Waning, Ch. 12 (S)

[neongrey]

And here we have the conclusion of this party, as far as we see it, anyway, and the closing of the first third of the story. From here, I'm going to be going back to redo a pair of chapters (Ka/Thalan/ia's first POV is getting moved back until later on, among other things) before moving forward. This is going to be our last multipov chapter for a while, too.

For those of you who've been following the whole thing: let's talk about Lasila. What are your thoughts on her overall in this iteration? There were severe issues, last time we hit this point in the story. She's no action hero and this story isn't in the epic genre, but I'm hoping she's better now at commanding the reader's attention.

To recap the last little bit: Escorted by Eshrin, Lasila attends the celebration of the goddess' resurrection; she meets the man Iluya's going to marry (Eshrin's brother), has some off-camera sex with Iluya, meets up with Maranthe, who says she needs contracts written in order to rework shudkathra magic for aelin use; she then meets up with a young man, the son of the senator whom her brother is protecting. They head off somewhere quiet. *He* isn't suffering from incredibly-carefully-managed social anxiety, unlike Iluya, so what can and can't occur on the page is somewhat different...

Meanwhile, Savae notes Senator Riruna's presence, with the poison earrings they made; they seem satisfied that this is going to kill him... eventually. They meet up with Aserahin, Varael Ashana's right-hand and Senate candidate, and they pass him a decoy token to satisfy Varael's demands. They speak with Maranthe briefly about a minor role they're to have in the upcoming ritual, and wisely spend a decidedly large amount of time antagonizing her instead. This will have no repercussions.

This time: Lasila begins a process best described as 'getting religion'. An Always Sunny title card reading "Savae sees some repercussions"
Next time: Chapter four.

[kais]

Overall

Enjoyable! I wasn't as engaged with the scene at the beginning, but I think that is a combination of WRS (and there having been a several week gap) and the type of scene it was. Maranthe continues to intrigue me, and I like the scene with the gods. 

Lasilia

I don't actively dislike her anymore, but neither do I find her an interesting protagonist. I would keep reading this story, but it would be for the side characters, and the world, and the very intriguing gods. Lasilia herself I can't seem to connect with, nor empathize with. She's starting to get hints of better dimensionality, for sure, but the world around her is so interesting and she just seems... to float in a bubble just beyond it. As I believe I have mentioned before, dislike or ambivalence of a protagonist does not keep me from enjoying something. I hated Buffy but loved Buffy the Vampire Slayer, etc. The story you are presenting is immersive, and I appreciate that.

As I go

- LOL 'He is awfully pretty'

- Lasila pulls her head down to hers <-- typo here

- I enjoy the reveal ceremony a great deal

- page six: the part where the god speaks to Lasilia still confuses me. Does he walk to her and whisper? Is it an illusion? I can't seem to tell if he is actually right before her, or this is some mental trick. Because I'm wondering about it, it pulls me from the narrative

- aww, I'm sad that the gods don't speak to Savae!

 - the end bit with Savae is good!

[rdpulfer he/him]

- I like the line about remarkable soundproofing.

- The scene with the goddess is good, but it seems to drag a bit. Maybe less ritual is needed?

- I also really like the latest development with Savae. Looking forward to see what happens next. 

[industrialistDragon]

Jumping in the middle here means I don't have a lot to say yet, unfortunately. 

 

L struck me as an average protagonist. She wasn't boring enough to completely lose my interest, but she didn't engage me much, either. 

 

S seems like a  reserved person, which is cool, but it means that the little screen time they had wasn't enough for me to get a real sense of them. I'm more interested in them than L right now, at least.

 

Though well written, I found the ritual very long. I lack a lot of context coming in at ch12, so ymmv, but I ended up skimming most of the middle of it, and parts of the reaction scenes with the gods. 

 

Also, the two I-names, the lover and the betrothed (?), I kept getting mixed up and having to page back to the beginning to remember which one was which.  Not starting at chapter 12 would probably help this but the names ARE awfully similar in shape...

[Mandamon he/him]

Contrary to @kaisa, I did enjoy the first scene a lot. And contrary to everyone else, it seems, I thought the whole ritual section was quite beautiful. I remember thinking that the last time around as well. The appearance of the two gods was (if I remember) even better than last time.

Lasila:
She's much more interesting this time now she has a profession and some goals, but still pretty vanilla. Again, I agree with kaisa that the other side characters are more interesting. I'm much more invested in Savae, and even in Illuya. Lasila is basically a conduit to enjoy the story, but I don't have a really clear sense of her character arc, except to "gain power."

pg 2: "Fine. Let's go. The Lady would have her voice heard."
--Not sure which Lady Savae is referring to.

pg 4: "The mask this new god wears is silver and covers the whole of his face; where moonlight hits, it gleams red."
--the mask or his face glows red? I assume mask...

pg 4: "Maranthe knew about this, had expected it to happen."
--not sure how Lasila came to that conclusion based on who volunteered a mask. Even if M was the first to accept the change, that doesn't mean she know about it beforehand.

pg 5 :"Hmm? Oh, yes," says the goddess, taking her place back before the altar. "We mustn't get too far off track. It won't hurt anything that I gave the robe away, I don't think. But we are in the middle of a ritual, after all."
--I like this section. Shows how much the goddess is playing along, appeasing the worshipers she loves.

pg 7: "but it means that these other people forewent their chance to hear the words of a god."
--confused. Does Savae think the gods didn't talk to anyone because they didn't talk to them?

Looking forward to new chapters!