I guess I do wonder exactly how realistic it is that all the kids except that one straggler from California (lol) actually went along with the plan, a plan that had way more danger in it for them than it had to, when the seniors, at least, had spent years getting into exactly the opposite mindset. But I suppose I can just see it; the combo of having months to get into the mindset, the school helping them do so, not really knowing what the school will do if they renege tbh, the enclave philosophy as El points out, the grip of peer pressure going in the right direction for once. But the part of me that isn't thinking about it rationally doesn't care, that part where they have to face that it's not the pragmatic thing and they do it anyway is JUST ALL THAT
Although it's not actually stated, I think it's strongly hinted that El also simply has every bit as much charisma as her mother, if not more - it's just that in her mother's case it largely works for her, and in El's case it largely doesn't unless she's actually trying to chase people off. (That IS pretty clearly stated - if she tells somebody off, even just by glaring at them, they stay told.)
The easiest way to deal with El's strong disapproval of your behavior is probably to avoid her, but if for some reason you can't or don't want to do that then you're forced to shape up, to be the sort of person she tries very hard not to judge you for not being. You see that happening with Chloe - she spent enough time around El that she wanted to be real friends, and seems consequently to have spent most of this book in a haze of self-doubt and guilt.
-How the entire point is that it's not enough to save your own little alliance, or even everyone who is nice to you; what's right is to save everyone. I CAN'T EVEN
What's absolutely infuriating, and I'm sure El will get around to being retroactively infuriated sometime in book 3 after she saves and/or kills Orion, is that the new plan to help everybody all the time is, as noted, so much better than the older methods that they could have been doing it the entire time. It probably would have been better during the school year as well, not just on Graduation.
-[personal profile] ase pointed out that the numbers really don't work out in Deadly Education -- I feel rather silly for not noticing it myself: if substantially more than half your kids are being killed off, then unless everyone was having a bunch of kids (and this doesn't seem to be a thing everyone is doing) you wouldn't have any wizards left by this time. Unfortunately there are additional concrete numbers in this book and they keep not making any sense. Oh well.
Yeah, nobody's gonna have 16 kids if 15 of them will die in between the ages of 8 and 16. But SFF writers never understand math, so the only thing to do is just continually toss out all the numbers.
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Date: 2021-10-06 12:15 am (UTC)Although it's not actually stated, I think it's strongly hinted that El also simply has every bit as much charisma as her mother, if not more - it's just that in her mother's case it largely works for her, and in El's case it largely doesn't unless she's actually trying to chase people off. (That IS pretty clearly stated - if she tells somebody off, even just by glaring at them, they stay told.)
The easiest way to deal with El's strong disapproval of your behavior is probably to avoid her, but if for some reason you can't or don't want to do that then you're forced to shape up, to be the sort of person she tries very hard not to judge you for not being. You see that happening with Chloe - she spent enough time around El that she wanted to be real friends, and seems consequently to have spent most of this book in a haze of self-doubt and guilt.
-How the entire point is that it's not enough to save your own little alliance, or even everyone who is nice to you; what's right is to save everyone. I CAN'T EVEN
What's absolutely infuriating, and I'm sure El will get around to being retroactively infuriated sometime in book 3 after she saves and/or kills Orion, is that the new plan to help everybody all the time is, as noted, so much better than the older methods that they could have been doing it the entire time. It probably would have been better during the school year as well, not just on Graduation.
-[personal profile] ase pointed out that the numbers really don't work out in Deadly Education -- I feel rather silly for not noticing it myself: if substantially more than half your kids are being killed off, then unless everyone was having a bunch of kids (and this doesn't seem to be a thing everyone is doing) you wouldn't have any wizards left by this time. Unfortunately there are additional concrete numbers in this book and they keep not making any sense. Oh well.
Yeah, nobody's gonna have 16 kids if 15 of them will die in between the ages of 8 and 16. But SFF writers never understand math, so the only thing to do is just continually toss out all the numbers.