Terisa and Geraden - Was it a good love story?

"Reflect" on Stephen Donaldson's other epic fantasy

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Cord Hurn
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Post by Cord Hurn »

Avatar wrote:(Not that I haven't had existential crises of my own, but they're usually the other way round. ;) I know I'm real...its the rest of the world I'm not sure about.
Ah...well, thank you for explaining it! I think someone on here once said that Terisa's existential problem was SRD's attempt to do Covenant's existential problem in reverse, or words to that effect. It's kind of interesting to contrast these two main Donaldson characters on that basis...for a few seconds, anyway. :!: ;)
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Yes, although the passivity is probably about the same. But Terisa couldn't care enough to do something, and TC cared too much to dare.

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Post by wayfriend »

Teresa didn't believe in herself. Her passivity, her fading, her confusion about her reality, all arise from this. If she could have 'snapped out of it' on her own, there wouldn't really be a story. And if there wasn't a tension created from the disparity between how she behaves and how we think she should behave, there wouldn't be a good story. And in this, Teresa and Covenant are very much the same.
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Post by Kaos Arcanna »

wayfriend wrote:Teresa didn't believe in herself. Her passivity, her fading, her confusion about her reality, all arise from this. If she could have 'snapped out of it' on her own, there wouldn't really be a story. And if there wasn't a tension created from the disparity between how she behaves and how we think she should behave, there wouldn't be a good story. And in this, Teresa and Covenant are very much the same.
Hm... how do you think things would have worked out if Teresa and Covenant's roles had been reverse? Teresa had wound up in the Land and Covenant in Mordant?
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wayfriend wrote:If she could have 'snapped out of it' on her own, there wouldn't really be a story.
Well, I suppose there could have been, but it would have been a different one. Damn, do you think SRD is a polemicist? ;)

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Kaos Arcanna wrote:Hm... how do you think things would have worked out if Teresa and Covenant's roles had been reverse? Teresa had wound up in the Land and Covenant in Mordant?
It's a fun thought...the sight of Terisa would have convinced Triock to run off with her so they could both become Unfettered Ones, and he would have forgotten all about Lena; Master Eremis would have sent Saddith after Covenant to seduce him to the dark side. :twisted:
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Post by shadowbinding shoe »

Kaos Arcanna wrote: Hm... how do you think things would have worked out if Teresa and Covenant's roles had been reverse? Teresa had wound up in the Land and Covenant in Mordant?
So Terisa's white gold ring would be a white gold cross she got from the missionary? I imagine her and Lena running off together to have adventure and a raver in the role of Eremis

Meanwhile Covenant is all "Don't touch me!" with the metrosexual Eremis and Saddith fails to be scarred by the starnger's advances but eventually suffers disfigurement like in the books due to getting leprosy.
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