Theory (unlikely)

[naeko.livejournal.com]

(I don't know what to call this other than a theory; that sort of implies there's actually belief on my part that Hamilton is smart enough to have come up with this, which there really isn't. ¬_¬)

I had the thought while viciously fighting with my sewing machine, earlier. The whole reason Anita has become a promiscuous monster? Raina is taking over and doing it on the sly.

It makes sense, if you think about some of the facts. Anita has always said (over and over. And over. And over and over.) that she's not that beautiful. So why do all these men suddenly think Anita is beautiful and perfect? Raina is using the lycanthropy to mutate Anita's bone structure in tiny increments. She's molding Anita to be more beautiful (maybe even to more resemble herself), to attract more men and thus more power. Hell, maybe she alters Anita's face with each man she sleeps with, making each see her as his ideal of beauty in those intimate (lol intimate) moments.

I can see two reasons that Anita just thinks she still looks the same:
1. Raina is just that good. She's changing the structure of Anita's face so subtly that Anita and her men don't even notice.
2. Anita can't tell because Raina's not letting her see it, and she's got everyone around Anita so enthralled to her that they can't tell, either.

Hell, maybe Mommy Darkess (whatever; I'm too lazy to look up the supposed lady big bad's name) and Belle Morte's psychic visits are just Raina distracting Anita while she does some psychic redecorating, prettying the place up for herself. She sees the power Anita has, and the power that can be acquired by having that power, and she wants it.

I would love for Anita to 'wake up' one day and realize she's not in control of her own body. Suddenly, she's watching things happen to her and watching herself say things, but it's not her. She's been asleep for years and can only barely remember what's been happening, yet there's a whole, horrifying history built up involving her. She's no longer the chaste, ethical vampire executioner who fights for zombie rights and enjoys a bit of rebellion in silly coffee mugs. She's an amoral, power-hungry lycanthrope queen whose plan in life is to slowly bend everyone around her to her will.

I even considered tweeting LKH and telling her, "I figure out your big plot twist! Anita's become promiscuous and monstrous because Raina's taken over, right? Brilliant!"

Comments

[bloodredroses1.livejournal.com]

I really like this idea an awful lot but LKH just hasn't shown that she has enough imagination thes days to come up w/ something this intricate. LOL

Morgan

[shadwing.livejournal.com]

Yep yet another kick ass theory in the hands of a good author, which LKH is not.

Honestly I think LKH DOES see Anita as the 'Good Guy' she's the hero that can do no wrong even though she needs a good dose of "What the Hell Hero?!" those few brave souls that do it in book are quickly tarred as 'evil' those who do it outside the books are tarred as 'haters'

[naeko.livejournal.com]

Uuugh, the good guy complex is one of the things that annoys me most. So much of what Anita does could be at least respectable if she'd just admit it's being done in the name of power or selfishness. Unfortunately, it's all put under the bullshit label "for loooove" and it just makes her look like an idiot instead of making her character interesting.

dwg and I were discussing earlier, too, how much Anita does that is completely unnecessary. I came at it like, "Why the fuck did Anita date JC? Couldn't she have just reported his death threat at Richard as an excuse to stake him/threatened to report said threat to get him to back off?" Then we collectively headdesked for about fifteen minutes over how stupid Anita is.

[shadwing.livejournal.com]

Okay we know the REAL reason why Anita started to date JC...Laurel wanted some hot Vamp Smex Scenes.

Since when has LKH bothered with a little something like IC stop her? /sarcam

[world-dancer.livejournal.com]

In the JC case, I'm going with "She really wants the bad boy but doesn't want to admit it." Not the most attractive (or feminist) reasoning, but it does fit in with character development.

[fangedsekhmet.livejournal.com]

Even if that was the ultimate goal of LKH all along (which I very much doubt as Anita is now just her on page wish fulfilment) the pay off would be taking so long that even if I were still reading, I'd be bored waiting.

*I think that makes sense...lol*

[naeko.livejournal.com]

That's a good point. If she could condense the bullshit Anita's putting her world through into, say, four books instead of- what's it been now, 14? Then it would be worth it. As it is, I would still be shocked, but unless Hamilton were to drop the secret plot bomb in the next book, it wouldn't be a worthwhile gamble on her part. She's lost too much respect and too many readers for anyone to take even this explanation seriously, I think.

[pandaemonaeum.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I spent a couple of books trying to convince myself that the ardeur was actually Anita's form of denial after the infamous shower rape scene. The way she went from refusing to have sex with people to shagging every male that crossed her path was reminiscent of the behaviour some rape victims manifest (they're terrified to say 'no' and be raped again, so they say 'yes' to anyone who looks interested, so that they maintain some control). However, after a few books I realised this was not the intent and the resultant bad pRoN fest wasn't worth any more of my hard-earned cash!

[wonderbink.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if 'bone structure modification' is necessary for the theory to hold together. First off, it's not unusual for people to believe themselves to be unattractive when they're not as bad as they think they are (especially if they have a past history of being told that there's something wrong with the way they look.) Second, the men piling at her feet could be just as easily explained by the ardeur as by her suddenly becoming pretty.

I recall a similar theory being that Jean-Claude was secretly manipulating Anita into becoming this power-hungry monster under his control in order to consolidate his own position.

It's an interesting take on it, but it's kind of a given that Anita is a wish fulfillment character and the idea that she could have been wrong all this time simply doesn't sit well with that.

