Why does Anita hunt vampires?

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

Why does Anita hunt vampires? Because I don't think we're ever given a reason why. She just does.

She seems very devoted to it,and she also talks about what a tax it is on her soul to have to execute those that are awake, strapped to a gurney, and begging for their lives. So this is a difficult job for not just in that it's a very high-risk and dangerous one, but also very emotionally hard. So why does she keep doing it? What is her motivation? Unlike, say, Buffy or Blade, it's not like she can't get out. They both have special physiologies (better strength, better speed, faster healing etc.) that enable them to better at fighting the vampires in a world where very few people even know these creatures exist and are preying on them, let alone are equipped to deal with them. That's not the case with Anita. Her original animator powers gave her a bit of an edge in terms of evading the mental powers of vampires, but physically she was nothing special, and EVERYONE knows about vampires, there are loads of other executioners out there, etc.

So what made her want to become a vampire slayer?

I've heard it be suggested that maybe she became one just because she felt that having that edge as an animator meant she was morally obligated to use it to protect the populace. I'm not sure I buy it though. Firstly, Anita is so damn selfish. It's not believable to me at all that she loves her harem, so I can't believe the idea she'd care enough about people she's never met to put her life on the line for them. And even if I could buy that she started for that reason, what about why she continued even when she claims it was so tough on her to kill like she did? I don't believe it was actually tough on her at all, personally, but let's just say that what LKH is trying to portray is in fact the truth, that Anita really is a hero, that this really does tear her up, etc. What prompts her to keep doing it?

I think she just wants a license to kill. In the early books, there are times where she seems to almost hate vampires, see them as all dangerous monsters, etc. In the later books, she alternates between 'they're monsters!' and 'they're people!' depending on who she's talking to; basically, whatever position the other person has, Anita takes the opposite one and is portrayed as being right every time in comparison to the other person and LKH doesn't seem to realize she's flip-flopping all the time at all. But no reason as to why she would feel hostile to vampires as she does is ever given. I draw two conclusions from this:

1) Anita just likes to argue with people, make them feel bad for their beliefs, and feel superior

and

2) Anita doesn't actually believe in either position, because she doesn't care enough to take a side. She's just a power-obsessed murderous sociopath who wants to pretend she's a hero, so she takes a position that will allow her to kill people and be 'right' for it.

While I was reading Skin Trade, she said over and over that she was a government-sanctioned assassin, that vampires could be killed legally for very minor things, that she was a serial killer in her own way, and so on. And LKH tried to make her sound brooding and grimdark, but she came off as both whiny and insincere. She sounded more like she was relishing talking about this stuff so much I could just imaging LKH's inner glee as she wrote this over HOW COOL IT IS and HOW COOL ANITA IS and she just can't stop it from bleeding into Anita's words and tone instead of actually trying to look at it from the POV of someone who really was like that, really did those things, really was jaded and wounded, etc.

So, what say you? Does Anita have a reason for being an executioner that you can recall? Do you think she does it because of her animator edge, a desire to kill without reproach, both, neither, something else? Why did she start? Why does she continue? And do you think SHE even believes what LKH has her spout just to spite people?

Comments

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

If you wanna see for yourself just how bad it's gotten, I'm currently sporking/summarizing Skin Trade chapter-by-chapter!
http://a-sporking-rat.livejournal.com/

[luscious-words.livejournal.com]

Because I have this thing called morbid curiosity, I checked it out - I first horrified by the fact that you're up to chapter sixty-something. Then I realized I was going to hate myself for looking, so I made the agreement with myself to go back to it later. :)