day 09 - you look like bad news, I gotta have you
day nine! Yes those are Taylor Swift lyrics for the intro. Don't pretend they're not perfect for the topic at hand.
rosaxx50, asked me to talk about Brenna/Judd since this was how we met on Tumblr and I'm oh too happy to oblige!
Specifically I was asked to talk about them and how tropes are kind of turned around on their head for these two.
One of the things I love about these two is that it easily could have been a stock pairing trope that's all about oh look the dude saves the girl and makes her feel not so crappy about her life anymore and everyone is happy! BUT THAT'S SO ENTIRELY NOT WHAT WE GET. And I think it's well done.
Instead what we have is:
a) Brenna very much puts herself back together. Judd kind of flits along to be the person that doesn't exactly question what she's choosing to do. He does in some ways, in some respects, but it's not a pushing thing. He's a sounding board more than anything. Brenna doesn't need Judd. She wants Judd. There's a difference.
She decides she doesn't want to be smothered by her family. She decides she wants to go back to school. She wants to continue her research. She wants to do things for the den again. She wants to learn how to fight from Dorian because she can't shift. She doesn't want her brothers to smother her anymore. She chooses all of that.
b) Judd hilarious fits this role of being like I'M A TERRIBLE PERSON and Brenna is like So what? It's kind of funny, but really actually isn't given what he was raised to do and what she's been through. But most of the book he's like no I'm terrible, and she really does not give a single fuck. Brenna's like yeah okay, but you're not really, and can I touch your chest?
So we get Brenna actively pursuing Judd and being like yeah I want that as my own, you're mine. Even when everyone else tells her not to, tells her she's silly and Judd can't ever be anything for her. She knows. And she shows him that till he gets someone to believe in.
c) Instead of the female being the one that gets "awoken" it's Judd that does. I call him robot sometimes, because that's what he got teased for being in books, but also because it sort of fits in a really horrific way as what Arrows are.
But Judd spends most of the front half of the book being like yeah no I don't feel anything, only to turn around three pages later and be like oh hey I can't stop looking at Brenna and wanting to make sure she's okay. The scene in the cabin where he's so absorbed watching her work and even when it's hurting him a lot he's upset over her baddreams so he holds her because that's what she wants. BE STILL MY HEART.
d) There's so much respect here between these two. I said earlier that we get that Brenna is the one who pieces herself back together, and Judd really just is there to be her rock. He steps in to reiterate to her brothers and Hawke and others that Brenna can stand on her own and they're not helping her all that much by smothering her.
In turn, Brenna knows that Judd keeps his secrets and that he's dangerous. She becomes someone that helps him and understands him, but protects him as well. She listens to him, and then yells at him later about it. Like when she doesn't take him to a medic, and then later knows he needs to blackout in a space where he can be safe. WHERE SHE WATCHES OVER HIM BYE.
I'm not sure why I ended up breaking this down into letter format. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
BUT anyway, we get two people that do want and desire and need each other very much because they want each other. And they're each other's safe harbors in a way. That while both have families and obligations and other people they can count on and are very much important to them, they're also now each other's stability. That means so much.
I like too the little insights we get of them as the series progresses. The little hints that like not everything is super okay, but they're working on it. Judd is angry in Book Ten over Sienna's plight. Brenna is shown to be sleeping in their rooms in her wolf form. I have no doubt that there are nights both wake up with nightmares, and there's stuff even that they won't say to each other; parts of Judd's training and past he doesn't think is okay to speak aloud, parts of what Santano did to Brenna that she still keeps to herself. But they're learning! Relationships aren't easy. I don't think theirs would be, but I think there would be a lot of laughter in it and love despite the ugliness that clings to them.
Also all the furniture shopping!
rosaxx50, asked me to talk about Brenna/Judd since this was how we met on Tumblr and I'm oh too happy to oblige!
Specifically I was asked to talk about them and how tropes are kind of turned around on their head for these two.
One of the things I love about these two is that it easily could have been a stock pairing trope that's all about oh look the dude saves the girl and makes her feel not so crappy about her life anymore and everyone is happy! BUT THAT'S SO ENTIRELY NOT WHAT WE GET. And I think it's well done.
Instead what we have is:
a) Brenna very much puts herself back together. Judd kind of flits along to be the person that doesn't exactly question what she's choosing to do. He does in some ways, in some respects, but it's not a pushing thing. He's a sounding board more than anything. Brenna doesn't need Judd. She wants Judd. There's a difference.
She decides she doesn't want to be smothered by her family. She decides she wants to go back to school. She wants to continue her research. She wants to do things for the den again. She wants to learn how to fight from Dorian because she can't shift. She doesn't want her brothers to smother her anymore. She chooses all of that.
b) Judd hilarious fits this role of being like I'M A TERRIBLE PERSON and Brenna is like So what? It's kind of funny, but really actually isn't given what he was raised to do and what she's been through. But most of the book he's like no I'm terrible, and she really does not give a single fuck. Brenna's like yeah okay, but you're not really, and can I touch your chest?
So we get Brenna actively pursuing Judd and being like yeah I want that as my own, you're mine. Even when everyone else tells her not to, tells her she's silly and Judd can't ever be anything for her. She knows. And she shows him that till he gets someone to believe in.
c) Instead of the female being the one that gets "awoken" it's Judd that does. I call him robot sometimes, because that's what he got teased for being in books, but also because it sort of fits in a really horrific way as what Arrows are.
But Judd spends most of the front half of the book being like yeah no I don't feel anything, only to turn around three pages later and be like oh hey I can't stop looking at Brenna and wanting to make sure she's okay. The scene in the cabin where he's so absorbed watching her work and even when it's hurting him a lot he's upset over her baddreams so he holds her because that's what she wants. BE STILL MY HEART.
d) There's so much respect here between these two. I said earlier that we get that Brenna is the one who pieces herself back together, and Judd really just is there to be her rock. He steps in to reiterate to her brothers and Hawke and others that Brenna can stand on her own and they're not helping her all that much by smothering her.
In turn, Brenna knows that Judd keeps his secrets and that he's dangerous. She becomes someone that helps him and understands him, but protects him as well. She listens to him, and then yells at him later about it. Like when she doesn't take him to a medic, and then later knows he needs to blackout in a space where he can be safe. WHERE SHE WATCHES OVER HIM BYE.
I'm not sure why I ended up breaking this down into letter format. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
BUT anyway, we get two people that do want and desire and need each other very much because they want each other. And they're each other's safe harbors in a way. That while both have families and obligations and other people they can count on and are very much important to them, they're also now each other's stability. That means so much.
I like too the little insights we get of them as the series progresses. The little hints that like not everything is super okay, but they're working on it. Judd is angry in Book Ten over Sienna's plight. Brenna is shown to be sleeping in their rooms in her wolf form. I have no doubt that there are nights both wake up with nightmares, and there's stuff even that they won't say to each other; parts of Judd's training and past he doesn't think is okay to speak aloud, parts of what Santano did to Brenna that she still keeps to herself. But they're learning! Relationships aren't easy. I don't think theirs would be, but I think there would be a lot of laughter in it and love despite the ugliness that clings to them.
Also all the furniture shopping!