Betrayed: Chapter 9
ZeldaQueen: In which our darling protagonist continues to be a raging hypocrite
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
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Chapter 9
ZeldaQueen: So now that it's actually someone who Zoey knows on the line, all bets are off. Zoey starts screaming and shaking Aphrodite and demanding that she spit out what she sees. That's nice Zoey, throttle the girl who's basically having a magic seizure. And yes, I know that people who are worried about loved ones do stuff that they aren't proud of later. It still comes across as pretty rude here, especially given that Zoey was completely ignoring Aphrodite a minute ago.
Aphrodite grabs Zoey's hand again and makes a clear effort to control herself and says that she'll tell Zoey everything she sees, as long as Zoey sticks around. Well Zoey kind of has to stick around to hear you talk Aphrodite. Try to keep up. Zoey is all panicky and listens to Aphrodite, "not caring that she was my enemy and someone I'd never trust".
Aphrodite starts to talk, and goes on about how she's drowning in cold, brown water and can't get the door of her Saturn open. Zoey realizes that her grandmother owns a Saturn and asks what the water is from. Aphrodite says it's the Arkansas River and adds that the bridge collapsed and she can see the car in front with two little boys in it falling in and catching fire as it hits a barge. Aphrodite starts gasping and choking and then goes limp before waking up and commenting on how Zoey stuck around after all.
Zoey demands more details and Aphrodite turns Scary again, asking if Zoey believes her visions now. Zoey grabs her and basically starts dragging her off to see Neferet. Aphrodite flips out at this, and says that if she's brought to Neferet, she'll lie and pretend not to remember and Neferet won't know what she's hiding, even if she knows something's being hidden.
Zoey asks what Aphrodite wants, and Aphrodite replies that she wants validation that her visions are correct and Nyx hasn't abandoned her. She also wants Zoey to promise to grant her a promise of her choosing later, because Zoey will be a powerful High Priestess and Aphrodite suspects that she'll need protection from something in the future. Zoey's response?
"I wanted to say that there was no way I could protect her from Neferet. Not now-maybe not ever. And I wouldn't want to. Aphrodite was messed up, and I'd already witnessed how selfish and hateful she could be. I didn't want to owe her; I didn't want anything to do with her"
ZeldaQueen: You know, I do love how Zoey has completely forgotten the implications we've been getting that Aphrodite is having visions of something bad in the future. I mean seriously, this girl can see the future and wants protection from something. Wouldn't that set off any alarm bells? And again, under other circumstances I'd chalk it up to Zoey being scared and missing it, but she never thinks of this! All she does is act like promising to protect Aphrodite is like promising to protect Lee Harvey Oswald!
*sigh* Moving on, Zoey decides that she has no choice and makes an official promise to grant Aphrodite a favor of her choosing when she asks for it. And of course, vampire promises are Special and Binding and can't be broken, unlike those stupid "empty" human ones. No, we're never told how this works. Why do you ask?
Aphrodite sits down and tells Zoey that her grandmother will be going to Tulsa that afternoon to get a present for Zoey's birthday next month. Zoey notes that this is true, and spends several sentences bitching about how sucky a Christmas birthday is. Oh God, focus on important things, you idiot! Anyway, Aphrodite remembers the clock on the Saturn dashboard saying it was three-fifteen in the vision, so that would be when it happens. Zoey has to make sure her grandmother isn't on the bridge at that time. Aphrodite also notes that she can't figure out why exactly the bridge collapsed, and figures it's because she was surprised to get a vision of someone she knew.
Um, how does she know Zoey's grandmother? Zoey's never spoken of her grandmother to Aphrodite, to the extent of my knowledge. She's hardly told her friends about her grandmother!
Whatever. Zoey sees that it's ten after six in the morning, thus giving her plenty of time to call her grandmother and warn her to stay home. She then asks Aphrodite about the other people on the bridge. Oh, you remembered they exist? Aphrodite, going back into Scary mode, basically says to fuck them. This leads to this interesting exchange
"'You make me sick, Aphrodite. Do you care about anyone but yourself?'
