History Headscratchers / AnitaBlake

* What's up with Hamilton's continuous talk in interviews that she thinks of her characters as real people to the point almost buying them Christmas presents, mourning Philip's death as she would a real life friend's, ect.? I can see her saying something like, "I try to envision them reacting as an actual person would," when questioned on how she writes their personalities, but in some blogposts it seems as though she believes these Anita and Jean-Claude to be people in real life, and it's a little creepy.
** A lot of writers (and actors, too) treat their characters like real people. It's a way to keep them real on the page (or screen), make them seem less like mobile props just there to serve the story. A lot of authors have had moments where they wanted a story to go in a particular direction, only to realize the characters won't bend that way, and a lot of actors have moments where they realize that their character would never say or do something the story requires of them. Hamilton may take it up to eleven, but it's hardly uncommon.

* IJBM: Jean-Claude is {{Costume Porn}} guy. Every time he can, he's dressing as many people up like dolls as possible. It's clear that he likes high quality clothing and knows a lot about it. So why is the lace he picks out constantly referred to as "scratchy" or "not soft?" One of the marks of high quality lace is that it's soft to the touch and won't abrade skin. It's probably just poor research but it still bugs me.

** The fact that the soul disappears three days after death is proof that humans have an immortal soul? And you could pull a HarryDresden on the latter and say that the demons are [[AllergicToLove allergic to faith]].

* It just bugs me that I can't keep all of the (human/vampire/animal) (master/servant) triumvirates straight.
** If memory serves, as of book 15 there were four triumvirates (written here in vamp-necro-were order): (1) Jean-Claude - Anita - Richard; (2) Damien - Anita - Nathaniel; (3) Padma (the Beastmaster Council guy) - Carswell - Gideon; (4) (deceased) Sabin (the half-rotted vamp) - Dominic - Cassandra. Now master/servant relations... these are complicated indeed :)
* In ''Bullet,'' Anita mentions that the werelions are going to be bringing a couple of young werelions for her...young enough that she thinks they're virgins. Her thought on this is "I was ''so'' not going to be his first." This Troper is male, and understands that women do think differently on the whole subject of virginity than men do (for good reasons, as well as cultural conditioning) but---what would be her objection to being someone's first partner? Is she still ''that'' insecure about her charms, or her skills? Does she think that he'll be turned off to sex forever after one night in her arms? What goes on here? * puzzled*
** This troper can only guess because Anita's CharacterDerailment is ridiculous, but it could be because she finds it morally wrong to take the virginity of someone she's not in love with, though it's not like her moral compass points North any more. I like to think she didn't want to because he won't give her the hair-tearingly awesome sex she's apparently used to from every man in her one-way harem. But that's just me.

** Probably that, with as many lines as Anita has crossed where her personal morality is concerned, she wants to cling to ''some'' of them, such as not fucking some random guy who's never had sex before just because someone else wants it to happen. Also, because Laurell K. Hamilton is running out of thing for Anita to angst about.

** Yeah, keep in mind, this was pre-NIC Anita, who still behaved with a semblance of rationality, and pre-CharacterDerailment Jean-Claude, who was still the ManipulativeBastard we knew and [[strike:had PSL for]] loved.

* Anita's PowerCopying of abilities. Has it been said WHY she keeps stealing abilities from people? I mean, as far we know, she's specifically a BlackMagicianGirl necromancer. This was not only her greatest power but also her species for Christ's sake. Her gaining a vampire servant? Okaay, I chalked that up to rare, but hey she IS a necromancer, and What's His Face is dead. It seemed semi-logical. Draining the life out of a vampire? Technically, raising the dead requires her to put life/magic into corpses anyway so it was reasonable enough. Hell, as creepy as it was/is, her developing and feeding the ardeur through vampires (instead of [[strike:every man]] [[strike:everything breathing]] anyone) made sense even if it was weird on several levels. But healing folks through sex, calling jaguars, leopards, lions, tigers and men (oh my!) and effectively [[MindRape mind raping]] people? Where is that covered in necromancy and why has NO ONE ELSE in over FOUR MILLION YEARS figured out how to do all of those things and more? Besides the fact that she can now do practically everything under the sun and necromancy most definitely isn't everything under the sun (nor is it really [[BlackMagic under the sun]]), there's also her physical parameters. To my knowledge, Anita is Jean-Claude's human servant with three marks in her. While the final one will make her more or less immortal, shouldn't the other three have made her proof against pretty much ALL diseases including lycanthropy? Hell, if she gained the ability to call animals thanks to Richard and Jean-Claude, shouldn't she have been calling wolves, dogs, bears and other types of canines? Which brings me to something else that just occurred to me: if a necromancer's greatest power is over the dead, then why do people still refer to Anita as one? At this point, she's closer to a witch or enchantress.

