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** In addition, despite his struggles with his wolf side, Adam goes out of his way to treat Mercy with respect and consideration. Even after Adam identifies Mercy as a potential mate as well as being a Coyote in his territory, he grants her complete autonomy in regards to the pack, and allows their romantic relationship to develop at a pace comfortable for her, to the point of undermining his own pack authority. Despite werewolf culture about women, Adam only uses possessive language in regards to Mercy once he realizes it's what she needs to feel included and wanted, and once she's comfortable enough with him to understand his meaning. Adam makes a conscious effort to suppress his Alpha-ness around Mercy, and only uses it on her when he has no other choice- such as with her shattered arm. He listens to her feelings and opinions, like when he vowed to let her call the dating shots to assuage her fear of being controlled, and even when he gives her orders on pack authority he is sure to explain why, then isn't upset when she inevitably disobeys. Even when the wolf comes to the surface and he snaps demands, Adam often adds a "please" onto the end, essentially turning an order into a request and cluing Mercy in that he's not in complete control over his actions. Sure, Adam's control freak nature and temper are character flaws, and he does make mistakes, but I wouldn't go so far as to call him abusive.
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*** It's explicitly stated that Bran has been controlling the amount of information released to the public regarding werewolves to make them seem nicer and less dangerous than they really are. Pack Magic and the way dominance works in packs are definitely things that wouldn't be mentioned.
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** This troper agrees, they probably didn't let to much information slip out in the big outting; instead they just stated 'we change shape, we can control it, its a magical thing, deal..'
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** This troper agrees, they probably didn't let to much information slip out in the big outting; instead they just stated 'we change shape, we can control it, its a magical thing, deal..''
* Why on earth is Mercy suddenly at odds with Stefan again in ''Frost Burned''?. She hesitates to call him in a very dire situation where she literally has no other allies left to contact, and he's all of a sudden on her 'not sure if friend/ally' list even though the last time we checked they were perfectly amicable and had been supporting each other through some difficult times. There's no real explanation, only vague implications he's been more vampire-y lately. Nothing specific. Only explanation I can think of is Stefan having tried to distance himself from Mercy on purpose due to the blood bond thing, which Mercy as the first person narrator would be unaware of, but the whole thing is still bizarrely handled.
* Why on earth is Mercy suddenly at odds with Stefan again in ''Frost Burned''?. She hesitates to call him in a very dire situation where she literally has no other allies left to contact, and he's all of a sudden on her 'not sure if friend/ally' list even though the last time we checked they were perfectly amicable and had been supporting each other through some difficult times. There's no real explanation, only vague implications he's been more vampire-y lately. Nothing specific. Only explanation I can think of is Stefan having tried to distance himself from Mercy on purpose due to the blood bond thing, which Mercy as the first person narrator would be unaware of, but the whole thing is still bizarrely handled.
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** Mercy's assault aside, the prevalence of rape that we see in werewolf society struck me as a pointed commentary on the problematic relationship between two feminist fairy tales: patriarchy and rape culture. The female werewolves lack both the numbers and physical capability to demand social equality, and in a culture that encourages and enforces hierarchy through dominance and aggression, it's not surprising the violence is taken out on them. The problem is likely exacerbated by the fact that the women are completely objectified (Honey literally states that alpha's have an unchallenged right to unmated females as they please) and by the reality that many of the male leaders were raised in time periods where women as property was an acceptable cultural standard. The lesson I read was less "use rape for drama" and more "these conditions promote sexual violence."
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** Mercy's assault aside, the prevalence of rape that we see in werewolf society struck me as a pointed commentary on the problematic relationship between two feminist fairy tales: patriarchy and rape culture. The female werewolves lack both the numbers and physical capability to demand social equality, and in a culture that encourages and enforces hierarchy through dominance and aggression, it's not surprising the violence is taken out on them. The problem is likely exacerbated by the fact that the women are completely objectified (Honey literally states that alpha's have an unchallenged right to unmated females as they please) and by the reality that many of the male leaders were raised in time periods where women as property was an acceptable cultural standard. The lesson I read was less "use rape for drama" and more "these conditions promote sexual violence."
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** Mercy's assault aside, the prevalence of rape that we see in werewolf society struck me as a pointed commentary on the problematic relationship between patriarchy and rape culture. The female werewolves lack both the numbers and physical capability to demand social equality, and in a culture that encourages and enforces hierarchy through dominance and aggression, it's not surprising the violence is taken out on them. The problem is likely exacerbated by the fact that the women are completely objectified (Honey literally states that alpha's have an unchallenged right to unmated females as they please) and by the reality that many of the male leaders were raised in time periods where women as property was an acceptable cultural standard. The lesson I read was less "use rape for drama" and more "these conditions promote sexual violence."