'Whatever, Zoey. Like you're so perfect? I didn't hear you caring about anyone else except your grandma.'
'Of course I was worried about her the most! I love her! But I don't want anyone else to die, either.'"
ZeldaQueen: Can I get a BULLSHIT? Because Zoey? As Scary Sues often do, Aphrodite has a valid point. You didn't give those people a second thought until two seconds ago. Hell, you didn't give them a second thought when you decided that Aphrodite surely must have been faking the visions, you'd leave her alone. If she hadn't have shouted out that your grandmother was involved, you would have dismissed the entire thing.
And no, no one ever actually calls Zoey out on any of that. Did you think someone would?
Aphrodite goes back to her vision and figures out exactly where the bridge is and says that to the best of her knowledge, a barge crashes into it, but she has no idea how to identify the barge. She then goes to Scary mode again and sashays off to do her nails. Zoey calls to her that "You know, having crappy parents isn't an excuse to be heartless". Aphrodite asks her what she knows about screwed-up parents, to which Zoey replies "Plenty. I've been living with pain-in-the ass parent issues since my mom remarried three years ago. It sucks, but it's not an excuse to be a bitch". Aphrodite replies with "Try eighteen years of a lot more than just 'pain-in the- ass parent issues' and maybe you'll start to get something about it. Until then, you don't know shit" and then walks off, leaving Zoey to mutter that she has issues.
I would like to pause here. We're supposed to see Zoey and Aphrodite as foils, apparently. We're supposed to see Zoey as someone who overcomes hardships in her life and is a good person despite it, while Aphrodite isn't.
Now, I get what the Cast ladies were going for. They seemed to be going for some moral about how a sucky upbringing doesn't excuse people to be horrible. I'd like to point out a few things.
Let's take a look at Zoey's life. She complains about her siblings, but we've seen zero evidence of them interacting with her, which makes it hard to take them seriously as a source of antagonism in her life. She has openly admitted that for most of her life, she has been raised lovingly by her mother and her grandmother. While she hates on her stepfather, he apparently gives his stepchildren pretty free rein, given that Zoey's sister is supposed to be the local harlot or something, her brother plays violent video games, and Zoey alludes to going to various school parties and such things. Yes, you could argue that they do all of those things in secret, but it still doesn't come across as him being as controlling as she insists. Finally, Zoey has her own car - that vintage Beetle - and those stupid Maui Jim sunglasses she never shuts up about. We have had no mention of her having or ever having had a job before. I don't know how much a vintage Beetle would go for, but I'm sure it isn't cheap. As for the Maui Jims, pardon my rant, but I work at a Lenscrafters that sells them and they are not inexpensive. If you get them prescription, you have to get the lenses from Maui, which costs more than the store lenses. This also means you can't apply any discounts to them and even vision insurance does little for the costs. It's not uncommon to drop about five hundred dollars on a prescription pair, depending on whether you're single vision or progressive and what features you want (obviously polarization and mirror coatings only add to the cost). Even if a person forgoes a prescription and buys just the frames, that's about two hundred dollars or so. She can afford the car and those glasses and presumably other things, and is being sent to a school that, bitching about curriculum aside, is much better than a lot of people get. So I find it hard to believe that Zoey's parents aren't providing her with some source of income, or at least footing some sizable bills.
Now, let us look at Aphrodite's life. She has a mom and dad who really on seem to care about their image and how Aphrodite's life will affect it. They talk about how they want her to go to Chatham, how they don't want her to go to a House of Night in Europe, how they want her to be High Priestess because it all makes them look good. There is no evidence that they haven't treated Aphrodite this way since she was a child. There is no evidence that she has had any outlet or protection from this treatment. We see them hit her. We see them verbally abuse her. We see them constantly meddle in her life. And now we see that what little personal power she had - her visions of the future - has been taken from her because her teacher, who had been nothing but kind to her before, has begun to gaslight her and mock her and treat her like a liar and tell everyone else she's a liar who should be shunned and ignored.
