FOREIGNER: Discussion Post #4, Spoiler Edition

[krait]

If you have discussion points for Chapters 5-6 you wish to bring up but which include spoilers, please post them here. Then link your comment in the general post, so those who want to avoid being spoiled can do so!

Comments

[spaceoperadiva]

In retrospect, there are so many hints here, both that something "truly catastrophic" as Bren puts it, is going on, and exactly what 'Sidi is up to as well. It's all about the man'chi, isn't it? Though I never guessed even with the great foreshadowing sprinkled in from the very beginning what the "catastrophic" happening really was.

I loved: "Nadi Bren. I wish you'd consult before decisions."

[krait]

It's all about the man'chi, isn't it?

Definitely! And Bren's is right in the centre of it all. I keep wondering, as I read, what all the poor atevi around him are thinking -- How much does he know, and why is he being so cagey? He's very skilled at playing ignorant; was that a slip just now, though? What has he been told? What have his own kind told him to tell us? -- and trying to guess at their surmises every time Bren has one of those fraught, half-obscure conversations.

(Good grief, what poor Jago must be thinking! Between that "we call it a test of character" / "so do we" exchange, and his later fumbling that comes to close to a proposition, her head's probably spinning!


I loved: "Nadi Bren. I wish you'd consult before decisions."

Haha, I can just picture the face Bren had to refrain from making, there. :P That's got to be the sign of A+ paidhi material, there -- anyone who can manage not to make the retort Bren wanted to make deserves top marks, for sure!

[cheyinka]

Anyone who can both refrain from making a retort and from making a face that would say it without words is... much more disciplined than I am! Of course, we get hints that his relationship with Barb, even now, is strained by his having to stop being expressionless and stop phrasing everything carefully and perfectly once he's back on Mospheira...