it's so tied up in the nature of nobility in Tortall that you'd think it would be a conservative value.
No shit.
I'm trying to Delia a big pile of it--along with classist snobbery and not really viewing servants as real people. (Yes, I have decided to write fiction to argue with the text! Hooray! Best kind of fanfiction, I think.)
But that's not text, and it probably never will be, so whatever.
Ding ding ding.
I am adding "people poke at Alan because of his famous mother" to my mental canon.
Myles getting no reaction to marrying Eleni is really the only one of the scenarios you mention that I have no problem with - in SotL, he's described very much as being somewhat disreputable, and I suspect that never changes. People probably know full well he spent a lot of time in common inns drinking, and people probably would be more scandalized if he married some respectable noblewoman.
I think also at that point there's probably also a bit of "Well, at least he adopted a noble heir, even if it's HER, and that commoner he married isn't going to be having any Olau babies." I dunno that Eleni gets embraced with open arms by the noblewomen of her generation--or any of them--but I suspect there is some quiet relief that at least Myles picked an older common-born bride.
no subject
No shit.
I'm trying to Delia a big pile of it--along with classist snobbery and not really viewing servants as real people. (Yes, I have decided to write fiction to argue with the text! Hooray! Best kind of fanfiction, I think.)
But that's not text, and it probably never will be, so whatever.
Ding ding ding.
I am adding "people poke at Alan because of his famous mother" to my mental canon.
Myles getting no reaction to marrying Eleni is really the only one of the scenarios you mention that I have no problem with - in SotL, he's described very much as being somewhat disreputable, and I suspect that never changes. People probably know full well he spent a lot of time in common inns drinking, and people probably would be more scandalized if he married some respectable noblewoman.
I think also at that point there's probably also a bit of "Well, at least he adopted a noble heir, even if it's HER, and that commoner he married isn't going to be having any Olau babies." I dunno that Eleni gets embraced with open arms by the noblewomen of her generation--or any of them--but I suspect there is some quiet relief that at least Myles picked an older common-born bride.