Tales from the Storm Discussion

[Belhi]

Being a strong female character and being defined solely by their relationships with male characters is not mutually exclusive. Lyse is given an automatic boost to commander of the Resistance because of who her father was, even considering that she doesn't have that many great leadership qualities. I don't think Minfilia was a very well-written character, but I'll still say that she was a better leader than I expect Lyse will be.

Yes, I am seriously saying that there are women who chat at length about things that have nothing to do with romance. Here's a short summary of things I've talked about recently with one of my female friends:

- Wholemeal cinnamon rolls are a terrible lie.
- Never buy gluten-free cake, especially at $6 a slice.
- NieR: Automata sure looks awesome, but it sucks that we can't afford it at $100+ on Steam.
- Awful customers at our past/present jobs.
- University applications.

Note how none of that even remotely involved romantic prospects, because we couldn't care less about it if we were paid to do so. There are plenty of things they could've talked about, without defaulting to romance.

Conrad specifically states that the reason he picked Lyse wasn't due to her father but due to the fact that with such a massively diverse group of people involved in the fight for Ala Mhigo, it required someone who could both appeal to and understand the viewpoint of a very broad range of individuals and inspire them to follow her vision. Conrad specifically gives you a quest to go talk to people to show you this right before mentioning he is thinking about Lyse. Lyse isn't hugely smart but she is capable of delegating and most importantly she is a figurehead who's only agenda is to build an Ala Mhigo inclusive of everyone. She doesn't need to be smart. She just needs to know who to ask for advice, who to put in charge of what and be able to convince people to follow her goals. In fact a good part of Lyse's story is that she is her own person, capable as herself, rather than just her father's daughter and her sister's sister.

Secondly my comment wasn't that women always talk about romance but that they occasionally do. Frankly I think everyone discusses their relationships to some extent from time to time, if only to vent. Lets be clear here. This is by far not all these women talk about. We almost never here them talking about relationships. More to the point its not all they talk about. You talk like relationships are a taboo topic that people must avoid.

Out of curiosity, what would you have them talk about? The weather? The food? Complaining about dumb book cataloguing systems? Poor toiletry facilities in Rhalgr's Reach? The impractical nature of spiky armour?

Honestly I think your projecting a bit here. You seem to be the only one making the assumption this is all they talk about, that this is somehow the encompassing defining of their characters. Characters as with people can have relationships without it robbing them of independence of identity or self definition. Y'shtola and Lyse are frankly far more defined by their relationships with their mentor and their sister respectively than any of the male characters and even then they stand on their own pretty well.

To be honest this is probably not the forum for discussing the intent or effect of the writer having the characters discuss romance since it fundamentally isn't really a lore issue so I will drop the subject and agree to disagree.