How much is enough?

[sehkmetschild.livejournal.com]

When I was in high school, reading through the back log of Anita (to date myself, I was a junior when CS came out) I can remember points in the books where, if I was Anita, I would have just looked around and said "well.... bye now" and walked out of the plot.

Since I just moved and all of my books but my Anitas are in storage (no idea how that happened >.<) I've been rereading them and I realized there are actually 4 points in BO that made me stop and think that maybe, quitting to run a day care would be better. You have just as much crap to deal with, the only difference is that with day care, butt wipes tend to fix everything. There are points where Anita acts out of character simply to push the plot forward and then "reverts" back. The irony of the last 10 or so books is not lost on me.

So, I pose this question to you, when can you remember where you were scratching your head at why Anita would be such an idiotact so out of character?

Comments

[knowthyself.livejournal.com]

Yep. And it was the point at which I stopped reading the books. At the end of Lunatic Cafe--well, during it, but mostly at the end. During it, she gets engaged to Richard even though she's clearly unsure about the whole thing, which is a dumb thing to do to begin with. But then at the end, when Jean Claude's all, well, you dated him even though he's a monster, so therefore you HAVE to give me the same chance even though I'm a vampire, it's only fair, and she's just like, well, uh, okay. Even though she clearly is not comfortable with doing that either.

I was like, that logic does not make sense! No, you do not HAVE to date anyone, you date whomever you like because you WANT to. Same with marrying them! So if you don't want to marry Richard, don't, and if you don't want to date Jean Claude, don't do that either!

But because it was better for the love triangle "drama", she did. BOO.

[daphne-gateau.livejournal.com]

Seconded. I never understood why she 'had' to date Jean-Claude. Or why Richard put up with it either since he wasn't keen on sharing.

[knowthyself.livejournal.com]

Seriously! Like lady, if you want to date the vampire, rock out, go for it. But don't pretend it's because you "have to", and tell your fiancee-that-you-don't-want that he "has to" put up with it, either. That's some bullshit right there!

[amiedoll.livejournal.com]

Yeah I agree, I never understood it either. I mean if I was still at the engagement stage with my husband and some one, say a mob boss (because that's pretty intimidating and a real life equivalent of JC) threatened me with death if I didn't date him I'm pretty sure that would make me less likely to ever go near them again, in fact I would hole up with Edward and Richard and wait for him to come get me out just for a chance to shoot him for his presumption and for threatening me lol. Not Anita though, its just the chance she needs to get out of her engagement that she was pressured into and again why not just say no and move on. Oh dear, her plot device is showing :0P

Most of Anita's personal decisions had me shaking my head, even when I liked the series. This was when I was a teenager mind you, so yeah its pretty sad when your teenage audience has better sense then your main character.

[killiara.livejournal.com]

Hell, I would have left that city as soon as the dust from the Earthmover was shaken off my boots!
"With this, Jean Claude, we are DONE. SCREW YOU."

[fadeinthewash.livejournal.com]

I distinctly recall feeling fed up with Anita in whichever book had her going out to some house that involved the teenage daughter being bitten by her vampire lover and the family wanted her staked before she could rise but Anita refused. I didn't care about that part of the story, but right after she arrives on the scene (maybe, it's been a while since I read it-- at some point while she's out there, at least), she gets into this ridiculous pissing match with a cop that ends in one or both of them drawing their guns on each other. I mean, what the fuck.

I'm pretty sure it was supposed to be all about how the cop was such a misogynistic hater, but christ on a cracker, the fact that both of them would pick a fight and let it escalate that far--that the other cops would allow it to escalate!--even while on duty, to the point that they're drawing their guns on someone they're supposed to be working with... Just thinking about it makes me want to headdesk a few dozen times.

[pearkiwi.livejournal.com]

Micah and that shower scene. After that I honestly expected him to die at some point in that book.

Even if it changed in later copies, no is no, leopard soul mates or not. Plus he was with the bad guy, even if he ended up joining Anita's side. I honestly figured at some point she or someone else would kill him by the end. But no. That was really out of character to me.

[nightmer.livejournal.com]

Seriously! There were two ways I could have seen that realistically playing out - either Anita was into JC more than she wanted to admit and leaped at the excuse, or she really felt forced into the dates in which case, not okay. In the latter, then Anita would have not immediately fallen for the creep pressuring her away from her fiance, and hopefully would have acted like the "badass" LKH thinks she is, and killed him. Or maybe it was just Stockholm syndrome. None of those seemed romantic in my book.

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

DING. It's such a faux choice & decision. Utterly dishonest.

