By Kayla Matt
Kira Grasdon is a difficult character for me and she seems to be creating the biggest amount of debate. That’s not the point of this though. Her themes make her a complicated supporting cast member. With her physical absence in some of the books, she has to grow in leaps and bounds. Her influence over events has to either be severe when she’s around or able to continue without her presence. Now, I’ve already discussed the romance part of her a few times, so I’m leaving that out here.
Culture Challenges
This is more of a teaser than a spoiler. While Luke Callindor has been having trouble adopting the open relationship tradition of Kira’s people, she is struggling to figure out how to work it with an absent boyfriend. It will be revealed that much of this tradition revolves around meeting the other partners and discussing them. Kira’s absence while Luke courts others puts a strain on her that will grow into a conflict of ‘Heart vs Upbringing’. For those wondering, this explodes in book 7, which is what I just started writing. I’m looking forward to seeing how this plays out and it’s where I get to finally push Kira extremely far in her evolution.
Playing the Game
One of the things that Luke and Kira share is that they were born into famous families with expectations on them. This is why they enjoy being able to be natural around each other. Now, Luke comes from warriors and has set off to prove himself while openly trying to battle his pre-existing fame. Kira goes another route by learning the game of high society and changing her personality/mood depending on what is expected of her. Ilan Callindor says she sounds two-faced and he might be right. In fact, some people have agreed with him and disliked her non-clumsy persona, which was another facade. A question that always comes up to me is which face is her true face. Again, there is going to have to be an event that forces her to grow up and develop a ‘final form’ as it were.
I like the conflict in Kara’s character. Looking forward to finishing Tower and moving to GypsieS.
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Good to hear. I’m looking forward to putting Family of the Tri-Rune out, so I’m hoping that moves along smoothly.
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Love the pictures of Kira and the emotional angst you describe.
It’s natural that she would change her personalities to suit others, as many people do. It makes for interesting conflict.
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It’s funny how common that personality switch is done considering how much it’s openly hated by people. I think people mistake it in literature as two-faced and a sign that the character is up to something.
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I can’t believe how far you are willing to go to rationalize turning Kira into a two faced whore, just to give a promiscuous slut a shot at her betrothed. I’d be temped to call it misogynistic if it wasn’t so pathetic. You transformed three significant, and previously strong, female characters into stupid sluts, and the fourth into a stupid slut facilitator. Do you really not realize that this has occurred, or do you simply fail to recognize how offensive and sexually demeaning it is? The longer you wait to fix these mistakes the worse they will become.
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Reblogged this on The Literary Syndicate and commented:
A great post by Charles, with an interesting comment on it. I personally love the Kira/Luke relationship and hope it continues. Do check this one out my friends, I think Charles would like to hear your viewpoints.
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