** It's a ridiculous power, but as of ''Bullet'', it seems to be explained. If I understand correctly (1) Anita is an exceptionally powerful necromancer; (2) the vampires have said many times that you must never never bring a necromancer into a triumvirate or make one a human servant, or they will gain terrible powers; (3) part of that seems to be PowerCopying; (4) Anita's beast powers are a result of her PowerCopying the Master of Beasts, a super-vamp who has power over all weres. Apparently, his powers work about the same as hers.

** It wouldn't be in character at all. I was more commenting on how LKH's attempt to make Anita even more OP than she was has shifted her from 'Not Terribly Effective Hero" to ''NiceJobBreakingItHero''. She probably doesn't realise this.

* Ok, so back in ''The Killing Dance''. After spending the entire book berating Richard to give in to his beast and be as vicious as she is, he finally does it. Yes he got icky, smelly, nauseating shapeshifter goop all over her in the process. Alright, I can understand how that would gross a girl out. He unintentionally conveyed cannibalistic urges to her. Fine, I can understand how that would freak a girl out too. What this Troper can not understand is why if you're so freaked out, sickened, and repulsed by nauseating shapeshifter goop and unwanted cannibalistic urges, your very first impulse is to go run to a vampire and stuff his penis into your mouth. That's the first sexual act Anita performs for JC. Call me nutty, but that just never made a whole lot of sense to me. And to this day people still ''defend'' her, like somehow it was Richard's fault that Anita betrayed him and went to slobber down Jean-Claude's pole (amongst other things) after he finally did what she was constantly badgering him to do. Keep in mind, that Jean-Claude is for all practical intents and purposes a walking corpse. So she ran off to fellate cold, dead penis. Clearly she couldn't have been ''too'' sickened/traumatized/repulsed by the experience with Richard, could she? And then adding insult to injury, when Richard is very understandably is angry about her betrayal she has the nerve to point her gun at him and go into '[[AxCrazy I'm a stone cold killer and I'll even kill you and sleep like a baby afterwards]]' mode on him. For mercy's sake, you just finished blowing (amongst other things) another man, and you can't even let Richard vent a little on the furniture? WhatTheHellHero? It used to upset me, but after Richard's epic CharacterDerailment, it doesn't even matter anymore.

*** If memory serves, they discuss the relative quickness in ''Skin Trade''. It's like this: most vampires are a bit faster than humans, but not by that much; they cheat by using mind tricks to appear moving at blink-speed. Weres are quite a bit faster. The most powerful weres (and vamps of a certain almost extinct lineage; practically just Wicked and Truth remain) can achieve blink-speed. So, if I understand correctly, a trained human can shoot vamps and (with luck) common-level weres. It's the high-level weres that could "blink" behind the shooter in the time needed for the hammer to fall; but I bet Edward could somehow surprise even them :)

** The series is awful, but that particular quirk is over-justified, if anything. Sleeping with Anita is a power up for supernaturals, plus she has the magic power of making people fall in love with her, plus she has large breasts. Yes, she's a pain in the rear, but I could see a bunch of people deciding to hold their nose and go for it and/or being sucked into her magic. (In the first few books, Jean Claude is running a game on her at least at first, and Richard, well, who can explain love?).

