"Even that's too long to wait"

In KotBW #2, Skywise's wolf-friend, Starjumper, fights a jackwolf and is fataly wounded. Cutter sends to Leetah to help, and tells Skywise that "Leetah will be here in a heartbeat", but Skywise's response is "You can see as well as I - even that's too long to wait", and he puts Starjumper out of his misery. But if it was such a short time to wait, why couldn't he wait to see if Leetah could heal Starjumper? Did it hurt him so much to see his old friend in misery that he couldn't bear it for even one more second and would rather finish it cleanly? That seems a bit odd, if Leetah could heal him when she got there, which he knew wouldn't be long. Or could he see that Starjumper was so hurt that he would die before Leetah arrived anyway?

If anyone could please enlighten me with their theories, I would be grateful

I remember this discussion came up somewhen before ... don't remember where at the moment.

Basicly it tends to option #2 - too badly injured. Combined with the fact that Starjumper was a very old wolf at his time ... possibly not able to recover anyway.

Hmmm...I agree with Embala.

But honestly, I think it was done to shake up Skywise. Bring death very close to him. Make him even more inclined to get his wolfblood removed later in that story line. I mean, he comes off as being thanatophobic.

Like killing Foxfur and his parents, throwing him off a cliff and suffocating him in rock didn't bring death close enough?

I agree with what you are saying. The whole scene, imo, is a set up to explain why he would choose to give up his wolf blood. But it has always bothered me. I feel as if, in Kings of the Broken Wheel, a lot of characters had their personalities taken to extremes in ways that feel forced.

Skywise is a Wolfrider. He should be used to death. He has watched a number of his tribemates die over the years. He was born an orphan. His earliest memory is of his mother dying. He's killed animals for food. He fought in a war, for goodness sake. How could he have had a death phobia all this time and been able to function?

This whole scene, with Starjumper, seems unlikely. I know it's supposed to be a continuation of that moment in Book 4 when he was paralyzed with fear. But that moment actually seemed believable- an entirely natural development. A moment a panic in the middle of a battle makes sense. "I don't like it when the leaves change," is a little... hmmm.

thanataphobic...

Skywise really does get hit with a lot of phobias at that point. He is afraid of death, afraid of closed in spaces, afraid of commitment, afraid of abandonment...

That's a lot of anxieties!

And then, there DENIAL. "You'll be with me.. I can't see it any other way"? Really? Skywise thinks Cutter will fly into space with him? Does he even know Cutter? Cutter hates that kind of thing- and when he says "I'll miss you," he's not sniffing around for an invitation. This also seems very unSkywiselike. Isn't Cutter the one who dreams and sometimes sees things through rose colored glasses? Skywise is a realist- he is the one who most often cautions that events could go terribly wrong. Like- "Hey, those humans could kill us! Let's not walk into their village." Or, "Wow- you are like totally sick. I need to get you medicine or you could die. Stop smiling!" Or "You don't breed anymore because you suffocated your population inside this mountain."

Apparently not. 8D



I always kinda had the notion Skywise might be the type that says 'Yeah, I know, I could die.'*Puts on 'I accept this'-face*
Buuuut...

Here it actually hits home. And it's a double punch. He discovers the armor does have it's weak spots and he lands directly over a dead elf who had a horrible death.


They did. Look at Rayek in that story line.
'I feel uncomfortable in this age and I don't get along with most of these elves. I've had a couple of hard years. I'll go to the future, save the High Ones and totally and utterly annihilate any elf that isn't in the Palace at the time. And I'm going to expect the High Ones to PRAISE ME for my work, even when they find out I destroyed their children and their decedents. OH and I'm going to parade around the nastiest, most monstrous female elf in our race's history and claim she's their greatest child.'

Characters personalities being taken to extremes is pretty much 'Kings' in a nutshell.


I donno. I was just it trowing out it there.
He's Richard's elf. Ask him. Normal character rules seem to get thrown out the window when the character belongs to specific person...

So, you are saying that here he changed? I would buy that.

(Re: *puts on the 'I accept this' face*... I kind of saw him more specifically as the 'I know we could possibly die, and this might be a bad idea- are you sure you want to do it? Cus if it were up to me, I'd probably not' type. Followed by *puts on a 'follows Cutter into what he strongly suspects is a bad idea' face*.)


Rayek's character arc... nay, plunge... in Kings is a particular pet peeve of mine. I love how he grew prior to that story. But Kings seemed to throw out all of the character development he went through after book 1. He reverted to being spoiled jerk of the Sun Village again... just with a lot more power.


