rix_scaedu

This comment might be colored by me already having read the entire series more than once (so beware potential spoilers), but this time I just felt I had to comment about/respond to one paragraph in particular... As it rather exasperated me. (Note that I'm responding to the character here, not to the author.)

Warning: contains significant amounts of sarcasm. (I probably shouldn't be writing while tired... and I suspect there's a bit of venting involved. Sorry if any of this is bad.)

“I’ve given the matter some thought,”

Yes, obviously - much the same way there's some water in a drop. Or some heat in a block of solid nitrogen. Good thing it isn't something worth spending any real amount of time on before deciding what to do...

“Our opportunities to make it up to you are very few.”

Oh, indeed. If you really want to make it up to her, your opportunities only come probably several times every day (until she leaves)... It's not like you could do something silly like giving her a little attention, or actually listening to her, or maybe now and then getting her some at least half-decent things (like a new lamp shade) that she would actually like, or any of the numerous other small things parents usually do to show that they love, or at least care about, you... I mean, that would be giving her what she always wanted, just like her siblings got, we can't have any of that! Much better to just give her away to someone else as soon as possible so that you won't have to deal with it anymore, that will certainly make up for all the neglect... *eyeroll*

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Ok, sorry... just had to get that off my chest.

It's not like I can't see his logic, either - happiness comes from marriage -> will be happy when married -> marriage will make her happy -> let's do that quickly - it's just that it's very very flawed logic, and I have my doubts that he's actually thought about it even that much, at least conciously. Not to mention that he's going directly against her expressed wishes, which is no way to make up for anything, and least of all for ignoring her...

And nobody stood up for her, either. Not really. The aunt offered some help afterwards, sure, but that's not the same, and thus indicated that even if she were to accept it, if her father still insisted, they wouldn't have stopped him from taking her back and marrying her off. So no safe haven there. And nobody else really showed that they really care about her either.

He's also believable - I have no doubt that people like this actually exist - in fact, that's probably part of what got me so riled up. If he wasn't, I'd probably just have dismissed it as a plot device and moved on. (I mean, in some ways he still is, you had to make her leave somehow, but he's not just that.)

It's not really all that surprising to me that she'd want to run away after that. Luckily she had someone trustworthy to run away with. Someone I suspect has given her more attention than her entire family combined... Which would certainly help explain her attachment to him.