** I think this is another firm case of YMMV--in the novels preceding ''Narcissus in Chains'', I could understand Anita's appeal. She's funny (to me, at least, but then again I like DeadpanSnarker characters), beautiful (if the comic books are any indication), and tough as nails. It makes sense that Jean Claude likes her because he's got the "you're the only woman who ever resisted me angle", but when he actually ''does'' fall in love with her...I can see what you're saying. I can tell you why Richard loves Anita--because they are actually compatible since they like many of the same things and he can put up with her hot temper--but not Jean Claude. Then again, I think he said at some point that he loves her because of how flawed she is and BOY does that make sense because she certainly has problems. After Narcissus in Chains...yeah, there is no explanation for why all these people love Anita. That is indeed Hamilton using her AuthorAvatar to heal whatever personal problems she has, which is probably many considering what a twatwaffle she (allegedly) is.
* IJBM that in one of the post-Shark-Jumping novels, Jean Claude has to ask Anita for permission to have sex with Asher. Let me say that again: ''permission''. Mind you, this is a 400-year-old vampire asking permission to sleep with someone he has been in love with for longer than Anita has been alive. Now, granted, it makes sense that he would have a discussion with her about taking another lover because that's what a polygamous couple ''should'' be doing--being honest. But permission? I find that incredibly insulting for Jean Claude, even if he himself doesn't see it that way. I hate that he stopped being a ManipulativeBastard and turned into Anita's booty-on-the-side when she's not boinking every other thing with a penis--[[spoiler: and as of ''Bullet'', she has now included vaginas as well.]] Jean Claude is a grown damn vampire and he should not have had to grovel at her feet to ask to be in a relationship that existed way before her sarcastic ass came in the picture. And furthermore, it's ridiculous considering Anita has so many partners at this point in the series that I literally cannot name them all and Jean Claude doesn't even sleep around so taking Asher to bed with him is far more reasonable than what Anita does on a daily (and sometimes, hourly) basis.
** This Troper misread the above spoiler to mean "Anita has grown extra vaginas to accommodate all her lovers." The kicker was that this didn't even seem like an unlikely or ridiculous development in light of all the other mad sexy powers happening in this series.

* One thing that's bothered me is, wouldn't Anita be having a lot less problems with the ardeur if she would just let Jean-Claude feed the ardeur properly on someone other then her? They've made really clear that if any member of the triumvirate gets power, they all do, and that one member can "feed" to support the other members. I know Jean-Claude can feed the ardeur from a distance at the strip club, but that's not supposed to be much of a feeding. Are all of Anita's problems caused by her forcing Jean-Claude to basically be monogamous?
** There's a lot she could do to solve her problems, but it wouldn't feed Hamilton's borderline-rape fetish and enable Anita's "It's not really my fault, I'm not a slut, I HAD to fuck him!" justifications. So Anita just complains and never actually does anything because it's exactly how both she and her writer actually want things.
* [dr] Have you ever noticed that when Anita is travelling around alone, nobody who is outside the list of main characters, except for bad guys notice her? So she is walking around and everybody SHOULD know her face, but most do not stop and watch her walk by. It really gets on my nerves because she is a big-shot celebrity and nobody really gives her the attention she deserves...and I guess people noticing her is overshadowed by "The author over-amplifying the details of characters". So nobody stops and stares at her, while she is staring at somebody else to see every damn detail. This includes the Harlequin, where they are at the theatre. Nobody crowds her. And after the movie, a couple come to Anita and Nathaniel, but do not notice Anita as Marshal Anita Blake, just some girl.

* So in this universe where dozens of people can reanimate the dead...why has there never been mention of amazing unsolved cases being overturned? In cases where there are bodies, wouldn't it be a great idea to have the dead come back and reveal what happened to bring peace to their loved ones? Granted, the age of the corpse determines if it can be used, but Anita never once mentions this being done and I find that hard to believe. Then again, if it doesn't have to do with her vagina, she's probably not interested in it.

** Because's it's the only feature of Anita's that Hamilton will allow to indicate Hispanic heritage. It has to be superspeshul, otherwise, someone might mistake Anita for "white bread."

** The series is in the habit of making a big deal out of Anita's physical attributes when they are in fact unremarkable. People are always commenting on how tiny she is when in fact she is stated numerous times to be 5'3". That's only an inch shorter than average for a woman. But we have to make her sound superspeshul and exotic.

* So Richard got added because Anita was "becoming too attracted" to Jean-Claude, who LKH didn't like much, at the time. Richard's character got raped because he was based on LKH's ex, who she hates now. She went with Jean-Claude as the "main" pairing for Anita because of reasons. What I want to know is, if you create a character whose species is necromancer, who is inherently attracted to the dead, and you create an attractive, sex-god of a vampire...why the fuck are you surprised when she's attracted to him?! Especially if you're as unhealthily invested in your characters as LKH seems to be. So fucking much of this could all have been avoided if LKH had just, IDK, killed Jean-Claude off while she still hated him. Or just accepted that Anita would be attracted to him, and went with that. Also? What happened to Nathanial being the submissive to end all submissives?

