"Second First to Being Born..."

I've just finished rereading all of Westmark, hence the Torrens icon, and. um.

Bwahaha! Theo is such a dork. It was slightly ridiculous (and I am very guilty of saying it to him: "Theo, you're a dork!", whether I was reading by myself or at the gym, which got some looks), and very wonderful. Ahaha. You awful boy.

Something I thought was interesting is that when writing Westmarkfic and playing russet_goddess, I've always been really careful not to make any religious inferences, to the point where she (and queen_oracle) never say anything along the lines of 'for God's sake', 'for heaven's sake', but actually Theo says both those things, I believe, in Westmark (I don't think he says them in Kestrel or Beggar Queen, though); and likewise of course there's a lot of 'go to the devil', which doesn't necessarily mean anything, and go to hell, damn, &c. It's interesting, Westmark is sort of the inverse, issue-wise, from Fly by Night.

Because in Mandelion, religion is the main issue and class relations are almost incidental. Everyone knows where he or she goes and they don't make much of it. Mosca hasn't got any problem with being a penniless urchin; nobody ever expresses any particular dislike of Linden because he's Lady Tamarind's footman. In Westmark, the socio-political issues push almost everything else aside. Religion is incidental, instead.

And yet they're very similar books...! With the same kind of characters, even if Fly by Night is rather better written.

Anyway, Theo = dork. Dork dork dork.

Mickle is still cool, and Florian disturbs me a little more than he did the last few times I've read the trilogy. When I first read it I was totally in love with him, and now I feel slightly disenchanted, although he's still really wonderful. Is interesting. I like Connie more, for all he's awful, but--for the most part I find the incidentals better than the main characters (except Zara, who is my antagonistic passion). Red Cockade is the best. damn. character. Clarion is amazing. I'm still rather in love with Jellinek.

Also, my Luther is so OOC it's not even funny, and I like him better for it. >_> That's a bad thing, I'm pretty sure.

The scene where Keller is trying to get himself arrested is one of the best ones in the entire thing. Ehehe. ^___^ Gleeee.

Also also! They have Latin, or some semblance thereof, in Westmark, because in Westmark Theo mentions reading a book called De Rerum Justitiae or something like that, which translates to Of Just Things, roughly. Also a lot of the names are Latinate, like Justitia and Augusta.

I love Mr. Alexander's brain, even when I disagree with it. Ehee.

...On a side note, I want to write an AU where ( SPOILERS OMG )

Now I am going out for a drive before dinner. Manon, I will be on to-night hopefully by nine? Is my plan. Must still finish that stupid term paper.