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** Mercy's assault aside, the prevalence of rape that we see in werewolf society struck me as a pointed commentary on the problematic relationship between two feminist fairy tales: patriarchy and rape culture. The female werewolves lack both the numbers and physical capability to demand social equality, and in a culture that encourages and enforces hierarchy through dominance and aggression, it's not surprising the violence is taken out on them. The problem is likely exacerbated by the fact that the women are completely objectified (Honey literally states that alpha's have an unchallenged right to unmated females as they please) and by the reality that many of the male leaders were raised in time periods where women as property was an acceptable cultural standard. The lesson I read was less "use rape for drama" and more "these conditions promote sexual violence."
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** While I'm sometimes conflicted about how it's portrayed in the story, the intent of Adam's behavior in book struck me as less intentionally abusive so much as reflective of the ongoing conflict of werewolf nature, the battle between the man's instincts and the wolf's. Adam the man might have wanted to pick up the phone, call the police, and file a report about the boys who attacked Jessie. Adam's wolf, on the other hand, saw a threat to his pack and wanted the kill. Two sets of instincts at war with each other, and both strong enough that outside intervention was needed to calm it down. It's made explictly clear in series that werewolves are NOT like natural wolves, that their nature is inherently more violent, aggressive, and oppressive. With Adam, you get a sense of how much being a werewolf really is a curse in Mercy's world, why he has such intense loathing for what he is and of what he's capable.
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** Mercy's assault aside, the prevalence of rape that we see in werewolf society struck me as a pointed commentary on the problematic relationship between patriarchy and rape culture. The female werewolves lack both the numbers and physical capability to demand social equality, and in a culture that encourages and enforces hierarchy through dominance and aggression, it's not surprising the violence is taken out on them. The problem is likely exacerbated by the fact that the women are completely objectified (Honey literally states that alpha's have an unchallenged right to unmated females as they please) and by the reality that many of the male leaders were raised in time periods where women as properly was an acceptable cultural standard. The lesson I read was less "use rape for drama" and more "these conditions promote sexual violence."
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** Mercy's assault aside, the prevalence of rape that we see in werewolf society struck me as a pointed commentary on the problematic relationship between patriarchy and rape culture. The female werewolves lack both the numbers and physical capability to demand social equality, and in a culture that encourages and enforces hierarchy through dominance and aggression, it's not surprising the violence is taken out on them. The problem is likely exacerbated by the fact that the women are completely objectified (Honey literally states that alpha's have an unchallenged right to unmated females as they please) and by the reality that many of the male leaders were raised in time periods where women as properly property was an acceptable cultural standard. The lesson I read was less "use rape for drama" and more "these conditions promote sexual violence."
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** The shift in perspective also supports the thematic intent of the work. The Mercy Thompson series is an individual's experience as she navigates a world filled with magic and monstrosities. The Alpha and Omega series is about complement, how two people from very different backgrounds use their unique strengths to take on the world.
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***Part of the problem with the first person narrative of the novels is that time lapses can only be viewed through Mercy's interpretation. While there are debatable issues regarding the treatment of Samuel's recovery, it's easy to forget that [[spoiler: there's an entire month that Mercy loses while under the thrall of the fairy queen. In that period, not only was he reunited with Ariana, somebody he cared for deeply from his past, but his father and the rest of the pack were there to stabilize him while they were looking for Mercy. There were hints that he was slowly coming around before that, but Ariana served as the tipping point for him coming back to himself.]] This being said, I think it was wise of Patricia Biggs to include backstory on [[spoiler: Ariana]] and Samuel in ''Shifting Shadows'' because it further develops the reason why their reunion was so meaningful - [[spoiler: with her, he found not only love again but his ''humanity.'']]
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**Mercy's assault aside, the prevalence of rape that we see in werewolf society struck me as a pointed commentary on the problematic relationship between patriarchy and rape culture. The female werewolves lack both the numbers and physical capability to demand social equality, and in a culture that encourages and enforces hierarchy through dominance and aggression, it's not surprising the violence is taken out on them. The problem is likely exacerbated by the fact that the women are completely objectified (Honey literally states that alpha's have an unchallenged right to unmated females as they please) and by the reality that many of the male leaders were raised in time periods where women as properly was an acceptable cultural standard. The lesson I read was less "use rape for drama" and more "these conditions promote sexual violence."
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*** ''and yes while he is abusive he is also truthfully caring and loving and a good father figure also.'' Aren't those two things mutually exclusive?
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** At a book signing with the author in the Tri-Cities for the release of ''River Marked'', someone asked if Stefan would be getting his own book. Ms. Briggs said no because vampires are damned and she didn't want to spend more than a short story in the mindset of a damned soul. How Stefan knows this, I'm not sure, nor do I know the in-universe explanation - but Word of God is that all vampires are literally damned to hell. My best guess would be that it has something to do with parasitically living off humans, either murdering them or changing them too, but I don't think it's been spelled out.
