First time poster, but totally annoyed so couldn't help it

[theblackraven.livejournal.com]

I was an old school Anita Blake fan. I'm totally edgy (have pink streaked hair yo, lol) but couldn't take her books once plot started to become non-existent (I haven't read really since NiC). So I did what she recommended people to do on her negative reader oh so long ago. I gave up the books and read other ones (Ilona Andrews, Patricia Briggs, Kim Harrison) to sooth the urban fantasy crave. Way way better ones. Most of what I hear now, I hear from this list because you guys are awesome. I used to hold on to the hope that maybe the books would get better, but that's gone now because of Kiss the Dead.

There's just one little thing about me. I was an Asher fan. It's how I met my best friend, he'd rp Jean Claude, I played Ash. (This was quite some time ago, we've now been friends for over 10 years and I haven't done an RP for quite some time). So a bit sentimental in my attachment there too. Ash was my only hope of the series, since he's the only one who's ever stood up to Anita and didn't get shipped off as an Anita-hater.

So when I heard on the review on Amazon that Asher got in a fight Anita in Kiss of Dead, I had to go look. Now I wish I hadn't. Is it just me or does LKH need to rid the story of anyone who opposes Anita? And the whole time she's trying to make Asher sound like a douche in the story, it just reads to me that Anita is throwing a, to steal the phrase from LKH, Whiner Baby Tantrum, about him not falling in line with the rest of the sheep and questioning the multi-horde-of-people thing.



So they're sending him away for a month so he can go through the same mind control as Richard maybe? However I do like that he says goodbye to Jean-Claude and makes Anita butt-hurt because he doesn't want her with them. Also...is it just me or is this like the whole re-hash of the fight in NiC but instead of Asher winning, Anita called a do-over so she could break any shred of decent characterization left in him away so Anita can make everyone around her feel sorry for her and hate him for being a 'meanyhead'.

Usually I don't hope for characters I like to leave a series. But I really hope he takes the job in the other city. He'll be 'The Awesome one' that escaped her vagina of doom. Or at least, that's how I'll remember him, as the whole thing in KtD just made me angry.



Any characters you guys hope Escape from Anita too? Am I the only one who really likes Asher? =D

Comments

[diaage.livejournal.com]

[I'd like to start this off apologizing for both length and tedious grammatical errors as I am at work and typing this on my phone. Also warning for Asher specific Hit List and KtD spoilers. :D]

Finally! Lol an Asher post I can rant on! I'm so glad I'm not the only enraged by her treatment of Asher in KtD. This is pretty crazy, but I also met my best friend role playing Asher xD (she didn't play JC though she played Acheron from Dark Hunters series? I forget.)

Anyway I literally threw the book across the room at that point. I had such high hopes of the series turning around. Ever since Hit List where Damian got a (very) random girl friend, JC had a threesome w Richard and a new girl WITHOUT Anita and most importantly (imho lol) ASHER GOT A BOYFRIEND, I was doing backflips. Finally, a little emotional maturity! Oh look, I naively thought, she's finally coming to terms w the fact that she isn't enough to keep all of them happy! She'll finally let a couple of her man-harem go so that they can go have healthy, happy relationships that don't revolve around her uber snatch!

I was so young to think an ego like LKHs would listen to criticism.. Instead of these people being "healthy relationships" for our supporting guys, they're reduced to place holders for Anita while her orifices are otherwise occupied. Alternatively, Anita is still a UNIQUE AND SPEH-SHUL SNOWFLAKE and everyone is jealous of her when they're dropped like a used condom when Anita crooks a finger.

Now the fight bw Asher and Dev specifically... I felt a little ripped off. He gets the bf at the end of hit list, but she only mentions that they're seeing eachother during her last page wrap up. I'm so pumped to see how the relationship will develop that I dive into KtD right away. After slogging through chapter after chapter of (surpirsingly) sexless police work, Anita goes to the Circus to find Asher and Dev fighting. Dev wants to see other people, Asher wants him all to himself. ....sound familiar Anita? Look in a mirror!

Baring Anita's (LKH's) tenuous grasp of bisexuality (which doesn't bare going into right now) the fight itself annoyed me simply because Asher's characterization hasn't changed in what, seven years, maybe longer? He's still the whiney annoying butt-hurt asshole he started as. (I say this with as much love as possible seeing as my Asher has more depth than hers and I started writing him when I was.. 15. <.<) Its not fair that LKH gives a character with as much potential as Asher such a bad rep!

I don't even want to go into the fact that while comforting Dev over losing Asher, she ends up having sex w him because he "missed girls" T_T it makes the romantic (and everything else) in me cry...

I'd also like to point out how annoying it was that the city Asher is getting shipped to was never mentioned. I think it was "supposed" to be a cliff hanger but it came off, at least to me, as LKH being a lazy writer. Like she doesn't have a plan where he's going and figures she can make it up later...

Speaking of brainwashing, did I miss the boat when Richard got over his pathological homophobia? I never hated him for it.. Its either cannon or my head-cannon that Gabriel did some pretty screwed up crap to him for those snuff films before Richard was Ulfric.. (I have A LOT of head-cannon for this series as I've had to supplement my enjoyment of it over the years with fanfiction, so I apologize if this is completely unfounded.) But all of the sudden he's banging some new chick w JC and everyone is A OK with the situation? Color me confused.

[theblackraven.livejournal.com]

You are awesome. Just thought I'd share.

