justly in trying to kill me?”
Yeah, I think if, in the second book of the series, your protagonist is able to restrain and tell off the queen of a pantheon, giving her a stern lecture about how she’s being childish, I THINK maybe you have a Mary Sue problem.
Look, he even pulls out the word “hubris” to describe her actions. It’s worth another
Better Than You: 8
Because she’s bound by the magic sword, Brighid says that she plans to rip off the amulet and incinerate him once she’s free, so Atticus has no incentive to free her. So he continues to lecture her, telling her “You’re behaving like a petulant child and not taking responsibility for your actions, like one of the blasted Olympians.” This makes me think that Hearne has a very basic understanding of Greek mythology, but for now there’s not enough to make a full judgment call and we’ll move past it.
It goes on like this for a while. I cannot say how boring this gets because this chapter is just “Brighid threw a hissy fit and Atticus magically gets to tell her off because he’s so much more powerful and mature than his goddess.”
There’s also a bit when her eyes flash blue, and remembering that Morrigan’s eyes flash red, and this quote was highlighted 97 times:
Maybe I should try to figure out how to make my eyes flash green so I could freak out the baristas at Starbucks. “No, you foolish mortal,” I’d say as my eyes glowed, “I ordered a non-fat latte.”
[sarcasm] Isn’t he so funny?
LAUGH, DAMNIT!: 21
Through great effort, she apologizes (it takes a lot of effort because due to the sword she’s bound to tell the truth and so she has to actually mean it when she says it), and Atticus extracts a promise that she won’t blast him. She also tries to get him to promise never to make an alliance with the Morrigan, but he tells her that won’t work because the Morrigan has exclusive rights to making the amulet. Brighid obviously has issues with this. Atticus assures her that it still takes centuries to make a finished amulet, and while he can’t teach her how to make it (because his sacred word, I guess?), he will allow her to come visit and study it to see if she can figure it out herself.
Brighid says this at some point:
“Yes, this has been a day for my inadequacies to be made plain.
I hate this book.
Atticus manages to wring out forgiveness from today’s events as a reward for killing Aenghus Og instead of becoming her consort, and Brighid promises not to breach hospitality again. Though she does say she won’t proposition him again and says now he’ll never get the chance to sleep with him.
The chapter ends with some Oberon dialogue and
Usually I think your paranoia is really funny. But right now
You Keep Using That Word: 15
HE’S NOT PARANOID. HE’S IMMUNE TO DEATH. HE SPENT THE ENTIRE CHAPTER TALKING TRASH ABOUT BRIGHID, QUEEN OF THE IRISH GODS, TO HER FACE.
Yes, she promised to forget this day, but how binding is that promise? And how do we know that she won’t at some point turn around and find some way around that? She has every reason to want him dead now: she knows he’s working for her rival, she could take and study the amulet when he’s dead (I don’t know if it will work as well though), and he made her feel like an idiot. Of course he’s going to walk it off and pretend like this entire scene makes him very clever and wise–his only regret being that he missed a chance to sleep with Brighid.
You know what you get when you tell off a goddess? Not good things! Even when you’re right about them! Gilgamesh talked smack to Ishtar’s face and she responded by getting her dad to drop the Bull of Heaven on him. I suppose Gilgy and Enkidu managed to kill it, but the point stands!
[sigh]
Join us next time, as we have MOAR conversations and our protagonist is an idiot to cops again. Y’know, in case you were missing that element from the first book.
Better Than You: 8
Did Not Do Homework: 12
The Kids These Days: 7
You Keep Using That Word: 15
Make It Easy!: 12
LAUGH, DAMNIT!: 21
Aikaterini on 26 September 2022, 09:45 said:
As opposed to Atticus? How oblivious is the narrative? Atticus is a lazy, do-nothing bum who has to be blackmailed, threatened, or ordered to get off his rear and do his job. How does that make him any better than Bres? Just because Atticus makes snarky and unfunny quips while trying to get out of it?
