Linden Avery's Very Own Discussion Topic

[aliantha]

I'm not sure, at that point, whether LA and TC had sorted out their feelings for one another to the extent that they knew they loved each other. It's been too long since I read the books, now... But it seems to me that this came pretty early on, right? In TWL? The attraction was certainly there, but I don't think either one of them was ready to call it love....

You're right, though, that LA popped off at TC's Dead because of what Kevin Screwuptheplot said to her....

[Guest]

love had been there between them since the first minute but th revelation came only on the Giantship after Brathairealm

[Foamfollower1013]

I have to agree with Foamy re: Linden .. she was a character that grated on my nerves too and was at times as big a jerk as TC could be. But having said that it was good to see someone care for TC in the way he needed and even deserved to be cared for. TC was in definite need of some TLC .. I warmed to her as the book continued and was devastated when they were seperated in the end via TC's death. [/b]

You've got a point there, Sky. Irritating as Linden was, she did care for Covenant, who was, as you said, in definite need of some TLC. The scene in WGW where they swam in Glimmermere together springs to mind...it was so nice to see Covenant be happy for once!

So I'll amend what I said about Linden. I don't like her, but I like how happy she made Covenant.

As for being devastated at the end...well, I was devastated, but it wasn't because Covenant and Linden were separated...it was just because Covenant was dead. Amazing how I grew to love him over the course of the books, even though at the beginning he drove me only slightly less crazy than Linden did.

~Foamy~

[Skyweir]

definitely! .. and actually I almost forgot that final scene in WGW .. the final time I wanted to ring her neck ..and I know .. I know .. she may not have had much choice .. but how the converstation she had with Berensford went and the way she dismissed TC's lifeless body made me sick to my stomach ..

It probably wasn't just LA .. as I said .. what other thing could she do? It would have looked pretty unusual and not a little odd if she had fallen all over his body .. weeping and wailing .. but at the same time her coldness seemed to come all to naturally to her .. and I just didn't like it!

[Durris]

I confess I loved Linden from page one. Her juxtaposition
of brittle professional reserve on the outside, with
(even in the "real" world, before health-sense) a
real emotional vulnerability on the inside--and
one of the more radioactive childhoods in F/SF--
was more moving than her being an overtly
warm character at first glance would have been.

And she has a sense of
responsibility and expiation
about her that rivals that of the Bloodguard
("She wanted nothing she did not earn" vs.
"The Haruchai were fighters, accustomed
to wrest what they required; they could not accept
gifts without making meet return.")
Her Vow is the Hippocratic Oath!

In the Land she learns the limits of her ability to be
responsible and discovers the uses of grace. I've
long wished we could see her after her return to
the "real" world--I bet the changes were visible
to Berenford and everyone else she worked with
at the hospital, though she must have had a hard
time explaining them without really explaining--
the old "medical vs. surgical" view of the Land all
over again. I bet she came out of the ordeal shining
with palpable integration (inexplicable compared with
her visible driven desperation when Berenford first meets her)
and because of that, an even better doctor than she had been.

[Xar]

While all in all I like Linden as a character and as a supporter to Covenant, and while I think that her quick adjustment to the Land was more believable since she had someone ( Covenant ) who had coped with it earlier and who could help her through it ( as for his own rapid adjustment, let us remember what SRD said in the very 1998 chat that has a thread in this forum - the Second Chronicles were also meant to solve the riddle of whether the Land is real or not ), I admit that her attack on the dead in Andelain was the part that grated on my nerves the most.
It speaks of distrust of Covenant's judgment, distrust of Covenant's friends, and most of all, trust in someone who destroyed the Land and whom Covenant probably told her had always been misguided, even as a shade. Still, I thought that perhaps her empathy led her to feel strongly the misguided rage Kevin harbored ( interestingly enough, Mhoram was probably both seer and oracle, as said in TIW, Kevin wasn't - so perhaps Kevin's sight was lopsided ), so much that she bore it against Covenant's Dead.

[Revan]

I loved Linden! I thought she was an excellent character! And she made TC happy, Stop picking on her people!

[variol son]

Linden's journey was amzing. The way she was trapped between wanting the white gold to make her choices count, and not wanting it because she loved TC, was heart braking. And her final defeat of the Raver and her possession and then release of TC was too cool.

Sum sui generis
Vs

[Guest]

I have always felt that Linden gets a bit of a raw deal around here at times. She is such a complex character.

First, she is the only person in the Land who can "see", and this sight has a price. As the Elohim say, the Ringthane and Sun Sage are not the same person and that is evil. Covenant Ringthane has no sight with which to guide his choices, Linden the Sunsage has no power with which to make her choices count.

It gets worse for her. When she finds power available, the only way to access it is to possess Covenant. This is something she finds vile, as she views taking away the volition of another human being as being evil. Yet everyday, as the Sunbane grows and so does the venom in Covenant, the need for her to use power also grows. At the same time, everyday she falls more in love with Covenant, making possessing him to use power even worse.

On top of that, she fears power because she fears the desire that lies within her for power. She worries that, if given the wild magic, she will desire control over life and death the same way she had control over her mother's death. At times she can't even tell the difference between the actual ill of the Sunbane and the percieved ill of the wrong within her that wants to dominate with power.

Finally, when she gets power she realizes that to use it she must follow Covenant's example and accept the pain to heal it. If there was ever a character that personified hope in contradiction, it is Linden Avery.

Sum sui generis
Vs

[variol son]

Sorry people, that was me. And right after Jay has said don't multi-post.

Sum sui generis
Vs