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Post by devilinthedetails on Oct 21, 2020 11:08:58 GMT 10
Title: Never Surrender
Rating: PG
Word Count: 29
Summary: Jasson warns his son to never surrender.
Notes: Part V of my Jasson the Conqueror series.
Never Surrender
“You must never surrender an inch of this soil or Tusaine will take a mile,” Jasson warned Roald, clutching silt from the Drell’s flowing bank between a mailed fist.
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Post by Seek on Oct 22, 2020 3:26:23 GMT 10
I enjoyed this piece! I also feel very divided about Jasson here, because he wasn't exactly wrong - Tusaine saw an opportunity to take the Drell (but again, it might be less because of a perception of Roald's weakness, though that's certainly how the book hints at it, and more aggressive domestic politics within Tusaine).)
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Post by devilinthedetails on Oct 22, 2020 5:30:47 GMT 10
Seek, thank you so much for commenting! I'm so happy that you enjoyed this piece so much. I can understand having a sort of divided feeling about Jasson here, because I do think that once the Drell was claimed entirely by Tortall, Tusaine would always be sniffing out any weakness on Tortall's part to look for an opening to reclaim it. With Roald, I do think that Tusaine might have viewed Roald as weak in some way because he didn't go to war and make conquests like his father and it might also have been that Tusaine might have been really focusing on training their young men as a result of all the losses they suffered during Jasson's reign. The Tusaine might have felt a great drive to reconquer their land and really tried to rebuild their strength, while Roald being more of a peacemaker could be misconstrued as being weak. The older I get the more I think Roald just really wanted to give as much of an opportunity for a peaceful resolution to the conflict as possible and that he was trying to take as much of a position of measured strength as he could. He had to gather and an army and march it to basically the border, because otherwise his nobles would feel that he wasn't doing his duty as king to protect them, but at the same time, he could be thinking that if Tusaine just wants access to the Drell for trade and travel, he could let Tusaine have one side of the river and Tortall the other with the river as a sort of natural border between the two lands. Like it wouldn't surprise me if those were terms that Roald had offered to the Tusaine ambassador during the visit before war broke out and that he was hoping if the war didn't become too intense that Tusaine might accept those terms before the violence and bloodshed became really bad. My theory at this point is that the Drell might have been Roald's sort of line in the sand where he would let Tusaine have one bank but if Tusaine crossed it to invade beyond that line, he was going to do whatever he had to do to defend Tortall. At least that is my speculation on the message he was trying to convey to Tusaine like: "Don't try to cross the river, and we can share it as a natural border. Try to cross it, and there will be blood." I do wish we got to understand more of Roald's thoughts about this, though.
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Post by Seek on Oct 23, 2020 0:17:23 GMT 10
Seek , thank you so much for commenting! I'm so happy that you enjoyed this piece so much. I can understand having a sort of divided feeling about Jasson here, because I do think that once the Drell was claimed entirely by Tortall, Tusaine would always be sniffing out any weakness on Tortall's part to look for an opening to reclaim it. With Roald, I do think that Tusaine might have viewed Roald as weak in some way because he didn't go to war and make conquests like his father and it might also have been that Tusaine might have been really focusing on training their young men as a result of all the losses they suffered during Jasson's reign. The Tusaine might have felt a great drive to reconquer their land and really tried to rebuild their strength, while Roald being more of a peacemaker could be misconstrued as being weak. The older I get the more I think Roald just really wanted to give as much of an opportunity for a peaceful resolution to the conflict as possible and that he was trying to take as much of a position of measured strength as he could. He had to gather and an army and march it to basically the border, because otherwise his nobles would feel that he wasn't doing his duty as king to protect them, but at the same time, he could be thinking that if Tusaine just wants access to the Drell for trade and travel, he could let Tusaine have one side of the river and Tortall the other with the river as a sort of natural border between the two lands. Like it wouldn't surprise me if those were terms that Roald had offered to the Tusaine ambassador during the visit before war broke out and that he was hoping if the war didn't become too intense that Tusaine might accept those terms before the violence and bloodshed became really bad. My theory at this point is that the Drell might have been Roald's sort of line in the sand where he would let Tusaine have one bank but if Tusaine crossed it to invade beyond that line, he was going to do whatever he had to do to defend Tortall. At least that is my speculation on the message he was trying to convey to Tusaine like: "Don't try to cross the river, and we can share it as a natural border. Try to cross it, and there will be blood." I do wish we got to understand more of Roald's thoughts about this, though. Agreed about understanding more of Roald's thoughts. We don't hear much from Alanna or Jon - there's mention the soldiers chafe at defending, which could be due to being young and hotblooded, and/or also a sense that the Drell is theirs (which probably is what happens when Tortall and Tusaine scrap over the Drell for ages.) I agree about the line in the sand being the Drell itself and it's not really a bad defending line to draw, being a natural border and all, with the downside being that the Tortallan soldiers are essentially forming a static defensive line which isn't really ideal.
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