Quite true!

That works too.


It might be. It strikes me as a 'shit just got real'-moment.


Yup.

Have we forgotten that Wolfriders are emotionally and psychically bonded to their wolves, who have their own reasoning abilities? Perhaps Skywise made the decision he did because Starjumper asked him to? The way someone suffering from extreme pain or a terminal condition would ask the person they trusted most to help them end things on their own terms? So, in that case, it would be euthanasia. Leetah's not a magic wand who could make Starjumper's existence all better, just with a wave of her hand. She couldn't cure his age, or his loss of status in the pack through his loss of a challenge.

Wow, I'm actually amazed I'm defending one of Skywise's decisions. :D

That was my gut reaction when I saw this thread, following it on the notifications. It would seem to make kore sense.

Additionally, as the wolf would have been fully in the now of wolfthought. Only the present mattered. Any urging by Skywise would have been for naught...

"just hold on for a moment, it will be all better" skywise sends

"what is 'a moment'? Make better now!" cries back the wolf.

I agree with MultiMEDEA and TrollHammer. For an animal who lives in the "now", a moment of agony is not worth the expectation of healing. The responsible human, or elf in this case, has to make a decision.

In contrast, we first meet Redlance when he is mortally wounded. We see him suffer for days, with little hope of recovery, until a miracle arrives in the form of Leetah. Later he develops int a complex character.

(Keep in mind that I was speaking within context of the storyline. In RL, things are a bit different. I had a poisoned dog when I was little, and my parents nursed it back to health. If I had to guess what was going on in its mind, I'd have to say it was more than happy to have gained the extra years of life.)



Had a thought about Redlance: It seems that he would be one of the most able to weather hardship of any in the tribe... Being a plant shaper, and more attuned to Trees at that, it would seem that he would have the patience to weather the storm.

I think the decision Skywise was facing, at that point, had to do with his larger responsibility toward Starjumper. I don't think it had to do with just that moment- but with the understanding that to save him now would just delay the inevitable. Starjumper was old. He was an old wolf, being run out of the pack. It apparently wasn't in his nature to give up or back down... and we saw that he had had these types of confrontations before.

Skywise didn't really know (despite whatever Cutter might say) how long it would take Leetah to get there. The wolf was very clearly dying and, just assuming based on what happened, in a lot of pain. So Skywise pretty much had the decision of helping the wolf he loved die quickly, or hoping he hung on long enough for Leetah to make it, for him to be healed, and for this whole scenario to happen all over again. The point, I think, of this scenes was that to keep Starjumper alive would have been selfish and for Skywise's benefit more than for Starjumper's.

All in all, I think was an important scene to show in terms of defining Skywise's character. It proved that, even though he has problems with death, he can still face it... and that when it comes down to it, he does the right thing- even if it's difficult. Otherwise, I think we (readers) would have been left with the impression that he had a very immature relationship to loss and death- basically an attitude of denial. But because he put Starjumper down, for Starjumper's own sake, we know that isn't the case- it's gotta be more complex than that.

I have always really enjoyed Skywise. If he didn't exist, I think the Wolfriders as a whole would be much less complex. They would all share the same basic values and attitudes- much like the Gliders, SunFolk or Go Backs. But Skywise is a character who has had to embrace a life that his basic self is somewhat at odds with. He's kind of like that really academic and sensitive kid, raised in a practical, blue collar family who just don't get where he's coming from. So he ends up tough and practical- except that's not really who or what he is. And he could leave the neighborhood- have some different kind of career and life- but he stays because he loves them all. Still, some part of him is always a little bit torn. No matter what choice he makes, there will always be a sense of "what if?"

The thing about Skywise is.. no matter what decisions he makes, he's going to lose. He will lose one way or another. And because he's got a good attitude about things (more or less), he will tend to make the best of it. He jokes and laughs a lot- and acts as a comic foil- so it's not that noticeable. But that is pretty much his situation. Unless something changes drastically for him in Final Quest... I am betting he is going to face some definitive moment of 'piss or get off the pot'- and it's going to require sacrificing one thing for another.

I completely agree! Redlance isn't the standard Wolfrider hunter. In many ways, he's even less so than Skywise. But he's in tune with the natural world, and his treeshaping abilities are central to the Wolfrider way of life. He's sensitive and easily damaged, but he's resilient- and he keeps everybody honest. I can't imagine him not teamed up with Nightfall. They strike that perfect balance everyone else seems to be striving for.