Now another thing about Longwrath is this:
My favorite TV show as a child was "Lost in Space," and my favorite character on that show was Dr. Smith.
Both Dr. Smith and Longwrath ellicit the same response in me:
"Why don't they just kill him?"
[/quote]
Alright, before commenting on the topic, I'll just say that I find Lord Zombiac's recollection of having Dr. Smith as a favorite character "yet constantly wondering why they don't kill him" a bit disturbing (in a "why does my pet hamster keep getting blue when I plug its nostrils" kind of way
). and then again, completely normal in the sense that this is what generates creative tension in a story. Why did supposed genious
Will Robinson never learn and instead kept insisting on listening to him, being nice to him, and treating him like a human being?
Now on to the Swordmainir. I've only read as far as FR, but so far for me the flatness (almost like a pack of sled dogs) of the giants makes sense for a couple of reasons:
i) Coldspray does seem to treat them a bit as expendable pawns, and dramatically this is bound to generate a "burden of command" for her. They pay the cost of her command decisions.
ii) For the rest of the Swordmainir, it is a bit like being the rest of the sled dogs following the pack leader, only they are all tied together with a rabid dog that wants to bite the sled driver. This generates tension for the whole party, which alternates or combines with the periodic attacks and the whole "keeping Anele off the ground" connundrum.
iii) Finally, on a POV angle, I at times try to wonder from the outlook of giant culture, so rooted in rich relationships and the sharing of long stories, what it must be like to run into and hurriedly team up with a bunch of total strangers (Linden's party in the Last Chron., the One Tree searchers in the Second Chron). I reckon the experience to them must feel extremely two dimensional, exactly like what everyone seems to be complaining about on this thread. This may not be SRD's intention, but for me it provides a good mirror image of what an ordinary giant's POV might be, and allows me to value their loyalty and sacrifice for the sake of these strangers they have barely come to know.