Forgive me for not seeing Zoey's situation as comparable to Aphrodite's.
So yeah, Zoey goes to call her grandmother, and we are reminded about how Heath and Kayla (who is vilified way more than is necessary for a random flashback) came to bust her out of the school that month back and how she drank some of his blood and how he became unhealthily obsessed with her and has been calling her endlessly ever since, even though she hasn't had any contact with him. I must say, considering that we're told that he's basically pining endlessly over her and that she's become the sole focus of her life, she's treating this all as a minor annoyance.
Anyway, she calls her grandmother and there's a whole lot of sappiness from old Grandma Redbird. Yes, I know I complained all throughout Breaking Dawn about how much I hated that Meyer made the parental figures all douches and idiots to justify her avatar and various other Sues being free to frolic amongst the vampires, and yes I'm happy that the Cast ladies did put effort into having Zoey have at least one member of her family that she liked. But Grandma Redbird honestly sounds more like a grandmother stereotype than an actual character, and it's annoying. Which, I realize, is all par for the course for these guys, so let's move on.
Zoey is in a panic and tries to figure out how to break the news to her grandmother. Grandma Redbird continues to be sappy and says she'll believe anything Zoey tells her and Zoey blurts out about how she's going to die in the bridge collapse. Grandma Redbird takes this news...surprisingly well. I mean, she is surprised, but she doesn't exactly sound as shocked as I'd expect someone who is told something like that would be. Ah well, everyone reacts differently to news, I know. So yeah, the grandma asks if Zoey is getting visions now. Good God, I hope not! She's too Mary Sue as it is! Zoey explains about Aphrodite and how she saw all of these people dying on the bridge. Grandma Redbird offers to go to the bridge and try to deter people form driving over it and Zoey, in a very rare burst of genre savyness, tells her to stay as far from that bridge as humanly possible. She promises to solve the problem and ends the call, blathering to us about how she has a plan, dammit! Dear lord, is that plot I see? Tune in next time to find out, ladies and gentlemen!
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Onward to: Chapter 10
Back to: Chapter 8 (Part 2)
Back to: Table of Contents
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
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Chapter 9
ZeldaQueen: So now that it's actually someone who Zoey knows on the line, all bets are off. Zoey starts screaming and shaking Aphrodite and demanding that she spit out what she sees. That's nice Zoey, throttle the girl who's basically having a magic seizure. And yes, I know that people who are worried about loved ones do stuff that they aren't proud of later. It still comes across as pretty rude here, especially given that Zoey was completely ignoring Aphrodite a minute ago.
Aphrodite grabs Zoey's hand again and makes a clear effort to control herself and says that she'll tell Zoey everything she sees, as long as Zoey sticks around. Well Zoey kind of has to stick around to hear you talk Aphrodite. Try to keep up. Zoey is all panicky and listens to Aphrodite, "not caring that she was my enemy and someone I'd never trust".
Aphrodite starts to talk, and goes on about how she's drowning in cold, brown water and can't get the door of her Saturn open. Zoey realizes that her grandmother owns a Saturn and asks what the water is from. Aphrodite says it's the Arkansas River and adds that the bridge collapsed and she can see the car in front with two little boys in it falling in and catching fire as it hits a barge. Aphrodite starts gasping and choking and then goes limp before waking up and commenting on how Zoey stuck around after all.
Zoey demands more details and Aphrodite turns Scary again, asking if Zoey believes her visions now. Zoey grabs her and basically starts dragging her off to see Neferet. Aphrodite flips out at this, and says that if she's brought to Neferet, she'll lie and pretend not to remember and Neferet won't know what she's hiding, even if she knows something's being hidden.
Zoey asks what Aphrodite wants, and Aphrodite replies that she wants validation that her visions are correct and Nyx hasn't abandoned her. She also wants Zoey to promise to grant her a promise of her choosing later, because Zoey will be a powerful High Priestess and Aphrodite suspects that she'll need protection from something in the future. Zoey's response?
