I liked this one well enough, but I did find it to be pretty predictable. I really liked the setting, though. I am not Japanese or Chinese, but I have more than a passing familiarity with parts of both cultures (of course China & Japan are not monoliths), and it did not seem appropriative to me. It's obviously a fantasy land influenced by Chinese and Japanese cultures and does not attempt to be an altogether accurate representation of either culture, but I felt that the influences were incorporated with reasonable respect for and knowledge of the source cultures.
On the Eon & Lady Dela subject, my thoughts differed from yours. I think Lady Dela was intended to be portrayed as trans, but I don't think Eon(a) was. Maybe it's just because I am a particularly 'masculine' woman myself, but Eon seemed very much like a girl to me throughout the text. I think her problem was not that she was more male than female, but that she had internalized a lot of contempt for women. Fairly often, she would think something about how 'women's only power comes from their looks' or about how women were really incapable of doing most of the things men were. Since she thought anything feminine was worthless, she wanted to excise all of that worthless stuff from herself. If, deep down, she was really a masculine spirit, that would mean to her that she was a person of value. That came into play in a lot of really stupid decisions she made (not confiding in Dela or Rilla, taking Sun Drug even when it had been made abundantly clear that denying her true self distanced her dragon,etc.). Therefore, I saw the ending as her finally accepting that simply being a woman did not render her worthless, and that she could be a powerful person AND a woman.
Also, the healing of her hip and her magical fighting ability really irritated me. I see Janina saying they're both a major thing in "Eona" so I will accept that I do not have the full story yet :).
Also, I haven't written my review for this one just yet, but I'll link it here when I do! (Probably early next week)
I think her problem was not that she was more male than female, but that she had internalized a lot of contempt for women. Fairly often, she would think something about how 'women's only power comes from their looks' or about how women were really incapable of doing most of the things men were. Since she thought anything feminine was worthless, she wanted to excise all of that worthless stuff from herself. If, deep down, she was really a masculine spirit, that would mean to her that she was a person of value.
On the Eon & Lady Dela subject, my thoughts differed from yours. I think Lady Dela was intended to be portrayed as trans, but I don't think Eon(a) was. Maybe it's just because I am a particularly 'masculine' woman myself, but Eon seemed very much like a girl to me throughout the text. I think her problem was not that she was more male than female, but that she had internalized a lot of contempt for women. Fairly often, she would think something about how 'women's only power comes from their looks' or about how women were really incapable of doing most of the things men were. Since she thought anything feminine was worthless, she wanted to excise all of that worthless stuff from herself. If, deep down, she was really a masculine spirit, that would mean to her that she was a person of value. That came into play in a lot of really stupid decisions she made (not confiding in Dela or Rilla, taking Sun Drug even when it had been made abundantly clear that denying her true self distanced her dragon,etc.). Therefore, I saw the ending as her finally accepting that simply being a woman did not render her worthless, and that she could be a powerful person AND a woman.
Also, the healing of her hip and her magical fighting ability really irritated me. I see Janina saying they're both a major thing in "Eona" so I will accept that I do not have the full story yet :).
Also, I haven't written my review for this one just yet, but I'll link it here when I do! (Probably early next week)
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Great point and insight. :)
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