* As mentioned in the main page under HollywoodLaw, the various vampires and werewolves and other supernatural creatures (except for demons) are all supposed to be taxpaying US citizens,yet Jean-Claude regularly has people summoned to his presence by the expedience of sending a heavily armed thug (Anita) or a powerful vampire (Asher) to retrieve them, often against their will. That's kidnapping. But no one ever thinks to call the cops afterward. Likewise, the entire idea that a vampire or werewolf has to get "permission" from the local vampire lord or werewolf pack leader before moving into a new territory is also a violation of civil rights. One can imagine a vampire or werewolf who is new to the Saint Louis area, and who has been harassed and/or threatened because they didn't get approval first suing Jean-Claude or Richard Zeeman for their entire net worth because of civil rights violations. Why is this never brought up?

* Anita's PowerCopying of abilities. Has it been said WHY she keeps stealing abilities from people? I mean, as far we know, she's specifically a BlackMagicianGirl necromancer. This was not only her greatest power but also her species for Christ's sake. Her gaining a vampire servant? Okaay, I chalked that up to rare, but hey she IS a necromancer, and What's His Face is dead. It seemed semi-logical. Draining the life out of a vampire? Technically, raising the dead requires her to put life/magic into corpses anyway so it was reasonable enough. Hell, as creepy as it was/is, her developing and feeding the ardeur through vampires (instead of [[strike:every man]] [[strike:everything breathing]] {{anything that moves}}) made sense even if it was weird on several levels. But healing folks through sex, calling jaguars, leopards, lions, tigers and men (oh my!) and effectively [[MindRape mind raping]] people? Where is that covered in necromancy and why has NO ONE ELSE in over FOUR MILLION YEARS figured out how to do all of those things and more? Besides the fact that she can now do practically everything under the sun and necromancy most definitely isn't everything under the sun (nor is it really [[BlackMagic under the sun]]), there's also her physical parameters. To my knowledge, Anita is Jean-Claude's human servant with three marks in her. While the final one will make her more or less immortal, shouldn't the other three have made her proof against pretty much ALL diseases including lycanthropy? Hell, if she gained the ability to call animals thanks to Richard and Jean-Claude, shouldn't she have been calling wolves, dogs, bears and other types of canines? Which brings me to something else that just occurred to me: if a necromancer's greatest power is over the dead, then why do people still refer to Anita as one? At this point, she's closer to a witch or enchantress.

** Hamilton apparently likes her men as they appear on the covers of romance novels, and isn't going to let a little thing like realism get in her way. ... Normally that last bit wouldn't come out so snarky, but y'know... [[AcceptableTargets it's Laurell K. Hamilton]].

** To be fair, lycanthropes and vampires seem to operate similar to crime syndicates or gangs, with the Master of the City/Pack leader acting as the godfather. Members pay dues to the group in exchange for protection. As for no one suing them in civil court, well... it has been stated multiple times that a lot of shifters and vampires are afraid that their rights will get taken away again. Just think about IRL protections for trans-people being passed then reversed! You can bet groups like Humans First are campaigning like crazy to get the rights of preternatural creatures stripped away! Plus even though it is illegal to discriminate against shifters on paper, you can bet your ass that if they are outed many employers will find an excuse to fire them. So pretty much all of them have valid reasons to keep their heads down and play nice with the establishment.

** It's both a MoralEventHorizon on Anita's part and ValuesDissonance. The different kinds of were groups don't function like human society. Democracy is nice but vampires and weres can be controlled by anyone more powerful. That werelion pride was functionally useless, requiring protection just to keep from being taken over by other werelions. In a world where AsskickingEqualsAuthority, they sucked. Anita had the protection removed after the Rex had betrayed her, leaving her and most of the vampires to die rather than cheat on his wife. That's another problem as monogamy isn't something that lions have. If anyone else has been leader of that werelion pride they likely would have a harem of woman, like real lion prides. Basically the guy was TooDumbToLive as a werelion.

** Because they're human, too. It'd be the same reason Nikolaos couldn't control the wererats. Also, courtesy of Wiki/TheOtherWiki, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_Wolf#Social_structure "While most breeding pairs are monogamous, there are exceptions."]]