"I wanted to say that there was no way I could protect her from Neferet. Not now-maybe not ever. And I wouldn't want to. Aphrodite was messed up, and I'd already witnessed how selfish and hateful she could be. I didn't want to owe her; I didn't want anything to do with her"
ZeldaQueen: You know, I do love how Zoey has completely forgotten the implications we've been getting that Aphrodite is having visions of something bad in the future. I mean seriously, this girl can see the future and wants protection from something. Wouldn't that set off any alarm bells? And again, under other circumstances I'd chalk it up to Zoey being scared and missing it, but she never thinks of this! All she does is act like promising to protect Aphrodite is like promising to protect Lee Harvey Oswald!
*sigh* Moving on, Zoey decides that she has no choice and makes an official promise to grant Aphrodite a favor of her choosing when she asks for it. And of course, vampire promises are Special and Binding and can't be broken, unlike those stupid "empty" human ones. No, we're never told how this works. Why do you ask?
Aphrodite sits down and tells Zoey that her grandmother will be going to Tulsa that afternoon to get a present for Zoey's birthday next month. Zoey notes that this is true, and spends several sentences bitching about how sucky a Christmas birthday is. Oh God, focus on important things, you idiot! Anyway, Aphrodite remembers the clock on the Saturn dashboard saying it was three-fifteen in the vision, so that would be when it happens. Zoey has to make sure her grandmother isn't on the bridge at that time. Aphrodite also notes that she can't figure out why exactly the bridge collapsed, and figures it's because she was surprised to get a vision of someone she knew.
Um, how does she know Zoey's grandmother? Zoey's never spoken of her grandmother to Aphrodite, to the extent of my knowledge. She's hardly told her friends about her grandmother!
Whatever. Zoey sees that it's ten after six in the morning, thus giving her plenty of time to call her grandmother and warn her to stay home. She then asks Aphrodite about the other people on the bridge. Oh, you remembered they exist? Aphrodite, going back into Scary mode, basically says to fuck them. This leads to this interesting exchange
"'You make me sick, Aphrodite. Do you care about anyone but yourself?'
'Whatever, Zoey. Like you're so perfect? I didn't hear you caring about anyone else except your grandma.'
'Of course I was worried about her the most! I love her! But I don't want anyone else to die, either.'"
ZeldaQueen: Can I get a BULLSHIT? Because Zoey? As Scary Sues often do, Aphrodite has a valid point. You didn't give those people a second thought until two seconds ago. Hell, you didn't give them a second thought when you decided that Aphrodite surely must have been faking the visions, you'd leave her alone. If she hadn't have shouted out that your grandmother was involved, you would have dismissed the entire thing.
And no, no one ever actually calls Zoey out on any of that. Did you think someone would?
Aphrodite goes back to her vision and figures out exactly where the bridge is and says that to the best of her knowledge, a barge crashes into it, but she has no idea how to identify the barge. She then goes to Scary mode again and sashays off to do her nails. Zoey calls to her that "You know, having crappy parents isn't an excuse to be heartless". Aphrodite asks her what she knows about screwed-up parents, to which Zoey replies "Plenty. I've been living with pain-in-the ass parent issues since my mom remarried three years ago. It sucks, but it's not an excuse to be a bitch". Aphrodite replies with "Try eighteen years of a lot more than just 'pain-in the- ass parent issues' and maybe you'll start to get something about it. Until then, you don't know shit" and then walks off, leaving Zoey to mutter that she has issues.
I would like to pause here. We're supposed to see Zoey and Aphrodite as foils, apparently. We're supposed to see Zoey as someone who overcomes hardships in her life and is a good person despite it, while Aphrodite isn't.
Now, I get what the Cast ladies were going for. They seemed to be going for some moral about how a sucky upbringing doesn't excuse people to be horrible. I'd like to point out a few things.
