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Being a Jesus, Murder, Pet Madmen, and Redemption
At the end of the first book, I had Cordelia pegged as a typical spunky Jesus type. Maybe a bit older and wiser than most, but nothing out of the ordinary. By the second book, however, she'd changed, and my opinion of her had changed even more.
Let's start with her most defining traits. The first thing I noticed about her was her ability to keep cool in a crisis, and her ability to maintain her sense of self and ideals and honor in situations where it would be all to easy to abandon it. Her Survey team has just been attacked by unexpected enemies and had to flee the planet. She's been captured by one of said enemies of notoriously dubious repute. And she still has the strength of will and balls to not only demand to be given the time to bury her dead man, but also demand that her brain-damaged man accompany them, rather than be left for dead. Even in extremity, Cordelia doesn't compromise her values.
Even when she is about to be raped by a madman, she retains her ideals and forgives him, because she sees the madman behind him as responsible. Jesus, right?
But then she's pushed pretty damn hard. She's facing Vordarian, the man who: convinced a twenty year old kid to attack her and her husband with poison gas when she's pregnant, causing the kid's death, almost causing her son's death, almost killing her in the medical proceedures needed to keep her son alive after that, permanently crippling her son; started a war in which her husband, her son, her just-born nephew, and the four year old Emperor would all have to die for him to win; just got a woman killed who Cordelia felt strongly for, who he thought himself in love with even as he tried to kill her son and otherwise never really saw as a person instead of a prize to be won, and had just finished proclaiming that he would keep fighting her until his death.
So she has her armsman kill him in cold blood, while he is unarmed and defenseless.
She proceeds to bring his head back in a shopping bag, and throw it on the table in the middle of negotiations between his forces and her husband's forces, and declare their stupid little war over.
Are these the acts of a Jesus, I ask? More to the point, is this the same woman who demanded that her braindamaged man be taken with them on a cross-country hike rather than be left for the dead?
Well, yes. The thing about Cordelia is that, while she is generally a nice, kind, generous woman, who will sacrifice a great deal to do the right thing, she is pretty damn dangerous when she has to be. And Bothari... releases both her most and least Jesusy aspects.
Bothari is COMPLICATED AS HELL. At one point in the series, he is described as a chameleon, taking on the qualities that the person in charge of him sees him as. Aral sees him as a good soldier, so for him he became one. Vorrutyer sees him as a mad torturer, so for him he became one. Piotr sees him as a dutiful armsman, so for him he became one.
At first, Cordelia was about the only person who didn't stick him in a role. She saw him as a madman who was about to rape her, saw the way that Vorrutyer had twisted him into his likeness, and... well, forgave him. Only Cordelia. And so Bothari discovered that maybe he had more free will than he thought, and slit Vorrutyer's throat as he was about to rape Cordelia.
And so Cordelia sees him as a hero, and so for Cordelia he becomes one.
...I'll do a separate essay on Bothari's role in the series later maybe. And what he shows about various characters and about Barrayar. But what's important in this context is what role he serves for Cordelia. I mean. What do you with a pet madman who follows you around like you're his only hope of redemption?
Well, you help him. And you ask him to do the things you can't stay sane and do yourself. Like, for example, killing a man in cold blood, no matter how much he deserves it.
Bothari, in essence, serves as Cordelia's scapegoat. He does the things that Cordelia CANNOT do and remain herself. Cordelia does not take killing lightly even when it isn't her doing it. If she ordered it, it's her responsibility and her burden to bear. But... by the time Vordarian is killed, Cordelia's used to bearing Bothari's burdens. She can handle his burdens, even if they're difficult. But for her to have killed Vordarian herself would have meant taking the burden of taking someone's life solely on her own shoulders. I think she could have handled that, but I think that it would have broken her more severely than it already did.
Essentially, Bothari lets Cordelia's dangerous side loose, without letting it cripple her. And Cordelia lets Bothari's good side loose. I don't know if Bothari's necessarily good for her, but I think that without him, she couldn't have accomplished half of what she did.
And in summary APP BOTHARI NEXT COUNSELOR ROUND.
