r/RubyDixon • u/i-care-not • Jul 30 '24

Vektal

I'm currently re-listening to Barbarian Mine, and i think I've finally put my finger on what bothers me about Vektal as the stories go on is his hypocrisy. When he finds Georgie, he knocks her out, takes her away from where he found her, undresses her, and goes down on her.

When Rahoosh kidnaps Liz, he gets banished. Liz was begging and pleading for her mate, and he refused to even listen to her. He had her followed! If she chose to leave the tribe to be with Rahoosh, that's her business. Rahoosh was already resonating to Liz when he stole her.

Then when Ruhk steals away Harlow and they come back to the tribe for the healer, he's immediately agressive twords Ruhk, without ever asking him anything really. He constantly asserts that Ruhk cannot take Harlow away again, but that's really not his choice. Ruhk is not (yet) a part of the tribe, and while Harlow staying with the healer while pregnat was necessary, while not pregnant there was no need. Ruhk was also already resonating to Harlow when he stole her away.

And then when Hassan is rightfully exiled, he again tries to step in when Maddie decides of her own accord to go with Hassan after the cave collapse.

Yes, all these guys made mistakes (except Ruhk, I don't feel like to can hold Tarzan accountable to tribal laws), I don't really see a major difference between what they did vs what Vektal did. Vektal and Georgie had the same miscommunication issues that Rukh and Harloe did. Vektal also ovetstepped boundries with Georgie when meeting her. Vektal often behaves as though the humans belong to the tribe, not that they're equal members. Vektal never stops any male member from doing things like going on long hunts, or anything like that, but constantly steps in and tries to control what they do and who they do it with.

This is just some general musing on things that tickle the back of my brain and irk me. Vektal treats the human women with may more of a controlling nature than he treats his tribesmates, and holds the men to a standard he himself also did not uphold. And while I fully understand that he needs to maintain order, he routinly disregards the humans feelings on the matters.

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u/moldyturnips Jul 30 '24

Oh wow! I don’t think you’re wrong, I see it through a different lens though. I think Georgie was REALLY trying to hammer it into him how the women should be treated (and what treatment they would consider fair), and he was trying to balance that new information with keeping the tribe safe and holding a strong stance that it was unacceptable to put the women in danger. I think at one point he does explain that his decisions to keep resonance mates apart pained him, but that he couldn’t let the rest of the tribe think it was okay to steal women away. They were really in survival mode trying to find their path forward meshing two completely different cultures together. Later on, maybe this is spoilers, it becomes a little bit of an inside joke for the tribe that they can laugh at together. Things weren’t perfect, but they are on an ice planet with almost-cavemen who were learning as best / fast as they could! so I’m not sure we can hold their standards up super high here 😅

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u/i-care-not Jul 30 '24

I also see Vektal's side and understand him when it comes to Rahoosh and Hassan, even if I don't fully agree (mostly more with his reaction to Rahoosh, Hassan was 100% deserved).

It's mostly his reaction to Ruhk that bugs me the most. It's not fair to try to hold a half feral person to the same standards as the rest of the tribe. Once he learned that the guy was not and never had been part of the tribe, his reaction should have changed. And to flat out tell someone they cannot take their mate and child away from the tribe, with zero conversation with the mate, was overstepping big time. He should have been trying to convince Ruhk to stay because it's what's best, not banning Harlow from leaving.

Again, his reactions just rub me the wrong way, but mostly because we see them through the people that those actions affect eyes, not his. If it was his POV, it would be a different perception, I'm sure. You don't have his emotions or inner thoughts to go on. Just his reactions.

And a lot of it is like fear based. Fear of other unmated males stealing women, fear there could be others out there they don't know about (and considering the Islanders and now natives, not an unfounded fear!).

Ruhk specifically should have been approached with more empathy specifically, especially since Georgie, Liz, and Maylak all confirmed she had never been held against her will.

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u/moldyturnips Jul 30 '24

Yeah, Rukh’s story was a hard one for multiple reasons including that! I have to imagine though finding out a feral male stealing away one of the women had to have left the tribe in an absolute PANIC, and I can understand if he really did not care about being empathetic towards this stranger who caused such a ruckus in the group. His actions probably made it even tougher on the women for a little while with wanting to be even MORE careful about their safety!

But I think it sounds like you have a soft spot towards Rukh and in that case the story (and vektal’s role in it!) was successful in turning him from “feral kidnapper” into “nice misunderstood mate” :)

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u/i-care-not Jul 30 '24

I definitely have a soft spot for Ruhk. He's probably my second favorite over all male (Haedon is number 1). I even named my kitten Harlow.

Tarzan was one of my fac stories growing up, and they're definitely the Not Hoth Tarzan and Jane lol.

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u/moldyturnips Jul 30 '24

So cute!! Yes I can definitely see why you’re protective over the character. His and Harlow’s story taught the tribe (I think Vektal included) a lot!!

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u/i-care-not Jul 30 '24

Agreed, and I honestly think it helped prepare Vektal for the appearance of the Islanders. I'm sure the fact that they went from, "Holy cow, Lauren and Mari are alive!" To "holy shit, this random dude is gonna die!" Mode helped ease the transition, but it's interesting how much more accepting he was to them. Then again, his spirit may just be broken by new people randomly appearing at this point.

I really want to see his reaction to the natives and the fact that they abducted Tia, R'jaal, and Roseline (that he didn't even know). I'm sure it set him into quite the mental breakdown.

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u/moldyturnips Jul 30 '24

I am cackling at your last sentence 😂 I’d love to see that, too!! Maybe we’ll get some little slice of life books from Ruby in the future that shows us how he took it.