Legions of Fire, Book II: Armies of Light and Dark - Chapters 11-17

[ruuger]

This is the discussion post for chapters 11-17 of Peter David's Legions of Fire, Book II: Armies of Light and Dark. Spoilers for the whole of the series, including the spin-offs and tie-ins, are allowed here so newbies beware.

Next week, we'll be discussing chapters 1-7 of the third book.

Comments

[4thofeleven.livejournal.com]

So, conversation’s a bit dead, huh? Can’t blame everyone – the books are hard to track down, and not really worth it. I’ve got the books and I can’t really be bothered rereading them.

Still, there is one plot point I’d like to bring up because it’s been bugging me ever since my first (and, I believe, only) read of the series. Vir announces at one point that he’ll help fight the Drakh because he’s ‘invincible’, referencing Lady Morella’s prophesy. Now, ignoring the fact that taking prophesies at face value is a good way to end up very quickly suffering a very ironic death, never mind that he could still be could still be captured, tortured, mutilated, keeper-ed, and suffer other unpleasantness while still surviving to become Emperor… Well, does this sort of legalistic interpretation of prophesy sound like Vir at all?

I mean, alright, it wasn’t the real Vir in “The Very Long Night…” who pointed out that if a prophesy doesn’t come true, then it must have been a metaphor – but I’ll trust Londo’s subconsciousness’s interpretation of Vir over Peter David’s. For that matter – Vir thought the prophesy was a joke when he first heard it, and now he’s staking his life on it?!

The idea’s interesting enough, the reckless character who trusts they’ll be alright now because they know they’re going to be around later – but it’s sure not Vir. Considering Centauri have prophetic dreams of their own deaths, literally any Centauri character could have been used to play with this idea.

It’s always stuck in my mind as the most blatant example of how badly characterised every single character in the trilogy seems to be.