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

[world-dancer.livejournal.com]

Asher was one of my favs when I stopped reading at Cerulean Sins (which holds the title of "Only Book I Have Ever Flung At A Wall). He just had a decent and complex characterization compared to a lot of people in the stories at that point.

I used to like Damian, too.

And the lesbian werewolf (Sybil? I'm blanking on her name).

And of course, Ronnie back before she developed a weird jealousy for Anita having tons of sex with random men.

[starrysnafu.livejournal.com]

Asher is badass. I hope he escapes too.

Actually I like most of Anita's vagina's victims. Hopefully everyone escapes, except Nathaniel and Jean-Claude. (Someone has to stay behind to keep the monster distracted)

[kyoko-minamino.livejournal.com]

You're not alone. I liked Asher before Anita jumped the shark--his personality, his role, and what it used to represent. LKH has had this really weird borderline homophobia and Asher was one of the first characters to sort of break through it all because he was legitimately in love with Jean Claude as well as Juliana. I actually loved the idea that there could be three people who loved each other equally and shared one another just like a normal couple, especially since they were vampires and most of the time, vampires don't really "love" anything. I also liked that he had a good reason to hate both Anita and JC back in Burnt Offerings, and then slowly overcame it. But after that, he just became another booty call and someone to have Anita bitch and whine at when she has nothing else to use as a "plot."

I've been hoping Asher would escape Anita's Doom Crotch since Cerulean Sins so if he hangs out elsewhere, I'm fine with it. I just wish JC would do the same thing and they could live together in happy leather-wearing, lace-cuffed harmony away from Anita. But that's just me.

I also want Jason to escape just so he can move in with me because I may be slightly still in love with him even after all this time. But I digress.

[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.

[morilove.livejournal.com]

I've always like Asher for his anger. I was so enthralled at the point in one book - can't remember if it was Cerulean Sins or Danse Macabre ("this one time, at band camp?") - where JC nearly rejected Anita for her rejection of Asher, and then Asher nearly killed her with his orgasmic love bite. Oh, man, if only...