Ooh, Shiny!

Like. JoA is great. It's clearly very conpetent from its 3000 years of experience and spends much of the book silently bemoaning the idiocy of those around it. It's been silently been acting little rebellions via its collecting for a Long Time. It basically decides to adopt this Jonr, this random kid abandoned by the system. Assuming that it is the narrator of the book--which is admittedly not certain, just a likely possibility-- it's whip sharp and snarky and brilliant. Its first order of business upon gaining freedom is to let out a loud guffaw of a laugh.

And yet.

Jonr is just one kid it rescued; there are so many others in Aaa that it paid no particular attention or consideration to. Its "crowd control" killed many civilians. It executed that crowd control under orders it couldn't reject, but again, the narration suggests an attitude of "that's a shame, but hey, trolley problem, what can you do?" Its collection includes random ephemera like cutlery and rocks and an egg, but also tge sacred religious artifact of a religion it colonized. An artefact it helps the colonizers make a forgery of to abett political control of the population. A religious artefact it notably does not give back once it gains its freedom.

Justice of Albis is a person; funny, clever, caring, but also selfish and hypocritical and Radchai.

Like when the Radch shows up and calls somebody "she" when they're not, it's not just getting their gender wrong, it's a statement that this entire part of their society doesn't matter and is going to be erased. And even when they gender someone "correctly", it's not any better. Because it's just the word that they're using, not a recognition of identity. It's insulting in a different way, and it must sting for the women who hear it and know that it's just happenstance that they're not being misgendered.

And it's constant. We talk about other people constantly. There's no escaping that violence when talking to the Radchaai.

just gotta throw my all-time favourite Giles scene into the mix

Buffy: Does it ever get easy?

Giles: You mean life?

Buffy: [looks back into the grave, downcast] Yeah. Does it get easy?

Giles: [slight frown] What do you want me to say?

Buffy: Lie to me.

Giles: Yes, it's terribly simple. [they start walking away together] The good guys are always stalwart and true, the bad guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats, and, uh, we always defeat them and save the day. No one ever dies, and everybody lives happily ever after.

[cut to credits, dialogue continues]

Buffy: Liar.

but that LITERALLY just looks like a niqabi or someone in a jilbab. Like Look at this pic of me (from a self photoshoot, now w/o the dramatic lighting and dark background)

or this pic of me

or this pic of me