You're right, i'm being petty, looked at from a distance Richard is NOT a bad guy. In fact, the reason I don;t like him is because he is so good. I don;t like good people, they either a) make me feel like the creature from the black lagoon, complete with odor and personality disfunction, or b) make me wonder what they;re selling/hiding. Add in a healthy dollop of religion and I tend to be on the look out for when they try to put the metaphorical foot in the door.
The main problem with Richard is he;s is the completely wrong situation for himself. He's so very HUMAN. Extremely and eternally nice and human. He's a cuddly little puppy and a gentle soul. But he is in a position that frankly needs the Big Bad Wolf and a complete sociopathic bastard (I expect Marcus would have been a good alpah if not for Raina).
Nice guy, wrong situation, isn;t it always the way? And he is waaaay off with Anita, match made in hell. "Hi honey, I'm home, just killed 3 of your best friend's today! Hey, fancy drooling over some guns or marvelling at the new super-power I just developed? Wait! 5:00, time to do something massively scary to make sure I can still scare vamps!" (in Blue Moon, the scene where she was... "questioning" the guy about Richard's mother. Cold. Very cold.)
And Ed? Nah, but I didn;t see him engaged to a woman with the dogs, peeka and Boo, either... *has a brain haemorrhage trying to picture it* I think Anita has reached the stage where she;s beginning to scare him...
Personally, I don't think that Anita can reach that stage. The only way she scares him would be the amount to which she's cuddling up with the monsters, not the ease with which she kills. We haven't seen the full extent of Edward by a long shot.
I agree that Richard is too damn nice to be where he is, completely in the wrong situation. I suspect he wouldn't get so holier-than-thou to Anita if he wasn't in the position that he is. The way we see Richard when first introduced to him (is it Circus of the Damned?), he's just a really, nice guy. He doesn't get up Anita's nose about what she does because he has a degree of separation; it's not what he has to do to stay alive, so it's okay. His moral code is just too high and too strict for him to be in the position he is in and survive with mind and body intact. He's getting there a bit, but I'd like to see more of his development. But that's my bias.
I miss the old Richard, the Circus of the Damned Richard, when most people could easily like him. *sigh*
Oh, no, i never thought Anita's coldness might scare him (beyond hitting hsi hyper-competetive nerve) I think her inhumanity might though. More and more with each passing book she becomes less and less like Anita, or rather should that be more and more like Anita? She is now more vampire/shapshifter/necromacer/witch than she is human. I think part of the reason that Edward doesn't like her dating the monsters is that it reinforces just how much Anita has become one of them. Even Edward has to be slightly freaked by someone nearly as cold and skilled as him who also has the powers Anita is displaying. In Obsidian Butterfly he was competing to the hilt, what will he do when he realises that Anita can;t only match him, but thanks to her increasing powers, can draw a gun before he can move? It;s going to shake his world a little.
That being said, he just handled the biggest shape up ever, and he always has the capcity to surprise. Besides he has the coolest toys!
In part, i think Richard's moral code seems so high because what he is required to do is actually quite horrible. There are few out there who wouldn;t blanch at torture or murder. The problem is he is sourrounded by people who DON'T have a moral code, or don;t let it get in the way. He isn;t a saint so much as he;s surrounded by devils. The other part I think i his eternal self-loathing. We've seen it before, how much he hates himself, In Narcissus in Chains it is clear that he is actually a passive suicide. He hates what he is, what he;s become, he thinks were-creatures are evil. A good reaction to this would be to cling to humanity. I don;t know if you;ve ever played World of Darkness Vampire, by White-wolf games, but it;s the equivalent of a vampire who think's he's damned so aims for humanity 8+ and becomes purer than most humans. He's almost trying to make amends.
I think, perhaps of all the characters, Richard and Edward have actually changed the least. But we know more about Edward so he seems to have changed, and we are learning more about Richard as the situation around him changes.
If in Circus of the Damned we heard that Richard refused to kill and torture his pack members, valued democracy and the right to life and hated the pack being set up as a dictatorship, would we condemn him? You;re right, he only seems bad from Anita's ever increasingly jaded eyes.
Still... if he weren;t so pretty nearly everyone would hate him. :)
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branchandroot
Re:
Date: 2002-07-28 01:29 pm (UTC)The main problem with Richard is he;s is the completely wrong situation for himself. He's so very HUMAN. Extremely and eternally nice and human. He's a cuddly little puppy and a gentle soul. But he is in a position that frankly needs the Big Bad Wolf and a complete sociopathic bastard (I expect Marcus would have been a good alpah if not for Raina).
Nice guy, wrong situation, isn;t it always the way? And he is waaaay off with Anita, match made in hell. "Hi honey, I'm home, just killed 3 of your best friend's today! Hey, fancy drooling over some guns or marvelling at the new super-power I just developed? Wait! 5:00, time to do something massively scary to make sure I can still scare vamps!" (in Blue Moon, the scene where she was... "questioning" the guy about Richard's mother. Cold. Very cold.)
And Ed? Nah, but I didn;t see him engaged to a woman with the dogs, peeka and Boo, either... *has a brain haemorrhage trying to picture it* I think Anita has reached the stage where she;s beginning to scare him...
no subject
Date: 2002-07-29 07:22 am (UTC)I agree that Richard is too damn nice to be where he is, completely in the wrong situation. I suspect he wouldn't get so holier-than-thou to Anita if he wasn't in the position that he is. The way we see Richard when first introduced to him (is it Circus of the Damned?), he's just a really, nice guy. He doesn't get up Anita's nose about what she does because he has a degree of separation; it's not what he has to do to stay alive, so it's okay. His moral code is just too high and too strict for him to be in the position he is in and survive with mind and body intact. He's getting there a bit, but I'd like to see more of his development. But that's my bias.
I miss the old Richard, the Circus of the Damned Richard, when most people could easily like him. *sigh*
Re:
Date: 2002-07-29 12:51 pm (UTC)That being said, he just handled the biggest shape up ever, and he always has the capcity to surprise. Besides he has the coolest toys!
In part, i think Richard's moral code seems so high because what he is required to do is actually quite horrible. There are few out there who wouldn;t blanch at torture or murder. The problem is he is sourrounded by people who DON'T have a moral code, or don;t let it get in the way. He isn;t a saint so much as he;s surrounded by devils.
The other part I think i his eternal self-loathing. We've seen it before, how much he hates himself, In Narcissus in Chains it is clear that he is actually a passive suicide. He hates what he is, what he;s become, he thinks were-creatures are evil. A good reaction to this would be to cling to humanity. I don;t know if you;ve ever played World of Darkness Vampire, by White-wolf games, but it;s the equivalent of a vampire who think's he's damned so aims for humanity 8+ and becomes purer than most humans.
He's almost trying to make amends.
I think, perhaps of all the characters, Richard and Edward have actually changed the least. But we know more about Edward so he seems to have changed, and we are learning more about Richard as the situation around him changes.
If in Circus of the Damned we heard that Richard refused to kill and torture his pack members, valued democracy and the right to life and hated the pack being set up as a dictatorship, would we condemn him? You;re right, he only seems bad from Anita's ever increasingly jaded eyes.
Still... if he weren;t so pretty nearly everyone would hate him. :)