Unnecessarily Complicated Behind-the-Scenes Notes

*Warning - Contains Spoilers*

Sometimes I wonder if my plots are more complex than they need to be... yet what goes on in my head is even worse! Here are some things from Bound by Dark Waters that may have been too subtle in the book, or may only exist as background information in my head.

-Lazlian never speaks Zaria’s name.

-The first time Zaria is in Juls’s bedroom she thinks about Laz often… something like seven times.

-The women in Zaria’s family each rebel against the status quo in their own way. Her mother has affairs, her Aunt Alette never has children, and Zaria is refusing to fall in line in multiple ways.

-The second time Zaria is in Juls’s bedroom, a guard super-conveniently interrupts because Juls arranged it. He hesitates to drink his wine because he figured out what Zaria was up to. But he’s hoping to change her mind without saying anything. He doesn’t quite know how because he doesn’t understand her, and it never crosses Zaria’s mind that Juls caught on because she doesn’t quite understand him. They also each underestimate the other because of this lack of understanding.

-Both Juls and Lazlian touch Zaria in ways similar to Kirwyn (the former on her face, the latter grabbing her wrist.) But it’s under very different circumstances and so are her feelings about it.

-When Laz requests a wetsuit from Tianca, Zaria remembers she heard that name somewhere, but can’t place it. In the beginning of the book, when Zaria and Jesi forge a note to sneak out the Garden Gate, Tianca is the girl they pretend wrote it. Zaria cares enough for the name to ring a bell, but she’s still self-involved enough that she can’t remember why.

-When Zaria and Kirwyn first met they were both pretty awkward, having been sheltered in different ways (her more than him). And they each served as a big part in the catalyst to cause the other to grow… but they were forced to mature separately and now there’s a tentative reconnection going on when they meet again and they’re cautiously beginning to know one another as the people they’ve grown/are growing into. But because Zaria underwent a trauma… especially because she’s been warring with Laz… she’s picked up a some (temporary) not-entirely-positive reactions as a result.

-Laz displays a more aggressive misogyny, but Juls is harder to pin down. On one hand, he doesn’t really think about or want anything to change because the status quo benefits him. On the other, he’s a victim of tradition too, as he was never given a choice in marrying Zaria. He also does his duty and can’t understand why she wouldn’t.

-In the same manner women can be forced to accommodate, to modify behavior in order to survive – e.g., smiling at a stranger to avoid being verbally attacked – Rythas adopts obliging practices as a means to avoid warfare. They’re a playground for the Spades and in turn are no real threat to them. Lazlian is the most put out by having to do this without seeing any irony the fact that he would happily do the same to others.

-In a purity culture/patriarchal society, the idea is that females must not be touched or be sexual in any way and then it's suddenly flipped at the whims of males so that they *must* be sexually responsive to *them* when they hit a sudden age. As men try to control a woman's sexuality – first by forbidding the expression or exploration, then by demanding it be exploited for their pleasure - I tried to show Zaria’s journey from one type of cage to the next in moving from Elowa to Rythas. I also liked the idea of the color red being used in secret in Elowa, where Zaria is forced to hide passion, by making it the color of the rug in her cave. In Rythas, where she’s forced into a pairing she didn’t ask for, she’s often draped in red though she doesn’t particularly like the color or want to wear it.

-Zaria and Kirwyn end both books in water.