Let's take a look at Zoey's life. She complains about her siblings, but we've seen zero evidence of them interacting with her, which makes it hard to take them seriously as a source of antagonism in her life. She has openly admitted that for most of her life, she has been raised lovingly by her mother and her grandmother. While she hates on her stepfather, he apparently gives his stepchildren pretty free rein, given that Zoey's sister is supposed to be the local harlot or something, her brother plays violent video games, and Zoey alludes to going to various school parties and such things. Yes, you could argue that they do all of those things in secret, but it still doesn't come across as him being as controlling as she insists. Finally, Zoey has her own car - that vintage Beetle - and those stupid Maui Jim sunglasses she never shuts up about. We have had no mention of her having or ever having had a job before. I don't know how much a vintage Beetle would go for, but I'm sure it isn't cheap. As for the Maui Jims, pardon my rant, but I work at a Lenscrafters that sells them and they are not inexpensive. If you get them prescription, you have to get the lenses from Maui, which costs more than the store lenses. This also means you can't apply any discounts to them and even vision insurance does little for the costs. It's not uncommon to drop about five hundred dollars on a prescription pair, depending on whether you're single vision or progressive and what features you want (obviously polarization and mirror coatings only add to the cost). Even if a person forgoes a prescription and buys just the frames, that's about two hundred dollars or so. She can afford the car and those glasses and presumably other things, and is being sent to a school that, bitching about curriculum aside, is much better than a lot of people get. So I find it hard to believe that Zoey's parents aren't providing her with some source of income, or at least footing some sizable bills.
Now, let us look at Aphrodite's life. She has a mom and dad who really on seem to care about their image and how Aphrodite's life will affect it. They talk about how they want her to go to Chatham, how they don't want her to go to a House of Night in Europe, how they want her to be High Priestess because it all makes them look good. There is no evidence that they haven't treated Aphrodite this way since she was a child. There is no evidence that she has had any outlet or protection from this treatment. We see them hit her. We see them verbally abuse her. We see them constantly meddle in her life. And now we see that what little personal power she had - her visions of the future - has been taken from her because her teacher, who had been nothing but kind to her before, has begun to gaslight her and mock her and treat her like a liar and tell everyone else she's a liar who should be shunned and ignored.
Forgive me for not seeing Zoey's situation as comparable to Aphrodite's.
So yeah, Zoey goes to call her grandmother, and we are reminded about how Heath and Kayla (who is vilified way more than is necessary for a random flashback) came to bust her out of the school that month back and how she drank some of his blood and how he became unhealthily obsessed with her and has been calling her endlessly ever since, even though she hasn't had any contact with him. I must say, considering that we're told that he's basically pining endlessly over her and that she's become the sole focus of her life, she's treating this all as a minor annoyance.
Anyway, she calls her grandmother and there's a whole lot of sappiness from old Grandma Redbird. Yes, I know I complained all throughout Breaking Dawn about how much I hated that Meyer made the parental figures all douches and idiots to justify her avatar and various other Sues being free to frolic amongst the vampires, and yes I'm happy that the Cast ladies did put effort into having Zoey have at least one member of her family that she liked. But Grandma Redbird honestly sounds more like a grandmother stereotype than an actual character, and it's annoying. Which, I realize, is all par for the course for these guys, so let's move on.
Zoey is in a panic and tries to figure out how to break the news to her grandmother. Grandma Redbird continues to be sappy and says she'll believe anything Zoey tells her and Zoey blurts out about how she's going to die in the bridge collapse. Grandma Redbird takes this news...surprisingly well. I mean, she is surprised, but she doesn't exactly sound as shocked as I'd expect someone who is told something like that would be. Ah well, everyone reacts differently to news, I know. So yeah, the grandma asks if Zoey is getting visions now. Good God, I hope not! She's too Mary Sue as it is! Zoey explains about Aphrodite and how she saw all of these people dying on the bridge. Grandma Redbird offers to go to the bridge and try to deter people form driving over it and Zoey, in a very rare burst of genre savyness, tells her to stay as far from that bridge as humanly possible. She promises to solve the problem and ends the call, blathering to us about how she has a plan, dammit! Dear lord, is that plot I see? Tune in next time to find out, ladies and gentlemen!
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Onward to: Chapter 10
Back to: Chapter 8 (Part 2)
Back to: Table of Contents