Vraith wrote:His story arc [and the arc that gives birth to him] is practically an evolution to singularity in itself. Literally billions of words of Literature wish they had a Stave in their content.
I'm not sure that I fully understand you here, Vraith, could you explain a bit more about both parts.
I didn't enjoy the evolution of the
Haruchai in the LCs as I never really felt that it was earned from the 1st and 2nd Chrons. I liked Brinn and felt that he was a natural extension of Bannor. The
Haruchai in the LCs always felt alien to me (ha, ha!) compared to the
Haruchai in the earlier books. They actually felt like a new species: authoritarian, superhuman, unfeeling. Yes, Stave was different from them, but he also always felt completely different from Brinn and Bannor.
My sense was that SRD needed something new for the LCs and thought that he could fit the
Haruchai to the purpose. It felt to me that they were deformed and reduced by this contingency. The
Haruchai of the LCs (and Stave in particular) would be fine fantasy creations if the LCs were standalone. But they bear the weight of great storytelling and character creation of the previous books and, I found, couldn't live up to their precursors.
Witness the hordes of them (hordes of
Haruchai!!) slaughtered (
Haruchai slaughtered!!) at the end of the LCs. In the 1st Chrons when they felt more human they seemed more superhuman. They were almost impossible to kill. In the 2nd Chrons Hergrom took on a Sandgorgon and held his own. At the end of TLD they are nearly fully superhuman (witness Stave's feat at the fane) and yet they are like any ordinary cannon-fodder in the final fight. By the end, I felt, that the proud
Haruchai had not been humbled but humiliated. They were not, IMO, transformed from hubris to humanity, but debased from dignity to meanness.
u.