At the end of the first book, I had Cordelia pegged as a typical spunky Jesus type. Maybe a bit older and wiser than most, but nothing out of the ordinary. By the second book, however, she'd changed, and my opinion of her had changed even more.
Let's start with her most defining traits. The first thing I noticed about her was her ability to keep cool in a crisis, and her ability to maintain her sense of self and ideals and honor in situations where it would be all to easy to abandon it. Her Survey team has just been attacked by unexpected enemies and had to flee the planet. She's been captured by one of said enemies of notoriously dubious repute. And she still has the strength of will and balls to not only demand to be given the time to bury her dead man, but also demand that her brain-damaged man accompany them, rather than be left for dead. Even in extremity, Cordelia doesn't compromise her values.
Even when she is about to be raped by a madman, she retains her ideals and forgives him, because she sees the madman behind him as responsible. Jesus, right?
But then she's pushed pretty damn hard. She's facing Vordarian, the man who: convinced a twenty year old kid to attack her and her husband with poison gas when she's pregnant, causing the kid's death, almost causing her son's death, almost killing her in the medical proceedures needed to keep her son alive after that, permanently crippling her son; started a war in which her husband, her son, her just-born nephew, and the four year old Emperor would all have to die for him to win; just got a woman killed who Cordelia felt strongly for, who he thought himself in love with even as he tried to kill her son and otherwise never really saw as a person instead of a prize to be won, and had just finished proclaiming that he would keep fighting her until his death.
So she has her armsman kill him in cold blood, while he is unarmed and defenseless.
She proceeds to bring his head back in a shopping bag, and throw it on the table in the middle of negotiations between his forces and her husband's forces, and declare their stupid little war over.
Are these the acts of a Jesus, I ask? More to the point, is this the same woman who demanded that her braindamaged man be taken with them on a cross-country hike rather than be left for the dead?
Well, yes. The thing about Cordelia is that, while she is generally a nice, kind, generous woman, who will sacrifice a great deal to do the right thing, she is pretty damn dangerous when she has to be. And Bothari... releases both her most and least Jesusy aspects.
Bothari is COMPLICATED AS HELL. At one point in the series, he is described as a chameleon, taking on the qualities that the person in charge of him sees him as. Aral sees him as a good soldier, so for him he became one. Vorrutyer sees him as a mad torturer, so for him he became one. Piotr sees him as a dutiful armsman, so for him he became one.
At first, Cordelia was about the only person who didn't stick him in a role. She saw him as a madman who was about to rape her, saw the way that Vorrutyer had twisted him into his likeness, and... well, forgave him. Only Cordelia. And so Bothari discovered that maybe he had more free will than he thought, and slit Vorrutyer's throat as he was about to rape Cordelia.
And so Cordelia sees him as a hero, and so for Cordelia he becomes one.
...I'll do a separate essay on Bothari's role in the series later maybe. And what he shows about various characters and about Barrayar. But what's important in this context is what role he serves for Cordelia. I mean. What do you with a pet madman who follows you around like you're his only hope of redemption?
Well, you help him. And you ask him to do the things you can't stay sane and do yourself. Like, for example, killing a man in cold blood, no matter how much he deserves it.
Bothari, in essence, serves as Cordelia's scapegoat. He does the things that Cordelia CANNOT do and remain herself. Cordelia does not take killing lightly even when it isn't her doing it. If she ordered it, it's her responsibility and her burden to bear. But... by the time Vordarian is killed, Cordelia's used to bearing Bothari's burdens. She can handle his burdens, even if they're difficult. But for her to have killed Vordarian herself would have meant taking the burden of taking someone's life solely on her own shoulders. I think she could have handled that, but I think that it would have broken her more severely than it already did.
Essentially, Bothari lets Cordelia's dangerous side loose, without letting it cripple her. And Cordelia lets Bothari's good side loose. I don't know if Bothari's necessarily good for her, but I think that without him, she couldn't have accomplished half of what she did.
And in summary APP BOTHARI NEXT COUNSELOR ROUND.