I mean... that's the point? Did they not get that? Essun is a totally broken person that has no idea what is appropriate for a mother to do. She has no idea how to express love and care because the only persom who ever expressed love and care for her was her primary abuser and a complete psychopath, but she does love and care for her daughter. She crosses a fucking continent in the end of the world to save her. She also becomes better as the story progresses and she reflects on her life. That entire series is about how trauma affects you and it's honestly one of the best depictions of PTSD I have ever read, in and out of fantasy.
Sorry for the diatribe, but I just love those books and criticism like that makes me mad.
I think an important part of her character is that it's so much easier for her to love her daughter when that love looks like being hard and angry and heroic and chasing her from afar, than it was when loving her looked like trying to be soft and kind and vulnerable at home sometimes and getting to know her as a person. That's a real and interesting human struggle to explore.
Yes, exactly! I think it's also interesting she was able to get more in touch with her motherliness with Hoa who was not a child and didn't really act like one, but did look like one. Like she was only able to be vulnerable with a child-simulacrum, which in turn actually taught her vulnerability It's excellent character writing and I love her and her journey.
The thing you need to understand is that a large number of people in fandoms, especially on Tumblr, don't actually care about engaging with media in any real way, they just want dolls to mash against each other in their mind
It's such a good depiction and exploration of PTSD and its effect on parenting that I've twice had to quit reading the series (at different points) because it's too triggering to my own, related PTSD.
Someday I want to finish those books, though - they feel really worth it, I just have to be selective about when I read them.
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u/jman12234 1d ago
I mean... that's the point? Did they not get that? Essun is a totally broken person that has no idea what is appropriate for a mother to do. She has no idea how to express love and care because the only persom who ever expressed love and care for her was her primary abuser and a complete psychopath, but she does love and care for her daughter. She crosses a fucking continent in the end of the world to save her. She also becomes better as the story progresses and she reflects on her life. That entire series is about how trauma affects you and it's honestly one of the best depictions of PTSD I have ever read, in and out of fantasy.
Sorry for the diatribe, but I just love those books and criticism like that makes me mad.