WAIT A MINUTE

[sholio]

I literally said "Wait a minute!" to myself out loud in the car. There are two bits of the climax of Dragon Coast (the third Daniel Blackland book) that I never could figure out - one more than the other, because it seems like a total plot dead end - and then I realized today that they could actually be the explanation for each other.

sovay, come in and speculate with me! :DDDD

Spoilers for the climax of Dragon Coast below.


Okay, so the main one of my "wait, what just happened there" bits of climax is Max almost passing out from exposure to the overwhelming magical aura of the dragon - because the next time we see him, he's totally fine, and he gets through the rest of the climax with no apparent ill effects from being even closer to an even more awake dragon.

But the other thing I was idly wondering about while driving into town today was when he could've had an opportunity to swap out the bullets in his gun for fake ones, because he wasn't walking around the whole time like that, was he? It doesn't seem like him! They knew they could run into guards or something.

And then it hit me: that's when he did it. And it fits very well, because the last thing he's doing in that chapter before it cuts away to another scene is begging Gabriel to stop, turn around, and go back. It makes sense that this was the point when Max realized that if Gabriel wouldn't stop at this point, then Max was going to have to stop him. And whatever he's doing here, whether it's faking entirely or at least playing up his incapacitated state, gave him cover to get a moment without anyone watching him to change the bullets in the gun.

... I guess?

I just feel like this makes the most sense, because he only seems to have that one moment of collapse, and as far as the gun goes, otherwise he's in close contact with Gabriel and Cassandra the whole time - I mean, he could easily have snuck off for a moment of privacy at any point before the island, but then he would be carrying around a (somewhat) useless gun in enemy territory when neither of his companions know it, which seems like more of a betrayal of trust than team-player Max would go for.

And most critically, his sudden switch flip from barely able to stand up, to behaving perfectly normally throughout the rest of the climax, makes sense if he was actually (mostly? entirely?) faking it to a) give Gabriel a better look at the magnitude of what they were up against, and b) give himself the cover of being sick to allow him to swap out the bullets.

This is all based on recollection and not having actually reread that chapter since I had this thought, though.

sovay? Discuss? :D

Comments

[sovay]

sovay? Discuss?

I don't have a copy to hand and I haven't read the novel since our last discussion! Agreed that it is not at all flagged by the text if Max uses this moment of cover to change out the bullets, but also agreed that it seems uncharacteristically laissez-faire of Max to set off into a wildly dangerous situation without the ability to shoot people in the head with non-rubber bullets if necessary, e.g. if they threaten Gabriel. I don't remember the details of his incapacitation, but there's waves of high-test osteomancy rolling off the dragon and we have evidence from previous books that a sufficient density of magic confuses the senses of both human and canine hounds, so he might not have to feign all that much. Gabriel does think that Max looks very tired while holding him at gunpoint. Some of the exhaustion might be emotional, but it is entirely possible that he is holding Gabriel at gunpoint while also feeling like hell, in which case it is even more impressive that he hauled a head-shot unconscious Gabriel to the airport with the osteomantic equivalent of a migraine.

[sholio]

These are good points! I should reread those scenes and think about it. I definitely agree that even if he's exaggerating it, he's definitely not faking completely or perhaps even mostly - we saw earlier that he can get dizzy/sick when he's experiencing magical overload (such as the council scene in the first chapter of book 2). I could definitely see just as easily that his initial near-incapacitation is real and what's going on later is that he's powering through it for Gabriel's sake.

in which case it is even more impressive that he hauled a head-shot unconscious Gabriel to the airport with the osteomantic equivalent of a migraine.

I just would like to register my disappointment that Greg van Eekhout's ongoing allergy to writing more than half the action means that we completely missed all of this happening on-page.

[sovay]

I could definitely see just as easily that his initial near-incapacitation is real and what's going on later is that he's powering through it for Gabriel's sake.

Missing scene, request for, thank you.

I just would like to register my disappointment that Greg van Eekhout's ongoing allergy to writing more than half the action means that we completely missed all of this happening on-page.

Amen.

[sholio]

Missing scene, request for, thank you.

Enthusiastically noted for future reference.

At least if we missed nearly all the aftermath *and* most of the in-between, we did get to see that absolutely amazing moment with Gabriel throwing himself over Max to protect him from a dragon who could have crushed them both out of existence without even noticing.

[sovay]

Enthusiastically noted for future reference.

Yay.

we did get to see that absolutely amazing moment with Gabriel throwing himself over Max to protect him from a dragon who could have crushed them both out of existence without even noticing.

That was indeed amazing and I still appreciate it.

[rachelmanija]

Did you write it???

[sholio]

I have not - alas! But it's definitely somewhere in the back of my mind, especially now that I have managed to grow the incredibly tiny Gabriel and Max fandom by one (1) more person.

[rachelmanija]

That makes sense. I also totally missed it and assumed the author and editor had forgotten about it like they forgot about Daniel having unknowingly magically whammied his friend for years and years.