[pandaemonaeum.livejournal.com]

I only read the rest of that book because I was waiting for the death scene. I thought that as soon as Chimera was dead, Micah would be next. I stopped reading when she didn't, but instead took up a relationship with him. If she had even just had Anita refuse to deal at all with Micah, I could have gone on reading, but now I just read all the sex and 'ardeur' as a rape victim 'acting out' as she's terrified to refuse to have sex with anyone in case she's raped again, so she consents so at least she can control it.

I had DREAMS about Anita emptying the full clip of her Browning into Micah. For me, that's when the series completely jumped the shark :/

[pandaemonaeum.livejournal.com]

I agree completely. The 'blackmail' had the air of "Well, I want to do it, I need to get out of this situation I'm in, so I'll go along with this as I am unable to think of another way out"

I started feeling sorry for RZ at exactly that point. :/

[ex-naomi-ja.livejournal.com]

Am I right in remembering that they basically got engaged because Anita wouldn't have premarital sex? Or am I making that up?

[knowthyself.livejournal.com]

Not entirely that. She wouldn't, then, but there were other reasons, I just forget what they were.

[ex-naomi-ja.livejournal.com]

I've got vague memories of a scene in Lunatic Cafe where Anita and Richard are making out and she puts a stop to it because of her fiance dumping her in college, and Richard is all, "well, let's get married." I'm not sure how much of that is accurate!

[knowthyself.livejournal.com]

Huh. Well according to an Anita wiki summary of the book, this is actually why she does it: "He [Jean-Claude] offers not to kill Richard if Anita agrees to date both Richard and Jean-Claude for at least a few months, and Anita reluctantly agrees."

Which gives a *little* more leeway to the whole thing, but overall it's still shitty and the "I don't date vampires, I kill them" Anita we'd been presented with should've agreed and immediately begun planning how she would indeed kill him.

[mystickiwi.livejournal.com]

So I can tell that we're roughly the same age because of that timeline. I forget if I was a junior or senior when CS came out. I remember anxiously awaiting it and trying to catch up... but lets see... Burnt Offerings was when things started to real piss me off because it became too much about sex and stupid were-politics and not enough about supernatural crime. The "romantic" parts of the books always pissed me off. Anywho, started getting pissed around Burnt Offerings, was stoked that Obsidian Butterfly was old school, and then was SOUL CRUSHED by NiC, I never even made it to CS because all I needed to know was said for me in amazon reviews.

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

I read my first Anita Blake in middle school, or tried (mom took it away). It was Blue Moon and I thought it was so cool because I'd never read a book with vampires and werecritters in a modern setting before besides really cutesy stuff like The Bailey School kids and OMG THIS HAS ~*SEXY*~ STUFF IN IT I AM SO ADULT FOR READING THIS and I thought that Raw Head and Bloody Bones was pretty cool folklore and so was pleased to run in to it in a context outside the original legend.

In high school I found the first AB book and for me it was always about the rituals of raising zombies and kicking vampire butt and how neat is it to learn about the world of this AU with different laws about supernaturals and stuff? The further I read, the more Anita's Mary Sueness kinda miffed me and the more I rolled my eyes at Jean-Claude, but I basically really liked all the other characters and wanted to see them grow and stuff. It was after Narcissus and Chains that I stopped reading. Well, midway through Cerulean Sins on tape (still in high school). It being read aloud meant I couldn't just skip all the stupid superfluous sex scenes, and that meant I realized just how many there were and how bad they were and how the cool monsters and slaying thereof just didn't balance it out anymore, and that Anita was getting unbearable. I still come to places like this to talk about it though because, damn, it just had so much potential and I feel disappointed/cheated by it because for awhile I just thought it was the neatest setup ever and wanted to watch it being built...and all I got was a lot of unwanted hotwettight NEW POWERS DEUS EX MACHINA TIME NAO. And that was even before I was conscious of all the godawful misogyny, rape apologism, etc.

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

Or maybe it was the Lunatic Cafe, not Blue Moon. But yeah. That one with the fey in it.

[cousinmary.livejournal.com]

Seriously, she kills vamps professionally, one threatens to kill her boyfriend, and she does exactly what he wants? How does that even -start- to make sense? I'm sure Ronnie would have helped off him if she'd asked.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Er, that would be Bloody Bones?

[dwg.livejournal.com]

This is pretty much me -- I waffled through the romantic/soap opera elements because there was still the crime solving/monster slaying to hang onto. NiC was just...such a huge 180, and left me incredibly bitter. I've been waiting so long for the love triangle business to get resolved, and just when it looks like that's gonna happen, we get Micah, soap lube, and ardeur. What. Hey, what about them plot threads still hanging from book seven? Hit List is gonna be #20, what are the odds that none of them will be resolved?

