#''oh how nice! my faaaaaaaaaaather said 1 nice thing about me''

[bonebabbles]

How is Clear Sky literally always worse than I remember him?? (I stopped DOTC at the third book I believe)

It may have something to do with the fact you stopped at Book 3, which is First Battle. The book after First Battle is The Blazing Star (and the one I'm posting from now), where the narrative has just decided to treat him as a completely new person.

He never addresses anything about how fucking awful he was in books 1 - 3. Book 4 hits and the book falls face-first into a "redemption arc" which is just everyone immediately forgiving him even though he's still a huge piece of shit. He's "Working Sooo Hard" to not randomly murder people and that means he's a good person, and the writers have a panic attack if any character goes more than 30 seconds without sucking his toes.

So if you're coming at it with Clear Sky from books 1 - 3 in mind, it's infuriating. You remember the actual character they wrote so the "redemption arc" feels as flat as it actually is. It's like watching Fire Lord Ozai suddenly be considered a good guy and the entire plot of Avatar changing midway through Book 2.

#Every time the characters fall over themselves to marvel at some mediocre thing clear sky does my brain is calling it- #a 'Clap At Baby' moment #he is a fucking. adult man. he is supposed to be a father. and the BARE minimum is cheered and clapped at #''oh how nice! my faaaaaaaaaaather said 1 nice thing about me'' #''oooooaaaaaaa my Dear Brother isnt ripping women to pieces he's just calling me a few slurs'' #''you can do it clear sky you can kill the evil cat you let into your own fucking clan youre so cooool :0'' #Clap At Baby moments #the ideal way to read this arc is to not. #the second best way to read this arc is to start at Book 4 and pretend the first 3 don't exist. #just like the writers did #just imagine 3 books instead. it'll be better. #dotc hate