In the eleventh chapter of The Obelisk Gate<\/i>, Schaffa dreams. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Broken Earth<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For discussion of abuse, trauma, PTSD, and nonconsensual medical procedures<\/b><\/p>\n
Look, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t necessarily like<\/i> Schaffa, but what Jemisin has done with his character in this book is incredible. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not really a redemption narrative, or at least I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sense that it is heading in that direction. In part, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because of the complicated nature of his life being saved. As I had written about before, I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite figure out where Schaffa started, where he ended, and how much of his behavior was due to the being that now controls him. I think after the last chapter that I feel safe in stating that Earth saved him, and now I suspect that this<\/i> is the perversion mentioned during one of the memories in Schaffa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dreams. Were the Guardians meant to be used by the Earth? Was the Fulcrum created to keep the Guardians independent from Father Earth? Maybe? Now that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve typed that out, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not so sure about this theory, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something here, I KNOW IT.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Anyway, I think that until the very end of this chapter, everything<\/i> is Schaffa. This thing in his body only appears to push him in a certain direction, one that involves subjugating orogenes further. Which would mean that his changing feelings on his own complicity are<\/i> his own; he isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t being compelled to feel that way. Still, this dream sequence is horrifying and confusing as we jump from one memory to another, so I wanted to pick out a few details to discuss. Like the very first one! That image of Schaffa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s parents gave me an interesting detail: Schaffa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s father was most likely a feral orogene. So, Guardians are orogenes, then. Or at least they had the potential for it? And that operation\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwhatever the fuck it is\u00e2\u20ac\u201dtakes place at Warrant, and the implant is what allows Guardians to be who they are. They have extremely long lifespans, they can connect with orogenes, etc. I feel pretty sure about this one! But then this line:<\/p>\n (He remembers learning, around this time, that original purposes can be perverted easily.)\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n It haunts me! Because did this process have a different<\/i> purpose? Or did Guardians<\/i> have a different purpose? Who perverted it? WHAT DOES THIS MEAN<\/p>\n …because from this moment forth his own sessapinae will be repurposed, made sensitive to orogeny and not to the perturbations of the earth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Is that<\/i> the perversion? Is it a deliberate process to stop them from being orogenes? OH I FEEL LIKE I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M SO CLOSE TO FIGURING THIS OUT.<\/p>\n The Earth is indeed evil, and it is cruel, and Schaffa would protect them all from it, if he could.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n All right, maybe I need to truly start considering Earth as the true antagonist here. Because prior to this, I thought the phrase \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Evil Earth\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was just like… a colloquial term. But after the previous chapter, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to re-think this. What if Earth is<\/i> evil? Spiteful? Cruel? What if Earth never<\/i> wanted humans and has been trying to get rid of them the whole time? How can an Earth be evil<\/i>?<\/p>\n AND WHAT ABOUT LESHET. Or the fact that Guardians aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t supposed to have children? I guess that makes sense; those in power want to control breeding, right? We also know from prior clues that Guardians live a very long time, but Leshet… Schaffa was surprised to see her aging<\/i>. Does that just never happen? Nothing here suggested that Guardians are immortal, so do they just… die one day? What does that mean? Why was he tracking her? Why did he kill her? WHAT ELSE DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T I KNOW ABOUT THE GUARDIANS?<\/p>\n The chapter focuses on Nassun in the end, and we get confirmation that Schaffa has figured out that she is Syenite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s daughter. But there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a growth on his end that came after he nearly died. He is actively rethinking his complicity in all these systems. He is asking himself why he caused such immense pain in others, why he killed so many people, why all of this used to be normal<\/i> for him. I loved that unnerving moment when Nassun tells him she is never afraid of him, and he quietly counters it with, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Never again.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It seems like a real promise he is making, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s followed with this:<\/p>\n What happened before does not matter. That was a different Schaffa. He has another chance now. And if being less than himself means being less than the monster that he was, he cannot regret it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s right at this point that the thing controlling Schaffa awakens and sends a bolt of pain through him, which tells us that Schaffa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s thought was wrong<\/i> to it. It wants Schaffa to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153break\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Nassun, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why my theory is that this voice is Earth. If this is really a multi-pronged war, which side would want this type of cruelty? Only one of them truly makes sense. So Earth saved Schaffa and is trying to use him for… what? To what end?<\/p>\n NOTES<\/b><\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – You can now pre-order my second YA novel, Each of Us a Desert<\/i>, which will be released on September 15, 2020 from Tor Teen!<\/a> In the eleventh chapter of The Obelisk Gate, Schaffa dreams. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Broken Earth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569,574],"tags":[575,413],"class_list":["post-5261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-broken-earth","category-the-obelisk-gate","tag-mark-reads-the-obelisk-gate","tag-nk-jemisin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5261\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n– Not only that, but my very first pre-order campaign is now live for North American readers! If you submit proof of pre-order, you can get a limited edition print that comes with the book<\/a>.
\n<\/strong>– If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"