Vorkosigan Readthrough: The Warrior's Apprentice

[extrapenguin]

Funnier than I remembered!

• At the start, the reason for forsaking the "Vor-" at the start of the names is to make the castes equal in the Emperor's service now, stated to be part of Aral's reforms.


• What were the 2nd and 3rd Cetagandan wars? #3 happened during the Regency and #2 before, but do we know anything else?


• Betans "clip their children's tubes" at age 12


• oh, poor Miles, getting pitied and apologised to, wanting to fix that


• Mental Health Board: rather nefarious


• Oh, Miles, the whole General Fleet Inspection bit was so hilarious (as were a lot of the other Miles-as-Naismith bits)


• "Vorthalia the Bold demanding a whole-life policy from his Emperor at sword's point"


• Lead-lined rubber hoses? What else do the Barrayaran Regs hide within?


• Such an intriguing pile of ragtag recruits from on-planet. Interesting. I wonder how they all got there?


• Oof, Elena, having everything hid from her for her whole life only to have it all come crashing down.


• "personal hygiene and absence of head-lice" is an intriguing glimpse into the role of the Barrayaran Baba

Next up, "Mountains of Mourning", discussion on the 9th of July.

Comments

[elf]

Sorry this is so delayed - I'd meant to read through it again before now, but work caught up with me.

Warrior's Apprentice is possibly my favorite in the series. Certainly it's the one that sticks with me most; Bothari's my favorite character and this is the only book that really shows him off.

Among my Bothari headcanons: When Aral told him to treat Cordelia's orders as his own, which were in proxy for the emperor, and never rescinded that order... he took that to his grave. He always considered Cordelia's orders as coming directly from the emperor (or more likely, from God), since of course Aral never specifically countermanded that order.

It gave him a touchpoint he'd never had - someone he could trust not to think of him as stupid or expendable, and to use his skills, which were admittedly mostly about killing people, with honor. It meant the world to him that she was not only willing to support him - she did that for everyone she could reach - but to trust him with important jobs: rescuing and then guarding Miles.

***

Through most of the book, Bothari was Miles' guardian. He even paid the handling fee at the docks, just before takeoff--something a babysitter does when the kid's over-extended his allowance on a large project, knowing that the parents will pay him back if the plans fall through.

That changed when the Oseran mercs tried to take Elena, and Elena called Miles "my lord" instead of his given name. Miles shifted from "heir on vacation involved in harebrained shenanigans" to "commanding officer" - picking his moment and telling Bothari when to attack.

That was the tipping point, for me. That's when Miles changed from ward to liege-lord for Bothari - and Bothari had completed his obligation to Cordelia (and Aral, but that's secondary in his mind) by successfully shepherding Miles to adulthood.

The moment when Miles stood up to the mercs and insisted that they could not take Elena instead of Arde, he acknowledged that this wasn't a game he could win by complying with authority, which he'd done up until that point. The moment he told Bothari to attack - having assessed the dangers as well as he could - he became Vor.

He felt the change even if he never consciously thought it; he would never have sworn in Baz before that day. He finally had a context for all of the military history and tactics and political structure he'd grown up in, and a way to make that training and education work for outsiders like him ("mutant"), Elena (girl with combat training), Bothari (bastard with brain damage), Baz (deserter with regrets) and Arde (non-Barrayaran with essential skills, who needed his protection).

He didn't realize it at the time, may never have consciously noticed, but the Dendarii Mercenaries became real at the point when he said, "Now, Sergeant!"

And Bothari was done with babysitting. He got several days of gleeful pseudo-military action (well, as gleeful as Bothari gets, which mostly meant reveling in carefully-directed sadism), while trying to remind Miles that being outnumbered five to one is not a tactical advantage, and there's a reason that sowing confusion on the battlefield, while often useful, has never been any army's main strategy.

This is the book that establishes Miles' approach to complications as "double down: just keep raising the stakes and keep everything moving until the other side folds."

And in that mess, Elena grew up too, and Bothari's careful controls started to break down; all his Barrayaran ideals and notions of women clashed hard with Elena's interest in (1) self-determination and (2) a guy he considered beneath her.

And that's when he started to talk to Miles about dying - because he knew, some part of him, that his job was done. He'd successfully guarded Miles and Elena both to adulthood, and they were going to make choices he couldn't understand, couldn't condone, and he knew that it was right for children to grow up and make those choices, but he still couldn't support them. So he confirmed with Miles, in the only language he could, that Miles would make sure Elena's future wouldn't be damaged by Bothari's low origins or troubled history, and that his place in the Vorkosigan graveyard was assured.

And after that...

Miles played Admiral with a ridiculously growing fleet, backed by the illusion of an external existence, Elena continued to flourish, and Bothari got called out by his past.

And allowed her to execute him, because he owed that to her, and because he'd completed his obligations to both child and liege - both were adult; both were as safe as one gets in a military setting; both had shown the skills and luck needed to survive, and more, to thrive.

They didn't need him anymore - and he was free to give the one thing he could offer the woman he had wronged most: his life.

[extrapenguin]

Damn is this an excellent piece of Bothari meta. I am in awe. I wish I could say something more than "this", but alas, I can only agree.

I'd actually suggest crossposting this to Tumblr, since I really think more people should see this.

(Also, your icon is nice.)

[elf]

I wouldn't mind crossposting; my tumblr has almost no followers and I haven't kept up with anything there. I also wouldn't mind cleaning it up a bit and posting it at AO3.

[extrapenguin]

If you tag it with "vorkosigan saga", people should be able to see it. And do post it to AO3, too!