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[RT][HF] A Practical Guide to Evil: Book 4: Interlude: Zwischenzug
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Author: u/Zayits *
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URL: https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2018/10/01/interlude-zwischenzug/
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Score: 49
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Created: 2018-10-01T04:07:21
Post:
Comments:
u/Mountebank [+25] *
Thief really undersells her own contributions. Yeah, she's lost basically every fight that she's been in and isn't as good at scheming as she thinks she is, but remember that time she stole a sun? Or all of the Crusade's supplies?
u/AurelianoTampa [+12] *
Thinking about it, I actually see why this is upsetting her so much. But I think it comes from her misunderstanding Names. For a lot of people, Named are superhumans who do impossible things. Vivienne expects herself to be better than her obstacles, because she's Named. But she's got it wrong. Your Name is supposed to make you more of what you are, so leaning into it makes you better at those things... but if you try to do things that aren't part of you or your role, it doesn't help. When has Vivienne been at her peak? When she's been leaning into Thief. She stole a sun. She stole supplies. Before she joined the Woe she stole a harbor full of ships. She is great at stealing things. When has she been failing? When she's not doing what she's good at. She tries to fight Hakram ages ago and was slapped away like a wimp. She went against the fae and got burned. She battled at Second Liesse and got hurt for it. She tries to stab Malicia's entourage and got electrified. It's been stated plenty of times, but Thief is not a combat Name. I feel like most of the characters (and Thief herself) say that and mean "she doesn't have any combat tricks," but they all assume she's still Named and thus is strong. But as soon as she steps outside of the role of a non-combat Thief... she's not the Thief. She's Vivienne, and she's practically powerless. She tries to fight, but really when it comes to combat a Thief should really only good at avoiding getting into it or in getting away ASAP. She tries to plan and lead, but a Thief is more of a lone wolf profession - my guess is that she takes to the Jacks because she's "stealing" information, so at least it's tangentially related to the role. She's forcing herself to jam a square peg into a round hole, because she expects her Name to make her better in all areas. But instead she's just fracturing her role. She's right to fear her Name is slipping. The way I see it, she can either focus on doing Thief-y stuff, or angle for a new Name that has some combat or leadership Role as well.
u/Mountebank [+7] *
Good point. Thief is trying to be Rogue, as in the RPG sense, with a bonus to backstabbing and sneak attacks and all that. Nope. She's just Thief, not Rogue and certainly not Assassin. At the same time, she's a passable spymistress, but not a Named level spymistress specialized for it, unlike Scribe.
u/CouteauBleu [+2] We are the Empire.*
On the other hand, even a regular young woman who happens to be invisible can be pretty deadly with a bow, even without bullshit Named tricks. She just needs a few months/years of grueling practice.
u/werafdsaew [+5] *
I think the problem is that there's a mismatch between her Name and the role she currently has as a spy mistress. Among her 3 aspects, only Hide has any relevance to her role, and it's making her weak.
u/aerocarbon [+2] NERV*
Definitely. She simply has a skillset that none of the Woe (save Hakram, of course, but the key difference is that Vivi isn't superglued to Cat's ass) have. It's basically apples and oranges - she can't level mountains with a whisper or negotiate for the fates of kingdoms, but why would she need to? The rest of the Woe more than cover those bases. Honestly, Thief? I know that feel.
u/cyberdsaiyan [+22] *
It's amazing to see how Hakram looks like to other people. I admit, I had forgotten that he had threatened her about betrayal waaay back when she joined. Looks like that left a scar.
u/CeruleanTresses [+16] *
Vivienne's suspicion of Hakram's motives and sincerity reminds me of when Masego wondered if Tikoloshe's entire relationship with him had been a performance for Warlock.
u/MutantMannequin [+14] *
Vivienne has an...interesting outlook. Her perspectives tend to strike me as almost playground-level social psychology, though she does have occasionally useful insights. She spent most of this chapter confident that her proposal would be rejected out of hand, not because she had doubts about the plan itself, but because she thinks Hakram and Juniper don't like her. She also has the distinguished role of Cat's "conscience" regarding Akua, which I think says a lot about her--Akua's threat isn't her charm, it's her rationality. None of the Woe are going to side with Akua because she's polite, they'll do it because she says something that makes perfect sense at the time. Vivienne's value here is not some inherent resisitence to evil, it's that her stance on Akua is to stick her fingers in her ears and go "NA-NA, I CAN'T HEAR YOU," which is hardly an endearing quality, despite its usefulness in this particular instance. Basically I hate her.
u/Frommerman [+5] *
I'd forgotten how much Vivienne hates Orcs.
u/Ardvarkeating101 [+14] Father of Learning*
*Hakram, Willie was the racist one
u/mrpokealot [+6] *
Jesus H Christ I cant even read that word in my head
u/None [+7] *
[deleted]
u/mrpokealot [+5] *
Danke
u/None [+4] *
De nada. My German sucks, but I still mostly remember the pronunciation rules
u/mrpokealot [+3] *
Burrito Nacho Taco! 😂 My mexican is no comprehendo.
u/LLJKCicero [+2] *
Note that the "u" here is like English "oo", and the "w" is the English "v". Assuming we're going full German pronunciation rules.