After badmouthing her dead husband for no reason, don’t forget. Oh, no, wait, there was a reason. It was to reassure readers of how awesome Atticus is, because he is totally isn’t a petty and useless layabout like Bres! Seriously, this may be one of the cheapest ways I’ve seen to try to elevate a protagonist. Kill a character, make a character’s widow want to bang her husband’s murderer, and make her insult her dead spouse while she’s at it. Classy.
You’re a goddess. Why do you care what other people say about your love life?
In fact, didn’t he namedrop famous people that he’d encountered in the first book? What happened? Did he just get really tired from rampaging across the world with Genghis Khan and decided a mundane life was easier?
But he’s so much better than Bres, guys!
GOOD LORD.
Because, by the end of the day, Brighid being queen doesn’t matter. Her being a goddess doesn’t matter. All that matters is that she lacks a Y chromosome and that’s why we don’t have to take her seriously.
And you know what, I think that could also explain her attempting groping of Atticus and Morrigan’s sexual episode (whatever that was supposed to be) with him too. The narrative doesn’t think about these things as rape, it doesn’t think about them as sexual harassment, it doesn’t think about them as anything serious, because they’re coming from women. If Aenghus Og or Thor tried to do those things to Atticus? Yeah, I’m sure we’d get a cheap gay joke initially, but I still think that their actions would get a far stronger reaction from Atticus and the narrative.
I mean, come on, how would any of those things come off if the sexes were reversed? If Artemis was talking to a male Irish god and he suddenly made a grab at her crotch? If the Morrigan manifested as a man and we were informed that he banged Artemis, but that she wasn’t really into it and that she just went along with it because she was afraid of what would happen if she said no? Even if Artemis was still as glib and casual as Atticus is and snarked at all the gods she came across, would those things be just as easily dismissed as comedy? If Male!Brighid tried to blast her away with fire, right after trying to grope her, would he be so easily dismissed as a “petulant child?” Yeah, maybe later in retrospect, but right in that very moment?
It’s just so patronizing and insulting. “Yeah, she can summon fireballs and all, but at the end of the day, she’s just a girl, tee-hee! Women will always be weaker than men, no matter what, and that’s why you don’t have to take them seriously!”
Because if she asked him like a normal person, Hearne wouldn’t get to show the reader how hot and sexy she and Atticus are.
Yeah, she’s debasing herself BECAUSE THE AUTHOR IS WRITING HER THAT WAY. The character is blaming her for something that she has no reason to be doing and is only doing so that the readers can see how awesome he is. The narrative is just dumping on Brighid to make Atticus look good, just like it does with everyone else!
The same Brighid who tried to sexually assault him and set him on fire. Yeah, I really see how we’re supposed to take her seriously. Welcome to the wondrous and exciting world of Irish gods, who all act like childish and horny teenagers.
Juracan on 29 September 2022, 07:44 said:
This narrative is VERY oblivious. It runs on Protagonist-Centered Morality, where the only judgments made on Atticus are positive. He is The Man. You are not to question it.
There might be, in a better book, an interesting idea about how rulers, even deities, must rely on the goodwill and follow the expectations of their subjects in order to maintain power, but this is Not That Book. So it’s just… there, as if to silence any questions readers might have about the idea.
I really don’t know? The very beginning of the first book has him describing hanging out with famous people throughout history, and then later on he says he’s always tried to keep his head down and stay out of trouble/attention, which doesn’t really add up. He also tells us in the first book that he pays no attention to, nor has any interest in, modern American politics, which seems a bit stupid?
Look, if you’re expecting character consistency this isn’t the series for it.
I KNOW, RIGHT?!
Isn’t it? I don’t know if it’s meant to come across that way, or just “Everyone will always be weaker than Atticus!” but it certainly FEELS sexist, especially considering how every other woman in the series is depicted. Makes you want to slap Hearne.
It’s very difficult to try to get a message out of the author’s writing, when characters act so erratically that they don’t make sense in order to get messages across. It’s trying to act like these are complex character interactions, when this book is incapable of even pretending to use complex characters.
To be fair, this is just about everyone in the series.