Book 3

[rockhazard]

Oh, I don't expect perfection. You'll notice I didn't complain about the lawyer beating him down. That made sense to me. It's just that they are so close to each other, in some ways almost the same person, seeming to understand each others' motives (like with the Maria stuff), and he, as you pointed out, had already been betrayed by a close friend, and had already begun to take steps to increase security (like looking before leaping into a node). I'm not saying it's unbelievable. A breakdown o f common sense happens all the time. I just feel like his lack of vigilance here doesn't follow, given his life. It's a bit convenient.

I will say that Kate's inability to come up with a better plan does fit with her kinds general lack of creativity (at leas compared to humans in that world).

[David]

No, I get it. Truthfully the whole it made things easier answer to her question bothered me a lot more than him losing the fight.

Still waiting for a good explanation on that one, hopefully it will be addressed at some point.

Still, I am sure Zack could have won the fight if he didn't mind killing her, and like I said, when he did decide to run I am surprised he didn't try and run to the nexus. All I was saying was he wasn't right next to it when the fighting started.

Betrayal might be too strong a word, she didn't betray him, she tried to set him straight. It really was a unique situation for him in that aspect. If my daughter started to kick my ass I would probably run too, being able to win in that fight doesn't matter in the least.

[rockhazard]

That makes sense.

True, it's not real betrayal, but given Zack's issues and history that way, I wouldn't have been surprised if he wasn't watching for it in others more often than he apparently is.

I'll say that the reason why he addicted others was compelling, in terms of characterization. It really fit his developing world-view regarding his personal problems. After all, the powers he developed working with Big Shadow and Wu-Li had pulled him out of the fire so many times already. He came to rely on them too much, which is his real vulnerability here I think.

But it illustrates another point: the Line-Walkers need a better security apparatus. Fast.

[Kat]

I just re read the fight thing and...is it just me or is it possible that Zack never really fought back, just tried not to get hurt?

[rockhazard]

That's basically it. He got chased down. He could have made it to a node (or created one), but didn't bother.

Really, it should have been effectively impossible for Kate to actually strike with her limbs, let alone at those speeds, even if she had locked down the pain. Who knew Alede were so hardcore?

I study a martial art that has a concept called "defang the snake" which (to simplify) means to break the limb coming at you. Pain isn't the issue. Bones are structural. If you break one, it can't effectively bear a load anymore. The description made it seem unlikely that Kate could have delivered a punch -- or even stand.

[Ronald Dukarski]

It could be that the author just needed a little poetic license to make the point he intended.

[rockhazard]

That's a point.

Well, I'm willing to ignore the lack of forethought on Don's part (grudgingly) regarding backup, because we got death gaze out of it (btw, that should have scared the pants off of everyone). I'm less sure what I get out of looking the other way on Zack's beating. I guess Kate demonstrated a willingness to give Zack tough love, although I don't know that that's good enough. As I said, I do like what it did for her characterization, but it left me with a sense that it should have been harder for her. Yes, on a martial level she outclasses Zack massively, but there's a reason he's still alive for her to even try and beat him at all.

[David]

Perhaps, but your seeing through Kate's eyes, death gaze could simply mean he took his life energy and like Zack ran it through so fast it took the targets life energy. Since the target was human, instead of a knockout like would happen to a vamp, he just killed the guy. She can't see that kind of energy, so what she saw was a "death gaze".

Kate sees emotional connections, and can't wield her life energy like Zack and Don can, she just extends hers a bit into a blade of sorts, she cant send it out and retrieve it. Or even change the shape of it to appear as another type of person. Nor can she see other people's life energy/shadows/souls, whatever you want to call it.

It's also why she cant circulate her own energy like Zack and Don do and feed herself from free energy in the universe.

Kate also talked about the other Alede that was brought into the line, she described him as magically being full all the time, when he uses Alede energy it just refills itself in a way she can't detect.

Is it possible that he DID figure out how to circulate energy like Zack and DOn and just fills himself back up? But she can't see it, so she describes it as best she can, which is to say, somehow, because she has no idea and can't see it.

It's all point of view, Dale is good at not breaking it and coming up with alternate explanations for the same things.

Just a guess, but it feels like a likely one to me.

[Darrin]

[Darrin]