User blog comment:SaynaSLuke/The Ocean's Echoes/@comment-2142396-20160703194834

Congrats on finishing the second book! Your writing may have slowed down, but it allows me to more or less catch up with the updates. ;) I finished chapter 22 now. Oh, you work on three books at once? I know TotO and ‘Destiny’, but what’s the third?

I like how you explain magic in your stories and how there is a cost to Ublaz enchanting the Monitors – it’s always more interesting when there is a system to what the characters can and cannot do, even if these abilities are magical. There is one thing that makes me wonder, though - Ublaz refers to the Monitors as dumb animals incapable of thought, and it’s said that he is the one who gives them artificial intelligence, and your previous comment confirms it. However, we, the readers, do know that there are intelligent Monitors out there that possess free will – Rock, Dip and the others. Does that mean that the group that is allied with Shui and the dragons is somehow different from ‘feral’ Monitors, or maybe all the Monitors are this intelligent, and Ublaz’s spell just suppresses their free will and forces them to obey him, like the spell Swartt had used on Esther, Cedric and Ivan? And since Sagitar mentioned hatches of eggs, that means Ublaz is breeding the Monitors, like dogs or horses... That's basically enslavement of the species, once you think about it. :O

I’m loving all the interactions between Grath and Inbar – even though they know each other for only a short time, they seem to have so much in common, being thoughtful and quiet beasts who are more than they seem. They always seemed to bond quickly in ‘Pearls of Lutra’, and even though this story is different, they just click well. Not romantically so far, but they are just good together.

Hmm, I didn’t realize that Arashi would be in danger on Sampetra due to her relation to Romsca – after all, she belongs to the House of Dragons by marriage, not by blood. But knowing Ublaz, it’s true that somebeast as thorough and sadistic as him would want to kill her regardless, just to be safe – and probably to cause Romsca pain, too. However, I’m a bit confused as to what Arashi means by saying that Xzaris is close to succumbing to evil – does she means that he is ready to give up before Ublaz and thus allow the evil to win or that he is close to becoming evil himself? I can see what she means if it’s the first one, but if not… It actually occurs to me how easy it could’ve been for Xzaris to succumb to evil. It would’ve been easy for him to answer his mother’s hatred with hatred of his own, to hate the world in response to the disdain and scorn the world had been treating him with, to decide that if everybeast is going to see him only as dirty commoner with no father, no House and no right to be Captain or anything at all, then it’s not worth to try and prove otherwise, so he can as well do his worst. But Xzaris is not like that, he didn’t become rough like Rasconza or bitter like Romsca, he remained kind and just and truly noble. Xzaris is in the very dark place right now, he is ready to despair and give up, and he really needs Ignasa’s guidance to believe that there is still hope for him, and he is still worth living. In a way, there is darkness inside him, but it’s not evil – the true evil is outside.

The battle on Waveworm was sure a bloody scene, but it was also oddly captivating in all its cruelty and viciousness. There was one more emotion I had felt that I didn’t expect to: sadness. All that hell unleashed, all that blood spilled, all the death and destruction – and all for Lask’s greed. Yes, even more beasts had died due to Ublaz’s greed for pearls, but I think the fact that there were no winners in that battle, no survivors to make it worth that makes this situation especially poignant and highlights just how senseless all the bloodshed had been.

The scene of Romsca seeing Ignasa was truly beautiful – I don’t think I have any other words for it. I’d love to critique it, but there’s not a single thing I disagree with, one way or another. I think my heart melted when Ignasa had told Romsca that he and he alone can pay for all her sins, and when he reprimanded her for thinking that if she had been Conva’s son, things would’ve been easier for her. I wanted to shake her and tell her the same thing so many times! But that was a very good question by Romsca whether Ignasa loves Ublaz as much as any other creature. His answer was not exactly what I expected, since it’s hard for me to imagine Ignasa truly considering some beasts his enemies, but the idea that it was Ublaz who rejected him and not the other way round really appeals to me. It would be easy to view Ublaz as a punishment sent to Sampetra, but the truth is that they brought it upon themselves. Ublaz is raised and bred by Sampetra, by its society where viciousness and cruelty are considered to be normal and even honorable, society that puts itself above everything and where your worth is measured by how rich you are and how long your bloodline is. Sampetra is destroying itself, and something like that was bound to happen.

Romsca’s path is truly going to be difficult, just her and a few more beasts against Ublaz and what is actually the whole of Sampetra. (Yes, I know a lot of Sampetrians don’t like Ublaz and his rule, but right now they are too scared to go against him.) But that’s the path she chose herself. It’s sad that Romsca feels so numb right now that she doubts she can love again. That actually reminds of Sayna’s vow to never love again after the battle of Marshank, but Romsca’s situation is sadder because while Sayna just decided that she doesn’t want another heartbreak, Romsca outright says that she doesn’t think she is capable of love. I don’t want to see Romsca so broken.

I like Durral’s thought process when we get the chance to see it – he may seem a bit selfish when he keeps thinking of how he needs Sayna or Romsca to help him and steer the ship firstmost, but you have to remember that Durral is a peaceful beast thrown into all this turmoil against his will, completely terrified by the experience and desperate for anything at all that can save him, and from that perspective, his reaction is understandable. Moreover, he still feels sadness at all the lives lost and gratitude to Romsca for saving him, so he is still the kind abbot we knew, even if the hardships of his capture are taking their toll on him.

Ohh, Sayna is alive?! After the prologue, I thought that would be her last battle. It would’ve been sad, but she would’ve had her rest at last. Back then, when so little was known of the story’s progress, I had some crazy ideas – for example, that Sayna would somehow pass the power of her Flower to Romsca, thus literally giving her life to her. I realized that I was wrong when it was revealed that Sayna’s Flower had been dying and that there was another that could’ve been used on Romsca, but I still thought that Sayna won’t live past the battle on Waveworm… But I suppose she still has a role to play.

You know, I’ve been wondering about Ublaz’s hostility toward otters, and then a little theory formed in my mind. When Conva brought Lutran, Marine and Coral to Ublaz, Ublaz was furious not because they were otters, but because they were Lutra otters, so he faced them before. Considering that Sampetra pirates tend to avoid Mossflower coast, and there were only two documented precedents of them coming in contact in recent seasons. So if we follow this logic chain, it leaves us with this: Ublaz was part of the crew that sailed to Mossflower with Romsca’s grandfather – and in this voyage he had somehow survived, learned of the pearls and gained a grudge against Holt Lutra. It all fits! Of course, it doesn’t explain Ublaz’s grudge against Empress Meili, ut I hope I’m not too far away from truth. ^^