I didn't even read the whole book (of kiss the dead). Just loaded up a pdf and searched for Asher, as I was convinced after seeing the first part of the book, it was going to be a lot of Anita wangst and pointless cop stuff that doesn't even make sense half the time (My bro-in-law is a cop, it makes me cringe to read her police stuff anymore). But I had hopes that Asher would at least stick to his non-taking-of-anita-bullshit-without-a-fight-and-being-logical....

I was so naive too. Most of her relationship drama or 'LKH-logic' doesn't make any sense. (lol and I'm the same way with my Ash. It's okay to still be bitter, but it's like he suddenly goes bi-polar in LKH's world, one minute still pissy about his scars/nobody loves me and the next castrating himself for Anita).

What irritates the ever loving crap out of me is that there's a big to-do about how much JC cares for Asher and vice versa. I mean hell, back in NiC, Asher threatened to leave Anita and them because of how she was treating JC (and everyone else). Back in Burnt Offerings, Asher's stands on JC's side on the council. He's ALWAYS been there to help JC after Burnt Offerings, even if he hasn't been getting any. And suddenly in this book, JC basically throws Asher under the bus for Anita. It's not right and I can't believe her vagina is the magical that JC'd throw Asher away once again. (My bestfriend who played JC, he was so livid about this.) Or that everyone who he has protected now and in the past, would suddenly be all 'You hurt Anita, we HATE YOU!'.

As for the boyfriend, I wish I had high hopes for that like you did. But sadly, after seeing all her books, I don't think LKH can do a strictly gay relationship. I don't think she understands how there can be love without anita or another girl. And I think it is lazy writer-ness on her part (the whole banishing him thing) because she just doesn't know what to do with a character who doesn't want another woman in his relationships.

And no, I think your right about Richard having a reason for his homophobia. However, like all things 'LKH-Logic', it can be fixed magically. Anita's always right after all, and eventually all the characters need to see her reasoning. They just disappear for awhile and come back "fixed", logical or not.

(Said best friend and I also RP'd Gabriel and Raina at one point (We called it writerly challenge..it was kinda fun to write out of the comfort zone)...it made us miss the 'good' villains who gave characters a reason for their hatreds and hangups.)

[diaage.livejournal.com]

Yay we share in our awesomeness!

You're sooo right about the cop stuff. (LOL I bet your bro-in-law HATES CSI xD) This time everyones kind of just taking her word on her magic joojoo now. Even Dolph didn't give her shit this time around. Although I am glad that she spent less time throwing weights over her shoulder or benchpressing Toyotas or whatever she usually does to win her usual pissing contests..

I KNOW. JC and Asher breaks my heaaaart. JC sold like 100 years of service to Belle Morte so she wouldnt kill Asher... I cant see that kind of dedication just being thrown way.

Speaking of Belle Morte, I have some head-cannon that I really doubt the books ever went into (If they did and I somehow missed it, I apologize because I have puzzled this out over the last few years). Ive always kinda thought that Belle Morte sold them out to the Inquisitors because she knew they were leaving her. It makes perfect sense. She knew JC would be gone to visit his sick mother, she HATED Julianna and thought they were trying to replace her, and besides JC was her favorite. She also knew JC would come back to her needing help with Asher and she knew Asher would "never find someone to love him like she could" again, so she could mistreat him as much as she wanted.... As far as "good" villians go, my head-Belle has always been pretty bad ass.

Yeaaaaah you're totally dead on about how the LKH logic doesnt see how to men can have a happy relationship without a vagina in the middle. Although there WAS a new character this book... crap. he was a new cop. crap. hang on. -gets book.- Brice. He's on the force and very in the closet and he has a line.. KtD pg144 /"Put a girl in the middle, and its not gay, right?" Brice said, but he sounded more bitter than some theoretical discussion should be. "You fall afoul of some couple thing?" I asked. He glanced back down at his big hands. "You could say that."/

THERE IT IS AGAIN. HOPE. ;_;

Again right on the illogical magic "fixing" of characters. Dolf. Richard. Ronnie has been gone since DM at least. Haven got killed because LKH couldnt figure out what to do with a man who wouldnt fall in line... (We adopted Haven too. Another friend "rescued" him lol) And IMNSHO that new lion she brain-fucked into being her Bride kind of disgusts me. Nicky is everything she wanted Haven to be but couldnt make him. Although I did find it interesting that he killed off two lesser lions in his pack so they couldnt challenge him and told Anita about it. I dont remember what page..But she didnt have much of a reaction. something along the lines of "oh, I assumed you sent them to do mercenary work like the rats." -cue internal monolouge about how shes a cop first, and needs to keep seperate from the interests of the Rodere as much as possible.-

A Raina and Gabe roleplay sounds... really traumatizing actually. Especially if we're talking about the old Raina that could beat Anitas ass in metaphysics alone. I really wish the munin would come back.. I mean how is Anita gonna fight something thats a part of her? My Acheron friend played Gabriel for a minute too, actually. xDD Except we said Gabriel never actually got killed. He healed when she jabbed out his eyes and switched cities (to ours lol).

As fucked up as Gabriel was, I really felt like he was a good leader. Remember Cherry? I remember her saying something about how she was in a car accident before Gabriel infected her with lycanthropy, and had to have her leg amputated. So on the night of her first full moon, Gabriel sawed the scar tissue off and when she turned, viola, her leg was back.

I just don't see a "bad" leader going through that much trouble for someone he was just going to use and throw away.