I'm glad you made it back here and into your account! I just stumbled back a month or two ago, and it was a very good decision.
Irene, a very private person, sharing something so personal with someone she chanced to meet in the garden seems uncharacteristic
I wondered about this, too, especially when she smiled at him, as Relius's thought about her infrequent smiles and who receives them is tattooed on my heart. Reading this as a moment of character development (among other mysterious and unclear things!), it's a sign of how she's changed the way she expresses emotions in semi-public situations since QoA and even KoA. Kamet notes her physical frailty in the garden, and although the ?miscarriage? clearly had an emotional impact, but I think that I see this as a continuation of her character development/mask falling away. Her role in the country has grown less precarious and stressful since Gen has come around to being king, and her relationship with him and friendships with people like Relius and Eddis probably make her more likely to be open or vulnerable.
I like Lady Jane's reminder that she was acquainted with Kamet for more than two years before this. Maybe, even if Gen did remember the entire poem, she wanted to hear the original from Kamet himself? She could have summoned him for an audience, but meeting in the garden honestly sounds like a more pleasant place for poetry, and perhaps she didn't want anyone besides her attendants to take note of the interaction.
It's so interesting (and, tantalizing? I dunno) for something with this amount of emotional impact to happen to two main characters, and for the most sustained glimpse of it we do see is this gentle moment of poetry and closure with Irene, who was previously defined by her lack of emotion.
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whoops, I meant to post this a few days ago :/
Date: 5/28/17 08:11 pm (UTC)Irene, a very private person, sharing something so personal with someone she chanced to meet in the garden seems uncharacteristic
I wondered about this, too, especially when she smiled at him, as Relius's thought about her infrequent smiles and who receives them is tattooed on my heart. Reading this as a moment of character development (among other mysterious and unclear things!), it's a sign of how she's changed the way she expresses emotions in semi-public situations since QoA and even KoA. Kamet notes her physical frailty in the garden, and although the ?miscarriage? clearly had an emotional impact, but I think that I see this as a continuation of her character development/mask falling away. Her role in the country has grown less precarious and stressful since Gen has come around to being king, and her relationship with him and friendships with people like Relius and Eddis probably make her more likely to be open or vulnerable.
I like Lady Jane's reminder that she was acquainted with Kamet for more than two years before this. Maybe, even if Gen did remember the entire poem, she wanted to hear the original from Kamet himself? She could have summoned him for an audience, but meeting in the garden honestly sounds like a more pleasant place for poetry, and perhaps she didn't want anyone besides her attendants to take note of the interaction.
It's so interesting (and, tantalizing? I dunno) for something with this amount of emotional impact to happen to two main characters, and for the most sustained glimpse of it we do see is this gentle moment of poetry and closure with Irene, who was previously defined by her lack of emotion.