A Wizard Abroad Discussion Thread

[SilveredBlue]

*drumroll* Aaaaand; here is the AWAb thread! A day late, but oh well.

Things I Noticed, to start off the discussion:

1) The Sidhe apparently move into a reality quite close to Timeheart in the end of the book. Do other species do that as well, or is that reserved for quasi-Powers?

2) In the end, when Aunt Annie mentions hating to "leave their dead behind", Johnny says something along the lines of "I don't think, that close to Timeheart, they'll stay dead." Does that mean that these wizards can come back to life- and then return to Earth?

3) And finally: Ronan/Nita shippiness! Now, let's not do a Romance thread thingy here, but maybe we could each add 'yes on N/R' or 'no on N/R' to the bottom of the posts, to make things more...interesting.

That's all for now from me, but I'll come back and edit in the correct quotes later....

[rick455]

1. I think everything in that reality would move on. The Alaalau transcend to the next level of existence but I think mortals have to die first.
2. In WAb Johnny says they can't patch anytime where a wizard dies. That suggests that without divine intervention once your dead your dead. I would guess she wanted a body to give back to those left behind.

3. Yes. Hope so, it would give Ronan and Nita some grounding and just think of the plot possibilities. It would also allow Kit to seek someone, again the possibilities.

[Nights Mistress]

I always thought that the thing with the Sidhe and the Alaalu was them transcending, a process that every species would eventually go through during its lifetime, if not during the individual lifespan of a person. What I thought was interesting was that both were dependent on a wizard's actions to kick off the final step. The Sidhe had even met a host of the Winged Defender and (apparently) didn't recognise Him! The Alaalu didn't even know that they had stagnated their species.

I wonder if we're supposed to see parallels between the two groups, both stagnant and unable to move on without a wizard giving them the head start, but one being ignorant to it and one being acutely aware of it.

Also, no to Ronan/Nita but yes to Ronan/Kit/Nita. I can hope. :'(

[Birdhead]

always thought that the thing with the Sidhe and the Alaalu was them transcending

Or, to maximise cross-over geekery, ascending (ascension appears in a couple of TV series, most notably, of course, Stargates SG-1 and Atlantis; Cordelia in A:TS also ascends briefly.) I agree that the Sidhe's situation has something in common with that of the Alaalids, but I also feel that it's a bit of a reference to the elves in LOTR departing for Valinor (I assume JRRT got that from somewhere his own self).

re: 2, I see this as more of either an opportunity for those wizards to get to Timeheart (... although they would have anyway?) Or perhaps to function as something a bit like Saash, entities outside the average mortal way of things without being straight-up demigods or immortals - entities with, basically, an extra life to use.

and re: 3: I really like Ronan/Nita as it functions in this book. I like its moments of being a little more traditional teen novel, it's a little Peytonesque and I love that, I like that Nita gets an opportunity to explore that side of herself without being denigrated, I like that all Nita's sexual or romantic experimentation doesn't have to be with Kit (as much as I think Nita and Kit are pretty omg meant to be etc.) However, as an ongoing pairing... yeahno. (Kit/Ronan/Nita does a lot for me, though!)

[Garrett Fitzgerald]

Cordelia in A:TS also ascends briefly.

What's A:TS? Angel: The Series? Or am I way off?

[Birdhead]

No, you're spot on. (The acronym makes a pleasing parallel to BtVS as well as, obviously, if you just said A it'd be a bit confusing.)

[Nights Mistress]

A Wizard Abroad is not my favourite of the books (it felt like Nita was just an observer and that the one making any real choices at all was Ronan) but it did have one message in it that I find really interesting.

Ronan's reaction to finding out that he is a host for a Power was interesting, because his reaction was, basically, "the journey towards self-discovery and understanding the universe is more important than the answers at the end". It seemed to be a neat summing up of the YW characters' attitude as a whole, that they do it because they love to learn things and to change and grow as a result of learning.

Did anyone else pick up on that?

[SilveredBlue]

Really? Now, I thought his reaction exemplified the quote: "Those who refuse the Powers become the tools of the Powers. Those who accept the Powers themselves become the Powers." and so on. It didn't feel to me that he loved learning these things or that discovering the Power was more important than what he did with It. Discovering and accepting It was only the beginning, it felt like- especially if you add in the events in W@W.

Although, yeah, they DO love to learn and grow, now that you mention it. The learning is hard, though- maybe the theme is more of a "Sacrifice yourself so that others may live"? Still, though, it felt like their learning was only a step on the way to the end/answers, which usually hinged on the life or death of a person, or a species, or a universe, or the local sheaf of universes.

That is, if the journey was the important part, than the logical ending to AWAb would be the wizards turning around and going home once they fought their way to Balor, since they had learned everything they needed to learn in the journey to get to him.

Or maybe I'm confused. It's late at night, so I'm half-asleep. I'll probably look at this post in the morning and it'll be a collection of incoherent babblings...


Oh, I never said my postition! Against Nita/Ronan but for Ronan/Carmela. Even though it drives Wolf absolutely crazy.

[Nights Mistress]

Yeah, Ronan's conversation with Nita to me was interesting because while Ronan tends to omit things in conversation, he doesn't (and indeed, can't) lie about things. So his comment that he doesn't want to know all the answers because he doesn't know all of the questions yet just stuck in my mind because it seemed like a rather peculiar thing for someone to say under the circumstances.

If it is about him wanting to experience the learning experience, then that would fit in with the YW universe. The wizards aren't really expected to wait for problems to come to them; instead, they're expected to go out and explore and learn and then along the way solve problems. So in that light, Ronan's comment is interesting because it suggests that as a wizard, the idea of learning and changing is so important.

Interestingly the other Powers-in-waiting we meet don't appear to have been chosen to be a wizard; presumably it was easier for them because they didn't also have this overwhelming desire to, essentially, poke something to see what happens. Most wizards we've met are very "oh hey, I wonder how this works" and then poking it. I wonder if that's partially why Ronan had so much trouble reconciling what he was. He wouldn't get to poke things just to see how they worked anymore; instead he would already know.