#kirel

Risi and Kirel from wait and pretend (hold on and hope)! These two were so horrible tragic (I say, as though the rest of them weren’t dealt equally horrible fates)

like this is a way they describe their love for each other:

Briar smiled dreamily. “She's home.”

Lark entered first, looking as tired as everyone else. Then two armored warriors, a dedicate and a novice, eased through the door sideways. They had made a chair of their arms and were carrying Rosethorn between them. She was soot-streaked, her hair black with sweat. Despite the irritated vigor in her voice, she had so little strength that she couldn't sit up, only lean against the novice.

It was Kirel; he looked positively harassed. “We brought her,” he told Niko. “And believe me, it wasn't easy.”

Hey, thanks for listening! I hope you like the podcast, even when we do go on long tangents harrassing each other about minor characters. Some of our blog posts got lost when we migrated to Acast, so how about I repost it here?

In Defense of Kirel

Those of you who have been following our podcast for a while may have noticed a rift forming between our hosts--with ND and I on one side and Britni and Goodwin on the other. This argument, of course, is about Kirel. In case you forgot, Kirel is a "great northern lad" serving as Frostpine's apprentice. A minor character in the series, he only appears about three or four times in Sandry's Book. Nevertheless, this has been enough for ND and I to fall in love with him, claim he is adorable, and wish we could see more of him, and for Goodwin and Britni to refer to him respectively as "a jerk" and "a little b****."

The proud and defensive part of me wants to comment that these are strong words about someone who appears on probably no more than ten pages. But I'm sure we'd all agree that Liesa fa Nadlen, who appears on no more than two pages, perfectly deserves her punishment when Sandry calls her a cat. So why this great rift? Why such strong disagreement about Kirel? Two obvious answers come to mind: the first that ND and I had read significantly more of the series than our co-hosts, and thus we actually know more about Kirel, so we know what's to like about him. The second theory is that reading the books as adults, Britni and Goodwin bring something with them to the story that ND and I didn't have when we first met Kirel. Considering the array of people in the Virtual Emelan Facebook group that agree that Kirel is lovable, I think this is the more likely of the two. Nevertheless, I would like to posit yet a third theory as to this difference of opinion. I think it is subtler in nature, and lies in the distinction between our favorite characters.

While its safe to say that all four of us find some amount of kinship with all four protagonists, if asked to pick a favorite, ND and I quickly cite Briar, while Britni and Goodwin favor Daja. Therefore, ND and I have both developed the feelings of playful rivalry towards Dedicate Crane (rejoicing when Sandry pulls rank on him at the gate to Discipline Cottage and ignoring the fact that Briar did just commit a crime) while Britni and Goodwin have developed a strong need to protect Daja (which, for anyone who has already read Daja's Book, will note is very Tris like behavior).

But one of the wonderful parts of digging into a text with the depth we do on the podcast, especially when, like myself, one is re-reading the text, is that we have the opportunity to examine and question our points of view. We can ask ourselves why we feel the way we do about the the characters. And isn't that the whole point of this podcast? To hold these books up like a mirror and see what else we can learn about ourselves and the people around us? To hone our skills in reading not just books, but the world around us in an attempt to improve upon it? So today I'm going to try to dig in to Kirel's motives and see if we can come to understand him better.

While Goodwin has not yet gone into detail about the specific reasons he thinks Kirel is a jerk, Britni has mentioned two specific scenes that have incited several minute long rants (which is a lot in podcast time). Let's take them in turn. The first is when Daja drops a piece of red hot iron and catches it with her bare hands, and Kirel freaks out. Britni thinks this is inappropriate behavior because Frostpine warned him that he would see weird things, and Kirel should have listened. In all fairness to Britni, she's pretty consistent about her beliefs. She was also pretty quick to criticize Tris for not listening to Niko when he told her not to control the weather, and in my opinion, Niko was much more specific about his warning. "Don't try to control the weather" logically seems like it would include stopping the tides whereas "you're going to see some weird things" does not necessitate a ten year old girl holding red-hot iron.

We got into this argument on the podcast as well. Britni implied it was unfair to say a man could do something that a girl couldn't, so let me clear: the point of this is not gender. The point is age and experience. From smithing to basic language, what an experience adult can do, a child usually cannot. Pierce could have made Frostpine female and made Briar the smith mage, and I would have still felt Kirel's reaction was justified. Yes, Kirel was told he would see "weird things." Let us also remember that he is working with the greatest smith mage in the world, and that smith magic isn't particularly common already (remember, Rosethorn and Lark mention that Frostpine has been looking for someone with his gift for years.) So it's reasonable for Kirel to assume, as he literally says in the narrative, that Frostpine's ability to hold hot metal was developed due to years of magical practice. Let's also remember that at this point in the narrative, no one has said that Daja is a mage. Literally, the only people who know about Daja's magic are Niko, Frostpine, Lark, and Rosethorn. Kirel has no reason to know. Daja herself doesn't know (meaning that if you're about to suggest that Frostpine might have told Kirel, we've got an even bigger issue because it's pretty icky to tell Kirel if he's not going to tell Daja.) So from Kirel's point of view, Daja is a very normal ten year old... until she catches hot metal with her bare hands. Do you know any ten year olds who can hold red hot iron with their bare hands? Exactly. I think Kirel's reaction is perfectly justified.