[naeko.livejournal.com]

Everything you've brought up here is perfectly valid. Theories and hopes and wishes about what's *really going on with Anita have been bouncing around the fandom (anti-fandom?) for awhile; I'm sure this one has probably come up many times before, even. It was just another unlikely hope that either Hamilton is writing the shit she does for a purpose or that there really is some otherworldly entity controlling her in writing this shit, and this is the possible endgame.

That idea is pretty funny, actually; some alien working Hamilton like a puppet and laughing uproariously at all the flak she gets and at all the people who call her a genius.

[blackfiregeisha.livejournal.com]

That was a simply beautiful thing to read. I wish LKH was creative enough to have thought of it, because I now want to read it. A lot.

[kessie.livejournal.com]

That would be pretty awesome, actually. I kind of wish that was LKH's secret plan all along.

[naeko.livejournal.com]

I could get behind any secret plan that somehow validates the shit she writes. Even if it's just, "I did it for the lulz!" I could respect fucking with people for fun more than her just sitting around thinking she's a genius and that what she writes is good. -_-

[fadeinthewash.livejournal.com]

Man, if only.

I should point out, though, that Anita's "I'm not pretty" whinging is closely tied to "I'm not blonde and Nordic enough!" and "I looked like an outsider in my family!" She is pretty. She just doesn't believe it, because she has sooo many features resembling her mother, who her dad said was beautiful until he went off and married mommy's polar opposite.

[naeko.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I phrased that section wrong. I didn't mean it to imply that Anita is actually ugly, but just that she makes it seem like her life has not been filled with any reasons for her to believe she's gorgeous enough to warrant even 1/10th of the attention she's getting.

My theory wasn't completely fleshed out, either, I will admit. (I don't know what to call it other than a theory; that sort of implies there's actually belief on my part that Hamilton is smart enough to have come up with this, which there really isn't ¬_¬)

[magdalen77.livejournal.com]

The funny or maybe not so funny part is that likely the reason her dad married tall, blonde and Nordic wasn't just because she was prettier than martyred mommy but because he loved her and he thought having a stepmother for his daughter was better than no mother at all. But Anita (and LKH) is superficial enough to think it was all based on looks.

Maybe, too, it would have been too painful and difficult for him to marry someone who resembled his late wife.

[morriganscrow.livejournal.com]

That is totally logical, reasonable, and human.

Therefore it is NOT what motivated LKH/Anita.

[world-dancer.livejournal.com]

I give Anita a break on that point. She was a child at the time, so I have no problem with her having the immature reasoning that looks had something to do with it. The problem is that the character hasn't developed away from this immature reasoning to see what's beautiful within herself or accept her father & stepmother as something other than selfish.

[edwarddain.livejournal.com]

If only the truth was that cool...

[pith]

If only. A plot twist like that wouldn't necessarily be enough to entice me back (if she has a plan like this, she's been far too slow in enacting it), but I could at least appreciate the effort.

A long time ago, someone also brought up the possibility of J-C using the ardeur to manipulate Anita on a grand scale, and that could work in a similar fashion.

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

ffffffffffffffffffffffff I LOVE YOU!! What an awesome idea!

[world-dancer.livejournal.com]

That would be awesome.

The problem is that it has gone on too long, and if this is the case, the author has done a poor job of using the first person narration to hide the plot completely rather than giving cues that Anita has become an unreliable narrator on this point.

I had to deal with this recently on a different issue. I was advising an author who wrote a character with a huge blind spot for his godchild. The problem was that it wasn't coming across in the first book that the godchild was anything but what the POV character said (sickeningly sweet). So instead of a complicated relationship and character flaw, what the reader got was seemingly a Wesley.

The solution is simple: Use dialogue and events to SHOW that the POV character might be wrong about something and might be flawed. Make it okay to question the POV character.

But that's not what LKH is doing with Anita, and the impression of Anita's perfection according to the view presented in the books is backed up by the comments of the author and her staff on her own boards.

Also, if that were a plot point, it has been going on too long. That is a 2-4 book story arc. So if nothing else, her timing is way off.

[everstar3.livejournal.com]

Raina is taking over and doing it on the sly.

I would consider this more likely if I thought LKH remembered who Raina was. :/

Great theory

[gatitagitanilla.livejournal.com]

This is such a great theory because Raina used to posess Anita and she also had de ability to shape shift her muscles and bone structure to look hotter. Although I dont think Anita is necessarily unattractive, just thinks of herself as such. Some people have low self esteems even if they are hot and see a warped image. I also dont think its necessary to be attractive to sleep with as many men as Anita has. I have seen in real life that it isnt de case not to mention Anita's powers attract de men more than her looks. But it would be hilarious if Anita woke up one day and realized she was six inches taller than a few years back because Raina had posessed her body and given her de shapeshifting skills.

[dominos-lair.livejournal.com]

Or it's Raina stopping Anita from shifting into any of the inner beasts just because she can.

Bet she stamps her foot and goes back to the drawing board every time Anita doesnt explode when a beast wants to take over.

The real Anita is huddling inside somewhere hiding from the beasts, sucking her thumb and waiting to be saved whimpering "I am not a sinner!!!" while Raina checks out life as a brunette and then finds her and tells her all "she" got up to.

Awesome. My mind is happily playing in an alternate universe where the Anita Blake universe makes sense.

Excellent post.