I like the way Boney presents Sarvoi's character through word choice. He doesn't laugh or giggle or chuckle, he "titters", which is certainly a choice. Combine that with his "glee" and it gives me the mental image of a near-childlike wonder that seems almost out of place from this wise old professor, but perhaps that contrast is the intention here. He is not what you'd expect, exactly, and he is the sort of Academic who doesn't seem stuck on his ways. He is fully and completely willing to understand other perspectives, and that is greatly reassuring.
Like, Sarvoi could have been a condescending prick here, but he doesn't give me that energy. He doesn't give me the air of superiority that other depictions of Elves so often provide, and that's comforting. This is just a good skill for a teacher to have, because the last thing you want is for you to get the feeling that your teacher looks down on you. There is no way you'll listen to the words of an educator if you feel they don't respect you.
The Hoethian school seeks to understand magic, the Hekartian school seeks to enjoy magic. The Hoethian school is very prone to that sort of 'there's only one right answer and it's my one' attitude, wheras Hekartians are more 'YKINMKBYKIOK' about different approaches.
I think this is a very nice ending to this section. Mathilde likes being who she is, and that's what matters. Sarvoi perfectly understands that. It really brings to mind the kind of discussion I'd have with a teacher about a learning disability that I have (ADHD) and them being understanding, although I'm not entirely sure I feel comfortable comparing the human method of casting spells to ADHD. It's just the way I resonate with this conversation from personal experience, not an actual attempt at asserting allegory.
A related thought I had but wasn't able to work into the conversation is that of something like Buridan's Ass - I could very easily see someone paralysed by indecision if forced to choose one and only one Wind with which to permanently bind themselves and in doing cut themselves off from the other seven, and I think this is how the average Elven magic-user would react to a thought experiment where they, like humans, were forced to choose. (I suspect that this is what was up with Volans before Teclis came along and made the decision for him.) But to humans, the choice is simple: pick one or you get none. So they pick, often arbitrarily, and do their best with whatever they end up with, because even the worst choice is better than no choice.
It's easy to make parallels between this and coming to terms with a disability. Lingering on what life might have been like if one had been 'healthy' gets in the way of actually doing what you can with the options you have. It was a long road for me to get to the point where I focus on living the life that's available to me instead of being so preoccupied with what might have been that I ignored what could still be.
Also, I've noticed that Elves keep using this phrase: "There are those that could make that argument". First it was Galenstra now it's Sarvoi. I'm starting to believe it's standard Elf speech for "I may not believe this, or at least I want to make sure that you think I may not believe this, but other people could make this statement and it would harm the poltiical structure so it has to be taken into consideration". Dwarves could be opaque at times, but never like this. It will take some getting used to.
It's a symptom of the sort of postmodernist political climate where it is the norm for the beliefs that one claims to have to be adopted and discarded based on political expediency. Instead of knowing and being able to work around the beliefs of those around them, they need to be aware of all the beliefs that any of them could claim to have if it serves their purpose. The Dwarves reject it and humans have yet to reach it, but the Elves are a bit more politically 'advanced', and in this case there are those that could make the argument that it's to their detriment.
The Sea Hag comes to mind.
Does she?
I knew of the names Norvard and Dorogo but not Srebrograd, not that I know what that means.
'Silver City'. As far as I know Praag doesn't have a canonical pre-Kislevite name, or perhaps Praag is the original name, so I translated its nickname.
So I need some clarification here. Tato here is referring to a slavic word? Or a spanish one? Because I found one for each. Tato seems to be an informal version of Hermano, which means brother/sister. Tato also seems to mean mother in Ukrainian?
Google told me it's the equivalent of 'dad' in a few Slavic languages.
I've always wondered about the phrasing when we first met Zlata where her "clothing seemed to fit a Tilean summer more than a Kislevite Winter", and I was wondering if perhaps she might be Estalian/Tilean rather than Kislevite, but I'm really not sure if I'm just reading too much into this.
Many Ice Witches find it easy to shrug off the cold, and some of the younger ones use this to dress for summer in the middle of winter so they can show a bit of leg when all the other girls are wrapped up from head to toe.
Mathilde has been regularly doing this thing lately, where she tries to spin any incoming situation that might conflict a person or make them feel bad by presenting a scenario that would perhaps cheer up this specific person using logic and reason. It's kind of sweet that Mathilde takes the opportunity to try to cheer people up, but it doesn't always work that way. Particularly if she doesn't fully understand the source of a person's contemplations. At times, it just falls flat, like trying to present the realpolitiks of the Karagril situation to Belegar in a way that would sooth his ego and him refusing to bite. He didn't want to lie to himself, so her efforts kind of fell flat there.
It's a problem a lot of people with more book smarts than people smarts grapple with. "I have spotted a clever solution to a problem you are having!" is not always welcome when a situation calls for commiseration and maybe a hug instead, but the urge to share it can be powerful.
I never noticed that either. I think that might be a coincidence on Boney's part that he noticed and took the time to point out in-universe.
I think it is, but it's possible I named her that on purpose because I thought it was funny and then forgot I did it. My semantic memory is very good but my episodic memory is a shitshow.