So let's move on to scene number two, which takes place shortly after Daja has found out that she has magic, and Frostpine tasks her with identifying metal without using her eyes. Kirel asks if he can join in. Judging from Britni's reaction to this scene, this absolutely infuriates her. Because it's not about Kirel, it's about Daja, who has to learn the basics, which Kirel already knows. But does he? See, the other part of having Kirel in only four scenes is that aside from he's essentially Norse and apprenticed to a blacksmith, we don't really know anything about him. So let me posit a headcanon for you:

I imagine that Kirel is the youngest of five or six boys. His family isn't nobility, like Sandry's, but they're fairly well off, and his parents are concerned with people carrying on their good name. Fortunately for Kirel, he's got older brothers to do that for him, so he can kind of pursue whatever career he wants, within reason. But he's also constantly competing for attention with his older siblings, who are better than him at everything. Sure, they're older and more experienced, but that doesn't change the fact that they can all spin circles around him singing "anything you can do, I can do better." Kirel wants something that will allow him to help people and separate him from his siblings. So he decides to go into smithing (remember, he's specifically working on iron, which means he's probably mostly making common items for every day people.) His parents aren't real big fans of it, but they don't stop him. He gets work as an apprentice around fifteen, only his teacher cares more about proving that Kirel is worthless than actually teaching him, which eventually leads to Kirel getting badly burned in an accident that could have easily been avoided.

Kirel's parents try to use this as an excuse for him to pursue a "reasonable" profession. But it turns out he likes smithing. He likes the feel of seeing things being made, and the meditative quality of working in the forge. One way or another, he meets Frostpine, who is impressed with Kirel's dedication and his quick ability to learn. Kirel almost sees a sparkle in his eyes, like for once, someone sees him and thinks he's special. Until Frostpine finds out about the incident where Kirel was burned. Frostpine doesn't criticize or blame Kirel for this problem, but Kirel knows there was a light in his teacher that got snuffed out so quick he didn't have time to figure out what it meant. But Kirel likes smithing. And he likes Frostpine. And his parents can accept that apprenticing to a smith at Winding Circle Temple is damn respectable, so he goes. Frostpine warns him he's going to see some weird stuff. Like a man holding red hot iron. This freaks him out, and reminds him of the time he got severely burned. But Frostpine is patient, and Kirel wills himself to get used to it. Because that's what this job takes. A few weeks later, this ten year old girl comes along and is interested in working with Frostpine. Kirel is happy to see her. It's nice to have someone else to learn with (because who's to say he knows the basics. We have no idea how long he's been here.) Then Kirel realizes that Daja has that spark--that thing that Frostpine hoped he had, but didn't. And once again, he knows he will be shunted to the side, as he's always been. Because Frostpine is a great smith mage. And he is none of those things.

But you're going to sit there and tell me you have never once, in your whole life, ever been jealous of anyone?

My point is that Britni and Goodwin are criticizing without context, and it's not particularly fair to condemn someone without trying to understand the behavior behind their actions. Then again, should we also consider my actions here? I mean, I made up an entire backstory to make two people feel guilty about the way they're treating a fictional character. And if we're going to closely examine Britni and Goodwin for defending Daja to the point of rage against Kirel, it's only fair that we also closely examine my intense defense of Kirel.

Why do I get so defensive about this? Why does it bother me that someone else feels such dislike toward this character. Especially when people can criticize Peter Pan, which is possibly the only thing I'm more obsessed with than the Circle of Magic, and I'll shrug and say, "yeah. That makes sense." Well, I guess that's the reason. To me, it just doesn't make sense. Or perhaps, more accurately it's the opposite. Perhaps Kirel does make sense to me. I relate to him. I mean, there's a reason I created a backstory in which he has very talented older siblings, abusive teachers, and a constant pressure to prove he is worthy even though he knows he's not particularly extraordinary, and he works every day with people who are. I feel that. I know what it is like to feel like you have to be super-human. I know what it's like to feel like you can't be more than second-best. And I know exactly what it feels like to sit right next to someone who you actually like and also feel jealous of them. So I can't condemn him for that. I understand it all too well.

But understanding behavior is not necessarily a reason to excuse it. After all, I can understand the behavior of the boys who attack Daja--they have been raised to fear traders and their gut instinct is to attack her before she attacks them. But this doesn't give them a right to harm her. Which brings us to the real question here: are Kirel's actions acceptable? Obviously, I can't be unbiased about this, but I will try look at his actions one more time as objectively as possible.

First, Kirel freaks out when he sees Daja hold red hot iron in her hands. I stand by what I said before. I think his actions here are acceptable because even in Emelan, there's really no reason for anyone to expect a normal ten year old to be able to hold red hot metal in their bare hands. To hold Kirel to different standard because he's worked in Frostpine's forge for an unspecified amount of time is unfair.

In regards to wanting to participate with Daja and Frostpine's activity, I think there is an argument to be said that he shouldn't have butted in. He should have known that this wasn't an activity for him to participate in. But I personally cannot bring myself to say he behaved poorly because this is, after all, a book about outcasts finding family and belonging, and what is Kirel in this moment if not that? If he had continued to do that, it would be inappropriate, but I don't see evidence of that. Instead, I see evidence of Kirel trying to swallow his pride (and his jealousy) and continue to show kindness to Daja and her friends (he does, after all, help Tris when she can't walk.) I think this is not only appropriate behavior, but shows a strength of character that many people don't have. So here's to Kirel--may we all seek to have such a kind-hearted nature as you. (At least until Britni refutes this essay next week.)



I…have absolutely no idea how I got it into my head that Kirel was a redhead. I had always pictured him as blond before, but then when I was reading through the books just now for details to build the RP with, I read a passage that said he had red hair. But I just went back and re-read that same exact passage, and it distinctly says fair hair.