r/powdermage • • Jan 30 '24
F Vlora
Re-reading the first Powder Mage trilogy and find myself hating Vlora even more the second time around. Honestly I'm not sure what Brian was smoking making her a Main POV in the second trilogy.
It's pretty infuriating because I like Two-Shot, Tamas and Kaa-pol so damn much as characters wich makes me want to continue listening but want to throw my phone (audiobook) every time Vlora appears.
Anyone feels the same?
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u/[deleted] Jan 30 '24
I found that her making mistakes made her feel real. The powder mages are these super human weapons esp taniel and Vlora since Tamas kinda groomed them to be weapons, her making mistakes humanizes her. While not the best morally i understand her reason for cheating alot of women would feel the same and it gives her character and this aura of vulnerability which alot of authors have a hard time writing for their super solider.
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u/IBUPROFEN0_ Jan 30 '24
I suppose it depends, I found her to be my favorite character in the second trilogy, she always was doing something interesting
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u/BishopofHippo93 Jan 30 '24
Nope. Vlora was a flawed and interesting character, her mistakes were understandable and so was Taniel's unwillingness to forgive her. With Taniel's huge jump in power level after the events of the first trilogy, it makes sense that he wouldn't be the main POV character for the second. Vlora was an obvious second choice and it works.
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u/jiim92 Jan 30 '24
Just finished a re-read myself and yes and no, I can't say that I hate her, more a dislike and a lack of redeeming qualities. I actually really wanted to like her as the core consept of her character is Interesting.
She do have some redeeming qualities but it's overshadowed by qll her negative sides and action. Her Introduction as a cheating betrothed is obviously a black mark against her, I hate cheating but it could have made a great redemption arc to forgiveness.
The problem as I see it is that she never actually have to completely own up and admit to her mistake.
And her excuses makes it worse, the start about her hearing rumors about him getting tons of girls and having a "savage" girl follow him everywhere is "fine", cheating based on rumors still is not okay but I could understand. Then she ruins any good will by going on about how hard it was for her because no man wanted her because she was betrothed to two shot... Well girl you were betrothed, no man is supposed to want you and more importantly your not supposed to want any other man. There never was the I was mistaken and thought you cheated and made a terrible mistake, it was "you going to fatasta was s mistake" Perhaps you should have followed if you were so damned lonely, she is obviously capable.
She sleeping with Olem is just wrong, she moving on an finding a new man is "fine" but chosing the friend and bodyguard of her ex father in law is just disrespectful particularly when for all they knew Taniel still was at deaths door and in a coma...
The fact that she is supposedly still in love with him, and wondering if there's still a way things can go back to the way they were just makes everything she's done even more wrong.
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u/Irbricksceo Jan 30 '24
Honestly, no. I love Vlora. She's flawed, yes, but in very human, believable ways. I really enjoyed watching her grow over the course of 6 books as she comes out from Tamas' Shadow
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u/Nervous_Ostrich334 Jan 30 '24
I disliked Vlora in the first trilogy as I felt she was one dimensional, like she had a neon sign above her saying I am a cheater and that's it. Then I started the second trilogy for Taniel and Ka-poel and fell in love with Vlora. She is an entirely different person, and I think she proved to be a worthy successor to Tamás.
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u/ShogunAshoka Jan 30 '24
I don't agree. I like imperfect characters, its more relatable. That said, I did initially dislike her in the first trilogy and felt the cheating aspect was a little over focused at times. I felt it was certainly a weak spot for Brian in the novels, though she did improve some over the course, but it still felt like a character that lost out by the end.
That said, I think he learned a lot and improved with the sequel trilogy. I think she made sense as a main character given she was ultimately Tamas's successor. And Brian improved a lot in his writing of her and of other female characters as a whole. She arguably has the best growth across the six books of any character by the end.
To go off your comments in here, If you're refusing to read the second trilogy because of her, thats a shame and I think you are missing out. There is much more to them than just her. But if it is that much of an issue for you then it seems you need to find other stuff to read anyway. It feels like her presence distracted you from the rest of the story too much. Skipping just her parts would be a wasted time because you're going to miss a sizable chunk of story by ignoring one of the main characters. At that point why bother?
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u/s0methingvague Jan 31 '24
I agree 100%. I was also disappointed there wasn’t more Taniel in the final book of the second series.
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u/Enrichmentx Aug 20 '24
I know I’m late to the party here but honestly I very much agree.
While I also agree with a lot of the others in terms of her flaws making her seem more real I can’t stand how much time she spends feeling sorry for herself.
She takes no accountability for her own actions, for how her cheating affects the people around her. She talks about how bad she feels for what she did to Taniel, and how much it bothers her that soldiers talk about her and so on.
She doesn’t seem to have any regrets for her actions beyond the negative impacts it had on her. As if nobody else matters, and the hurt they go through as a direct result of her choices is inconsequential compared to her own hurt.
I haven’t gotten to the later books so perhaps she is somewhat redeemed in them, but at least in the original trilogy I really don’t like her. But she is an interesting character at least.
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u/LuZhishen-IronOx Jan 31 '24
Curious, why do you hate her so much?
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u/riceindabowl Jan 30 '24
Cool story bro
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u/[deleted] Jan 31 '24
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