Hobb-A-Long Read-A-Long discussion

So Jess shows Sedric the dragon scales he had stolen from Sedric's room, and tries to blackmail Sedric to do what Sedric had been effectively trying to do anyway, which is illegally take scales and dragon blood to the underground trade and make a small fortune; the difference being Jess wants to take a whole dragon back with them, and make them both incredibly wealthy. This would involve Sedric treacherously convincing Relpda the dragon that he and Jess are trying to help her, then having Jess kill her. And Sedric does seriously consider what that could mean for him and his imagined future with Hest; but by this time he and the dragon have co-mingled because of Sedric's exposure to Relpda's blood, and this has effected a change in his perspective on dragons.

Originally, he wasn't able to "hear" the dragon's communications with humans who were naturally gifted to be able to interpret what the dragons thoughts and feelings and personality were, and he had simply adhered to his notion that the dragons were just dumb animals, to be used as befits human needs and consumption. But now Relpda's mind has connected with his, and he realizes that they are sentient beings like humans, and he is not at heart a killer (also there is another major ethical problem to consider: It is likely that the high bidder for the dragon parts will be the Duke of Chalcid, a particularly evil and ruthless enemy of Bingtown, and by allowing him access to the medicinal qualities of the dragon merchandise, Sedric would be enabling the duke to live longer and healthier and perhaps continue to be a lingering danger to Bingtown, maybe even invade and attack the town again, now that Tintaglia is apparently ignoring her contract with the city; so Sedric would in effect be selling his hometown and his loved ones down the river if accepted Jess's deal).

Nortel and Tats start squabbling over Thymara, and Greft, trying to assert his leadership where it isn't wanted, pressures Thymara to partner up with one or the other, so it will not breed dissension within their group; also he implies that if she doesn't choose anyone, that inevitably the choice will be taken from her, which sounds like a threat; Thymara replies that she is not interested in entering into a romantic relationship with anyone yet, and won't be forced into one ( which earns her rare praise from Sintara (" now you're thinking like a queen")); which shows something about how dragons think: they tend to value Greco-Roman virtues like courage and beauty.

But Thymara is human, and Judeo-Christian values like love and kindness are missing in her life; she feels alienated from the other keepers and her own dragon, who has treated her so callously; and so she publicly humiliates Sintara by declaring that she wouldn't want to honor Sintara by giving permission for Sintara to consume Thymara's body and her memories in the event of her death ( as Baliper had just done meaningfully and ceremoniously with his dead keeper, Warken; and as all the other keepers stated would be their own wishes should they die).

Thymara doesn't feel she belongs anywhere, and feels profoundly alone. Even when she kisses Tats for the first time, he misinterprets her action as meaning that they were a couple now, when all she was trying to convey was her affection towards him, and that perhaps there could be a romantic future eventually; but not now when Thymara, so new to the idea of ever considering romantic relationships for herself, needs time to get adjusted to the idea. Tats takes this the wrong way, and Thymara feels misunderstood again.

She even seeks some comfort from touching Tarman, the liveship; but the crew members resent this as they don't see her as one of their own ( This brings up an interesting conjecture. Since liveships like Tarman and Paragon are, or are derived from dragons, which are animals; doesn't Web's Old Blood ethics require that all animals should be able to engage in free association with whomever they choose, without human interference? If so, then when Paragon arranged to meet Alise Finbok back in the first book, that was his choice, and Althea should not have intervened as she did, or tried to discourage Alise from speaking with him. And therefore, the Tarman crew is out of bounds by trying to prevent Thymara from receiving Tarman's wordless messages, if he is willingly giving them.

Greft's comments in/around this area about starting a new way of living and therefore having to partner everybody up are really disturbing. I still wonder why everyone just decided to accept his leadership.

Michelle wrote: "Greft's comments in/around this area about starting a new way of living and therefore having to partner everybody up are really disturbing. I still wonder why everyone just decided to accept his le..."

I think mainly because he is the oldest (early to mid-twenties) among mostly impressionable teenagers, and also the most heavily marked, which gives him a certain credibility among kids who have been discriminated against their whole lives. Also, he has a seductive message (delivered in a confident bordering on arrogant way) to sell them that once they get to Kelsingra, they will be able to make their rules and not have to follow conventional Rain Wild standards about who can marry and what constitutes proper behavior or which children live or die ( and it helps that there is at least a grain of truth in some of this) Greft would make a very charismatic and dangerous fascist dictator or cult leader; but he does tend to overplay his hand with some of his admittedly selfish choices in the short term ( which he sees nothing wrong in doing). Thymara has never bought into his act, and Tats and others are starting to see how manipulative he is.