Insurgent, Day 2

There has been a shocking twist.


Brace yourselves.


You might be shocked.


I know I am.


Are you ready?


Are you sure?


Okay.


*Clears throat*


*Glances at floor*


*Takes a deep breath*


*Whispers*, I think I'm starting to like this series.


Shocking, huh?


Granted, it's not going to become my new favorite book series or anything (sorry, Ilandere). But I'm actually getting quite invested in the action. And there are some characters that I really like (who are probably all going to die in hideous ways, but hey, for the time being they're greatly increasing the readability of the series). I'm not deeply annoyed by any irritating character trait or confusing plot development or narrative decision. Best of all, I finally feel like I know Tris, like I can understand the workings of her mind and predict her behavior to a certain extent.


Now, there are still aspects of the story that are miffing me, but then again most of the books and book series I've read have had miffing aspects, and I feel like my reaction to the miffing aspects has changed from the kind of blind frustration one feels toward a nonthreatening entity that is nonetheless completely failing to impart any benefit to a sensation more closely resembling disappointment that a promising and perhaps even slightly agreeable entity isn't living up to its full potential.


However, I feel that people have come to expect a certain amount of censure and critique from these posts.


So let's talk about Will.


WARNING: Major Spoilers


Will was a character in the first book. While his character suffered from a sort of underdevelopment common in the supporting characters in books that are primarily focused on action and the emotional turmoil of the narrator, he wasn't so two-dimensional that he was forgettable. He quickly became one of Tris's few friends, as well as the love interest of another of Tris's friends. He was nerdy, sometimes a tad goofy, friendly, charming...... well, you get the idea.


At the end of the book, a large group of people, including Will and the rest of Tris's friends, were put under a form of mind control Tris was able to resist due to her Divergence. Shortly afterward, Will, still under mind control, cornered Tris is an alley and held a gun on her, preparing to kill her.


So she killed him first.


In Tris's defense, she was exhausted, in pain, stressed, terrified, had just watched her mother die (have I mentioned what a cheery, happy, and uplifting series this is yet?), and had no time to think her decision through or come up with an alternative solution to her problem.


On the other hand, just a few pages later, Tris, in very similar mental and emotional circumstances, is threatened by her own love interest, who is also under mind control. And she chooses to drop her weapon and allow him to kill her so she doesn't have to shoot him (so it's really blang lucky for her that that somehow causes him to snap out of it).


I was annoyed. Not as annoyed as I was when Al's storyline abruptly concluded (see Divergent, Day 3), but annoyed.


The massive amounts of remorse and grief she expressed throughout the beginning of Insurgent made me feel slightly less annoyed, although I was still a bit peeved by the fact that for a long time she refused to tell anyone what had happened and just held everything inside.


But my two biggest issues with Insurgent (thus far) cropped up when she was finally forced to admit her transgression to her friends.


Issue One: I don't feel like she adequately explained the various pressures she was under at the time or the agony of guilt she'd been experiencing since. Really, I'm not super bothered by this (remember what I said about blind frustration giving way to mere disappointment) and I understand why she would be reluctant to discuss matters more than was absolutely necessary, but...... I guess I feel like Issue Two would've been less of an issue if she'd opened up a little more.


Issue Two: Now everybody's mad at her.


Again, I get why Will's love interest is upset and unforgiving. To a lesser extent, I get why Tris's love interest is upset and unforgiving (he's upset because Tris didn't confide in him earlier, so now he feels like she doesn't trust him).


That being said, so far neither of them has made any apparent effort to sympathize with Tris's reasons for shooting Will in the first place and then for not wanting to tell anyone about it.


To conclude, I no longer no what part of the Will subplot has bothered me the most: the part where Will died mostly needlessly, the part where Tris's love interest didn't die mostly needlessly, the part where Tris refused to tell anybody that she was suffering, the part where Tris did tell everybody but didn't tell them enough, or the part I'm currently in, where Tris's closest companions aren't speaking to her.


But like I've already said--- this isn't that much of a problem for me. I assume that before too much longer there will be hugging and extensive apologizing and possibly crying so that we can get beyond Will and on to grander and more tragic subplots. And actually I have very little right to complain, since the frostiness between Tris and her closest friends has led to her spending more time with some more likeable and interesting characters previously kept in the background.


So...... yeah. That's all for now.


It should be interesting to see if this lack of rampant angriness lasts.


~Pearl Clayton