Honor's Honor
Sep. 7th, 2011 03:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
baddecisiondzurRandom Dragara observation: most of the cross-House couples we see (especially serious ones, rather than 'Khaavren is twitterpated by Illista', 'Pel has mistresses', and 'people visit brothels' and excluding Easterners and gods) and all of the characters of mixed Houses include someone from the House of the Dzur. Grita's mother was a Dzur; as was one of Mellar's maternal grandparents. I don't know if Sethra counts here, since she's not exactly forthcoming on her backstory, besides that she's older than dirt. Tazendra admits Aerich is the only person she's ever felt strongly enough about to marry (and given he's Aerich, means it would never happen and she knows it); Ibronka and Shant (one of Piro's friends, IIRC Khaavren blames him for being a bad influence) both have long term relationships with people outside their House.
I wonder if this was on purpose.
--
But that's not actually what I wanted to blog about. Mostly thinking about Tazendra's little run-in with Arianna. And finding it noteworthy that she could be less strongly affected by dying by having her soul ripped to shreds by magic than by 'stand there and watch me torture some people'. Heck, taking a knife for Sion probably improved her mood, because at least she was doing something.
So, a lot of Tazendra is driven by a conflict between the two facets of her nature: her code of honor and the fact she's a violent, passionate person who mostly does what seems like a good idea at the time. It's not that big of a deal in canon, because she's integrated the ideas well, operates in a society that's familiar to her where there isn't much moral conflict between them, and... well, picking fights with Dzurlords is generally seen as Not Smart unless you can back it up.
Sabra is full of people who can take Honor in a fight so they don't care about her reputation, and Judges who delight in warping codes of honor into pieces for their sustenance. That and instead of being nobility, Honor is essentially in the lowest class of a theocracy (gods -> priests -> laity), and doesn't act like it. So she gets into more conflicts of honor, and can't just fight her way out of them. Moreover, Arianna deliberately put her in a situation where violence would be the dishonorable thing and Honor failed spectacularly at it, and was only stopped when either Jace stepped in or Arianna made it clear she'd kill Sion before Honor could strike her, which was enough to penetrate her skull.
A secondary factor to her here in Sabra was that she spent three weeks being Honor of Corvus, only Dragaeran of SLT with little knowledge of Tazendra Lavode, House of the Dzur. (Her only memory was being a prisoner, so it wasn't exactly showing she was a high-status person.) Both the lack of memories grounding her honor and a lack of influence from others Dragaerans meant she shifted a bit, which worries her now. Especially since the one person who showed up was Aerich, who even in canon has the reputation for being a gentleman's gentleman. And Honor's first memory of him returned is basically him clearing her parents' name by his word, which already kind of builds him up more. So right now, she's in a sort of state where she remembers enough that she's let some of her 'civilized manners' slide, but not enough to feel confident in interpreting her own code of honor as a Dzurlord. It'll pass, but it means Arianna striking her in the honor bothers her more than it might earlier or later.
It also bothers her that Jace revealed it was some kind of mental influence Arianna brought in. Thanks to her experiences in Selendis's nightmare, mindfuckery scares Honor to no end. In the end, even if Sion mentioned Jace might consider helping her with revival painkilling, she might not feel comfortable with him messing around in her mind even for a good reason. It also means if she's ever targeted by a Heart Game, things could very easily turn dangerous as a defensive reaction. But the most relevant thing right now is that Honor can't kill Arianna if it wasn't her fault; it would be dishonorable*. She could kill whatever was controlling Arianna**, but she doesn't know what it was, if it's still alive, or if it's here.
Any time Tazendra can't solve a problem decisively, it tends to sit poorly with her. Especially here, because the solution seems so simple to her, except it would be dishonorable. Sabra is as a Dzur pitcher plant -- it looks so inviting, with the promise of competition and combat and fun things. Once you're in, you realize that this is probably the worst place to be, since solving problems without violence towards people who will torture your team is a vital skill, as is shrugging off insults.
* Fighting is fine 'for fun', even if any formal duel would probably end quickly.
** Well, she could try. It wouldn't end well for her even if someone actually gave her the information and a way to get there.
I wonder if this was on purpose.
--
But that's not actually what I wanted to blog about. Mostly thinking about Tazendra's little run-in with Arianna. And finding it noteworthy that she could be less strongly affected by dying by having her soul ripped to shreds by magic than by 'stand there and watch me torture some people'. Heck, taking a knife for Sion probably improved her mood, because at least she was doing something.
So, a lot of Tazendra is driven by a conflict between the two facets of her nature: her code of honor and the fact she's a violent, passionate person who mostly does what seems like a good idea at the time. It's not that big of a deal in canon, because she's integrated the ideas well, operates in a society that's familiar to her where there isn't much moral conflict between them, and... well, picking fights with Dzurlords is generally seen as Not Smart unless you can back it up.
Sabra is full of people who can take Honor in a fight so they don't care about her reputation, and Judges who delight in warping codes of honor into pieces for their sustenance. That and instead of being nobility, Honor is essentially in the lowest class of a theocracy (gods -> priests -> laity), and doesn't act like it. So she gets into more conflicts of honor, and can't just fight her way out of them. Moreover, Arianna deliberately put her in a situation where violence would be the dishonorable thing and Honor failed spectacularly at it, and was only stopped when either Jace stepped in or Arianna made it clear she'd kill Sion before Honor could strike her, which was enough to penetrate her skull.
A secondary factor to her here in Sabra was that she spent three weeks being Honor of Corvus, only Dragaeran of SLT with little knowledge of Tazendra Lavode, House of the Dzur. (Her only memory was being a prisoner, so it wasn't exactly showing she was a high-status person.) Both the lack of memories grounding her honor and a lack of influence from others Dragaerans meant she shifted a bit, which worries her now. Especially since the one person who showed up was Aerich, who even in canon has the reputation for being a gentleman's gentleman. And Honor's first memory of him returned is basically him clearing her parents' name by his word, which already kind of builds him up more. So right now, she's in a sort of state where she remembers enough that she's let some of her 'civilized manners' slide, but not enough to feel confident in interpreting her own code of honor as a Dzurlord. It'll pass, but it means Arianna striking her in the honor bothers her more than it might earlier or later.
It also bothers her that Jace revealed it was some kind of mental influence Arianna brought in. Thanks to her experiences in Selendis's nightmare, mindfuckery scares Honor to no end. In the end, even if Sion mentioned Jace might consider helping her with revival painkilling, she might not feel comfortable with him messing around in her mind even for a good reason. It also means if she's ever targeted by a Heart Game, things could very easily turn dangerous as a defensive reaction. But the most relevant thing right now is that Honor can't kill Arianna if it wasn't her fault; it would be dishonorable*. She could kill whatever was controlling Arianna**, but she doesn't know what it was, if it's still alive, or if it's here.
Any time Tazendra can't solve a problem decisively, it tends to sit poorly with her. Especially here, because the solution seems so simple to her, except it would be dishonorable. Sabra is as a Dzur pitcher plant -- it looks so inviting, with the promise of competition and combat and fun things. Once you're in, you realize that this is probably the worst place to be, since solving problems without violence towards people who will torture your team is a vital skill, as is shrugging off insults.
* Fighting is fine 'for fun', even if any formal duel would probably end quickly.
** Well, she could try. It wouldn't end well for her even if someone actually gave her the information and a way to get there.
