Wh1terose

So, starting with reason one. I, genuinely, do not understand the reasoning for Keefe’s new ability. When it was originally introduced as a verbal mesmer ability, I genuinely thought it was a cool idea. (Mostly due to the interesting parallels of Fitz being a lot like Grady, Keefe being a lot like Alden, then being faced with having the opposite abilities of the adults they are like). Once they started introducing things like being able to trigger/sense people abilities I started to like it less. Again, I don't have an issue with powerful characters (for Sophie it's literally just the plot), my issue is that Keefe’s abilities don't make sense, nor are explained. Does empathy + polyglot = control over people's emotions/actions make sense? Not the most, but it at least make some, even if it was "1+1=3". There is no real canon explanation for why he has a bunch of other stuff on top of it.

Second: It still annoys me how him running away is portrayed. He is running away because he is afraid his new ability will hurt people. The ability he got because she did stuff to him in the dwarf city. The city he was only at because he directly ignored Sophie telling him not to go for his own safety because his mother was free and gave all the clues that she intended to do something to him. Even the line "I know my son better then you" didn't read as a "gotcha" moment, it read as "my son has not changed/gone through the devolpement you think he has, so I do known him better the you, because I've known him longer and he hasn't changed". Again, I think Keefe’s an interesting character, but the sheer lack of character arc for him drives me up the wall. The fact he ran away, for the same reasons and in the exact same way as in Neverseen (believing he knew best and therefore was in the right, that this would 100% help, told no one but Sophie, continued to interact and excuse Alvar’s actions, etc) is not a fun parallel, all it does is show us Keefe has. not. grown. He, just like in Neverseen, ignores the consequences of his own actions (current and past) to run away from his problems on the pretense of "doing it for other people." Again this is not an inherently bad character to write, it is interesting! The issue is this is not doing this well. It has been 11 books (including .5s). Telling us now that one of the 3 core cast members has not grown in the span of 11 books and 3 in universe years is bad writing. This happens pretty consistently within the books, and again it's not that it's bad that Shannon wrote a character with these traits, it's bad that she wrote them with these traits then wrote 11 books on them and in book 9 and 9.5 when "whoops! They didn't grow at all!" while giving us an entire book in their pov. A character has flaws, and then a character has core flaws that are the basis of what should be their character arc. Arcane for example: I wouldn't give a single fuck if Jinx got less anxious, or stopped grieving. Those are not her core negative traits, those are not what her arc is about. Her arc is about facing both what she's done and what's been done to her, severe depression/mental illness, and her relationship with her sister and those around her. How much less interesting would that be if it was "Jinxs learns to stop grieving Silco then kisses Echo"? Because genuinely this is how the later books have felt, because they ignore the core traits/things in the characters that need to change to actually move the plot and their arcs forward in exchange for looking at surface level issues ("He's to angry, shes to sad, he doesn't communicate") and then gives us "payoffs" (Sokeefe confession, Fitzphie confession, literally every single apology Fitz, Keefe or Sophie goves) that are meant to show growth that feel unearned- because they weren't. Because the character never actually had an arc.

Third: I still don't get why they went to get Keefe. I am be wrong here, but even if Keefe had the shadow tracker thing, why was it important? In canon, it's talked about how the Neverseen can track him. How? Genuinely? Umber is dead, Tam is back in the Lost Cities, the Neverseen have no shades? How tf are the tracking Keefe? A tracker is useless if no one can pick up the signal! They should have just left Keefe! He was well hidden (and has done fuck all in recent books beyond being unhelpful or actively aiding the Neverseen by accident- see Legacy).