Teres

Though just why they would do so is beyond me.

SCSF: Because it is their forest, and they appreciate space in it? It sounds quite natural to me.

And what, NOBODY has ever sneaked into the "evil forest" to see it for themselves? Douglass also seems to have forgotten that the forbidden is alluring. One of the best ways to ensure at least a few people will go out of their way to enter an area is to put up signs saying ABSOLUTELY DO NOT ENTER. Even if you get specific by adding that there's toxic waste or whatever, they're going to want to see it for themselves because now you've made them curious.

A thousand years have passed, too, so I would expect some people have gone in, at least.

Case in point, Azhure isn't curious. As usual it's all about how OMG BEAUTIFUL it is. Are you keeping a count for people and other things being constantly called "beautiful"? Because boy would those numbers be through the roof.

Well, I am not, precisely for that reason. Maybe it is something for the redux, but not this time yet.

How indeed. Douglass constantly writes about a) Music and b) The beauty of nature, yet gets the most basic shit wrong on both subjects, constantly. So how the hell are you supposed to have a story with major themes centred around something the author keeps misrepresenting?

Add the racism plot to that, too. It truly does undercut what this story is supposed to be about, and that is the reason I keep complaining about it.

And where the fuck are the magpies? Those live in farmed areas and have lovely songs.

Well, if you mean these:

[Caption: Male Australian Magpie]

I cannot fault her for not including them, since she clearly wanted a Europe-type fantasy setting.

If you mean these:

[Caption: Eurasian Magpie]

she should certainly have mentioned those, along with jackdaws (and given some more mentions to crows).

My guess would be that like me up until a minute ago, she didn't know winterberries were an actual plant and thought she'd just made the name up. They aren't native to Australia, where we both hail from. Or at least not to my knowledge.

Well, it is not native to my area either, and I did not know they were a thing until I read this chapter for the first time, but here I am able to tell a bit about them. She presumably had access to dictionaries (which might just have "winterberry" in them) or to an encyclopedia, so she could have known about it. I would not mind that much, but if she wants to have nature as a theme, she ought to resarch it.

Either way... if she did not know that "winterberry" was an actual plant, that only makes this plant not having berries when winter nears worse. If she just transplanted an existing name, she might not have thought about what kind of plant it was, at least.

Also where the fuck are they getting clothes like this when they don't have the means to weave fabric, and especially not in such an elaborate manner?

My first answer would be "the Icarii"... Really, this and the teacup almost make me think that there are settled Avar who produce these things for the other Avar.

And why are they "anti violence" yet wearing LEATHER? It is NEVER explained why they're so rabidly against violence of any kind yet still completely fine with killing animals and even raising them to be killed.

Well, I guess that the rule might be "violence against humanoids is wrong"? That would be consistent, but once again, it needs to be clear, not vaguely implied.

And Raum doesn't HAVE a tunic any more. He was noted to be naked in his cell for some damn reason and I don't recall any mention of him getting his clothes back so he should still be naked.

I suppose this is more omniscient, then. And Azhure did give him a cloak she had hidden away, so he is presumably wearing that now.

Oh yes, Barsarbe does get mistreated later, does she not?

Probably because she doesn't act like she's that old. Expect to see a lot of really childish, whiny behaviour from her going forward.

Until now, she has not seemed so young, though, so I am still wondering...

Well... all of that will luckily be for someone else, as after chapter 38, I will only be back in The Serpent Bride.

Oh, I see now why the comment was messed up: the angle brackets do not work well with the <q> tag. I suppose I will use something else, then.