#galani

I'm hesitant to use sports terms I'm barely familiar with when talking about a character played by Aabria (THEE DnD Jock as far as I'm concerned) but I think that Suvi has been developing her court vision ever since Arc 1.

I think the experiences in Port Talon really showed Suvi how much she had to be aware of not only herself but also all the other players. What are her teammates doing, what are their opponents thinking, what's the weak point in her team's strategy and how can she cover it?

The wall won't hold? Direct the stranglers through a single entry point into Port Talon.

Gramore will insta kill anything that flees? Order a retreat, change the perception of what's happening, sidestep the rule.

We're in a forest of sorcerer's and shapeshifters? Bring in Ame and Eursolon

And the Secret of Warp and Weft is so thematically tied to that skill. Find the weakness in an object, understand how to apply the least amount of force for the most amount of damage.

Locate the problem, understand the problem, get the right tool and fix the problem.

Suvi is always learning and adapting, and it really kicks off because of that first arc and Galani.

(Oh god thinking back to Galani I start to feel crazy about Aabria and Brennan's skill in weaving and calling back to all these elements.)

Galani is a wake up call to Suvi. Suvi understands for the first time, because of Galani, how much Steel's name and influence have protected her from certain social consequences in a way other people aren't protected (a lesson that gets driven home in Arc 2 by Hana).

Galani is also the first time in the story we encounter the Sky used as a mirror in the narrative, and specifically as a way to extend Suvi's vision and awareness.

And she's part of the scene that I would argue sets off the very first spark of what becomes the Secret of Warp and Weft in Arc 3. When Suvi starts to draw Orima's forces through that weak point in the wall, the first thing Galani does it make the opening bigger. Draw the pressure away from the rest of the wall faster by widening a single point of entry.

I don't have a cohesive way to end this but I just really love it.

Like how she clocks the singing as a threat to the project of empire. As something pretty but not in their control.

How she rhetorically tries to reframe Ame and the Spirits as 'interpersonal matters' and 'rituals'. How she is actively rejecting the lesson about the Spirits because it is dangerous to what wizards choose to believe about their own power and place in the world.

How she deliberately draws a line to like Morrow as the problem and not the lessons and worldview that produced him. A 'bad apple' argument if you will.