Relationships

[Chad32]

As we know, Jake and Cassie's relationship bit the dust. KA tells us the reason she had that happen is because relationships that grow during wartime sometimes desolve after the war.

My question is, when did Jake and Cassie's relationship really become strong? Besides the big kiss in book 26, I don't really see it getting much stronger than when Ax comments on them holding hands in book 8. They already had something going befoe the war started. They were already at the hand holding stage. They were already at the stage where they could look at each other, and tell what the other was feeling. They never seem to grow much beyond that, even after the kiss.

They never actually start dating, to my knowledge. I'm not sure if they even dance together much.

Rachel and Tobias, on the other hand, steadily develop a relationship, and have many moments between them. Dancing, eating together, and all that. The strength of their relationship really shows through when Tobias gives up life as a Human completely after her death.

It confuses me that KA would send the message about relationships growing strong in war, and dissolving during peace, when Jake and Cassie's relationship was the weaker of the two. It never develops into a storng steady relationship, as far as I can tell, beyond what was there from the beginning.

Rachel and Tobias' relationship was over, but only because she died. If she had lived, I doubt anyone would think they would split up after the war. Or does anyone think they might afterall?

[JFalcon]

I agree Jake and Cassie really don't seem to develop anything that wasn't already there, they just get better at admitting it, and it's stated a few times that they hung out before everything started so it's not like they only knew each other through Rachel.

Rachel and Tobias likewise grew pretty close but I won't say that it was a war relationship, or at least not in the way K.A. probably wants to imply. Rachel is just sort of there for Tobias, whenever he needs something she's there. Still, in a sense they're really becoming trench buddies, in the lulls and pauses in combat they have their moments, but it actually seemed more like they connected than just hooked up.

I think the problem is K.A. is really thinking of the band of brothers friendships, the guys who'll jump on a grenade for you in war but won't make a phone call to say "whazzap!?" during peace, because romantic relationships like these have very, very rarely seen the battlefield. I can see say Marco and Tobias drifting apart after the war (even if Rachel hadn't been killed and Tobias became human and they got married and whatever) but Jake and Cassie? I think the real reason had more to do with, as Cassie said, the two of them having been too changed by the war to really recover that old relationship of cleaning out horse stalls together.

[Chad32]

Yeah, they did change, and that's the most likely reason for the breakup. It's just that the way KA explains it doesn't really make sense. I understand why they broke up, because Jake was weighed down by his burden and became cold. Cassie was so morally rigid that it was just too extreme. Those are their faults, though I'm not sure if it's too much of a fault in Jake's case. Every member of the team has their personality flaws, but it seems like the only thing bad about Jake is that the burden placed on him by the others eventually becomes too much.

Marco and Tobias may have indeed drifted apart, even if Tobias stayed as at times of reunion, or because Jake is hanging with him a Human. Only coming together because Jake is there, or whatever. Ax would likely drift apart from the others because he left, though he likely would have stayed in touch with Tobias and Jake. Marco may also drift apart from rahel, because their almost tender moments together would becoe awkward after she married Tobias. Really, he might only stay close to Jake. Tobias would likely stay close to Cassie, and Cassie would stay close to Rachel and Jake as well.

I could see it going back to much how it was before the war started, except that Tobias is tighter with Rachel and Jake, and Ax is their, being close to Jake and Tobias.

[wotw2112]

A ridiculous sentiment.  Relationships don't survive wars.  Really?  Ask some vietnam or WW2 vets about that sometime.  Really, just a downright offensive sentimnent.

Jake and Cassie didn't work because it never would have.  They got to see who each other really was (i.e. Cassie a hypocritical coward, Jake a ruthless idiot) and that was the end of it.  It had nothing to do with the war.

Rachel and Tobias would likely have lasted if given the chance as they actually seemed to develop something of an understanding of each other without finding mutual disdain (as Jake and Cassie eventually did).

Just an awful message (if that's what she was trying to say).  In reality: couples who betray each other and put their own foolish beliefs before their partner (*cough* Cassie *cough*) don't last.

[Chad32]

Jake was not a rutheless idiot at heart. He was just going through a bad time. That's not who he really was. I don't have much to defend Cassie with. She betrayed him in book 50, then left him when he stopped listening to her. During his greatest time of weakness.

[wotw2112]

Ok, maybe I was a bit over-dramatic...but recall that it was Jake who ruthlessly wielded Rachel against David in the triology.  One might argue that he pushed her into crisis.

[EscafilDevice]

Ok, maybe I was a bit over-dramatic...but recall that it was Jake who ruthlessly wielded Rachel against David in the triology.  One might argue that he pushed her into crisis.

I re-read #22 a few days ago and I found something that I think was totally ignored by the end of the series:

"Something kind of snapped in me after that. I didn't suddenly become all
soft and mushy or anything. I didn't turn into a wimp. But somehow the
joy I'd gotten from combat, the thrill I'd gotten from battle against
impossible odds . . . well, I guess maybe I just grew up a little."

Why put that in there and then completely forget about it? Was that retconned later in the series at all?
   

[Chad32]

Retconned or forgotten, due to ghostwriters. Because rachel being a psycho builds up more drama, than her being a controlled but dangerous warrior. Ax already fills that slot.

But in the last book, her thoughts were not "Man, I wish I could reach up and wrench that polar bear's head off!"

And then she comes up with the idea of terrorists, which Rachel would love to fight. Fits her like a glove. But no, she just HAD to die...

[wotw2112]

Why put that in there and then completely forget about it? Was that retconned later in the series at all?
   

Great point.  Just chalk it up as yet another inconsistency brought about by the ghostwriters.  Rachel's character flips around so much from book to book it's almost impossible to reconcile.