NiC threw me so hard, I still slogged through CS and Incubus Dreams to realise that no, this was not a random horrible fluke, this is what LKH wanted to write. :\ :\ :\

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

Oh wowwwww, it HAS been awhile for me. HURP DURP.

Agreeing with everyone else, too, that Anita not killing JC when he offered her his "deal" of "date me and I won't kill Richard" was just a big wtf.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

lol it's been a while for me too. I had to look up my ebook folder to double check. I had no idea that it was only book 5, it feels later in the series than that.

[amosby.livejournal.com]

yes that is correct lol. She was sitting on his lap at this point and he had just pulled off his shirt. "I don't have sex unless I'm in love and if we we're in love we would be married"..."Ok so let's get married". Clearly that's not what they said exactly , but you get this gist of it lol

[amosby.livejournal.com]

YES!!!!!! I read the edited version but this was the scene that made me say this broad is dumb...he was plotting to kill you and all your peeps if need be and instead of ending him, you moved him into your home. Gag

[amosby.livejournal.com]

Wow lol me too! I read Blue Moon in the 8th grade and then never saw the series again until it was given to me as a gift for my 24th birthday hahahaha. Small world

[amosby.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately I read all the way too Blood Noir...I just kept telling myself that Jean Claude was gonna put his foot up somebody's ass and the series would get back on track but after forcing myself to finish the dumbest plot EVER (identical cousins?????) I couldn't even talk about the book without feeling like an idiot so I kissed that mess goodbye hahaha

[sehkmetschild.livejournal.com]

I read BN wondering why there wasn't a higher instance of deformity among the good people where Jason is from. If everyone is *so* closely related that they look identical then the gene pool would be kicking out people who looked inbred.

[flaveur.livejournal.com]

AB was never really good, in fact.

I was teenager and in search of vampir novel at the time of the release in french, and I was reading only in french too, (best read it in french, I say, less crappy) But even then, I didn't think the style was really good, only promising. Already with the first, it was a little frustating, but Hell, it was the *first* book of LKH, so why not let the doubt benefice ? And JC seems not so bad. the unverse was good enough, and the wererat King was HOT...
Then the clash between Whoranita and MysoCop kept happening, those conversation with her sweetass were so lame and KEPT happenning too (the - there is something wrong ?-yes, but you will not understand and be uspet.- oh, say it all the same. -he have to spell all and she is upset and all manish. .... IT's so CRAP, get some brain and grew !!)
and a little description of clothes is ok, but LKH is a little obssessed with them, and that big hidden blade in the back, under shirt is a little hard to believe, too, especially under those snug shirts...

But the real turn over was when I started to read in english, I think. Because there is not the editing of the translating process. XD

[mystickiwi.livejournal.com]

That first paragraph is totally me (well not the taking away part, just the age I started reading them and how I felt about them). All my friends were being scandalized by the talk of sex in the Tortall Books and The Princess Diaries (which I still read and enjoyed) and I felt SO GROWN UP AND EDGY for reading Anne Rice and LKH.

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

and the wererat King was HOT

Fuck yeah Rafael! I was so sad to hear she finally got him in her harem :C

[amosby.livejournal.com]

Agreed....*disgusted face*

[amosby.livejournal.com]

That's exactly what I was thinking...it grossed me out because like come on we're all low key related but not one of us has a deformity or short life span or anything hahahaha

[amamelina.livejournal.com]

I think I remember that book. It also had a female cop who was in charge (or she was an agent or something) who was so pissy that Anita was there that she nearly sabatoged the whole thing as well. It was just to make Anita look better and all the cops/agents/whatever look like idiots who wouldn't be able to get anything done without her. Even in my fangirl stage, that ticked me off.

Then again, I was and still am a huge police fan.

[amamelina.livejournal.com]

Oh, shhhhh. I'm still trying to pretend that didn't happen.

[firesongvx.livejournal.com]

Absolutely agree. I read the original version of NIC, because I had been waiting for it with baited breath like the young idiot that I was, so there was none of that "softening" of the shower scene. I remember going home with the shiny new hardback in my hot little hands, settling down to read, and then pretty much "WTFing" the entire time....I mean, this trash directly followed *Obsidian Butterfly*, which I loved because it completely broke away from the romantic bullshit.

I totally thought that Anita saw Micah for the creepy, slimy little bastard that he was and would feed him a few choice bullets by the end of the book. Instead....he turns out to be the perfect little Yes-Man for all of her life's ups and downs. No, LKH. Just...no. Again, I say, WTF?! LOL

So, yeah, that was pretty much it for me on the series. Now I just can't seem to look away from the trainwreck horror of it out of morbid fascination. ;)