More Lymond...

[dangermousie]

Yeah, still reading Game of Kings. I remember when I first read it, I actually liked Richard at the start the best of anybody. Now, while I get where he is coming from, I am impatient with him. I think I never recovered from the scene in the glen in GoK where Richard’s goal is to literally break Lymond down so much that he is going to beg to be killed.


OK, fine, you think Lymond turned on you and even though if you examined the scenario rationally, you’d be able to see it’s not the case, I’ll cut you some slack. So fine, kill him. But to set out a deliberate continuous course of emotional/mental torture for someone who is in bad enough physical shape that he cannot get away? SICK.

And yeah, it’s actually not too hard to make Lymond go suicidal but it’s really hard to get him to stop once he sets his mind to it. Those scenes remind me that despite everything, he is so heartbreakingly young there.

And the annoying thing, Richard never learns! As late as book 6 he is suspecting Lymond of being evil debaucher and who-knows-what-else. It would be nice to give the benefit of the doubt to someone about whom you’ve already been proven wrong repeatedly.

And I've forgotten how much I adore Will Scott. And Christian. Do you think she is someone Lymond could have loved if she survived?

Comments

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Oh, I think he cared for her deeply, but I don't think it was romantic love of the nature he feels for Philippa (but then of course what he feels for Philippa is pretty off the charts). It could have been if there was time, though I don't know if she is pure sparkly fun enough for him (it could have gone a la Philippa and it could have gone a la Kate, with deep friendship but no love).


Christian didn't die in any ol' house, did she;) I like to think there's an intended symmetry (and implication) there.

You know, I never ever thought of that but wow. You are totally right. That is crazily awesome.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

But Christian is worth idealizing. :) I love her exchanges with Lymond: they are light and there is humor and wit but it's not cruel. The bit with her death kills me, how he lies that she died for the key to his freedom when it truth she died for nothing at all.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I really have nothing to add except YES.

I am so looking forward to tomorrow when I can read some more.

[octavia-b.livejournal.com]

Ok, this made me giggle a lot because I just posted a reply a few minutes ago to one of your previous comments and I talked about how much I like the relationship between Lymond and Richard because it strikes me as so realistic. Hee. I still stand by my statement, but I've only read the series once so far and I suspect that going back and reading earlier books with a more knowing eye will give me a different perspective. I'm thinking in particular of the shock I got in Pawn when I found out just how YOUNG he was. When I originally read GoT I assumed he was in his late 20s. To find out that even by Pawn he was only 26? FUCK.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Re: Richard. I like him now and again but I find him incapable of learning re: Lymond which drives me a bit insane. There is love but they are basically too different to meld well.

I know (re: age!) He is only 21 in GoK!!!