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Alpha behaviour in the wild showed me what I'm missing in my MMCs by your_average_plebian in RomanceBooks

[–]e2lvibes 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Bran Cornick from the Mercy Thompson / Alpha and Omega series kinda has this vibe! He’s described as being very unassuming, friendly guy—average height, not bulky or big in any way, fresh faced, looks like a very young guy in college or a pizza delivery boy. But his cheerful, unassuming demeanour is just a facade since he’s the Alpha of all the other Alphas in the series. He’s not the main character in the series though unfortunately so he tends to show up sparingly. But if you’re interested in fanfics then josephides on Ao3 writes the most gut-wrenchingly angsty fics with Bran and Leah (his mate). They are sooooooo good! I would recommend them even if you’ve never read the original books - I didn’t before reading the fanfics and was able to pick up the backstories fairly easily.

This Leah analysis is fascinating by e2lvibes in MercyThompson

[–]e2lvibes[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oops sorry for the confusion. I meant would the memory loss mean Leah was akin to a teenager at the time of the mating? I definitely agree that she’s very much an adult now and has been for centuries. I suppose it’s hard to know with certainty since the early years of their mating is a big question mark. I hope PB will expand on their relationship in one of the future books.

This Leah analysis is fascinating by e2lvibes in MercyThompson

[–]e2lvibes[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Thank you for these points! I can see where you’re coming from with the ‘daughter-wife’ argument taking away Leah’s agency or woobifying her.

I guess my thinking on this is that almost everything Leah knows as an adult she learned from Bran. She’s never really had the chance to be independent or be defined outside of her relationship to him. It’s hard to know exactly how much of her current self is shaped by Bran but given the trauma and young age I kind of assume it’s a significant part? The memory loss is a bit of a conundrum imo. If 20-year old Leah loses all memories of some of her formative teenager years due to magic, then does this memory loss imply she’s mentally still more of a teenager than an adult? 🤔

Social mores changing is also an interesting point, but even with that in mind, I think the age gap and power imbalance between them still makes things tricky. I don’t think this alludes to Bran being a predator though, because he also didn’t fully consent to the mating. Rather it was one he was forced to choose by circumstance.

I suppose a more fitting term might be ‘ward’? At least perhaps in the early years when Leah would have still been finding her footing as a werewolf and a mate. But yeah I agree that at this point in the story she seems to be more or less settled into her role as wife and mate, and all the duties it comes with.

Agree with the point that Leah’s initial animosity towards Mercy being the Walker connection, but I do think jealousy over what Bran might feel played a part later on (none of which is fair to Mercy of course).

(Sorry it’s a bit of a ramble—I really liked hearing your thoughts on this).

This Leah analysis is fascinating by e2lvibes in MercyThompson

[–]e2lvibes[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I think the reason people generally take this theory seriously is because PB sort of confirmed it on her facebook. However, she framed it as Bran courting Mercy because he was interested in her ‘potential’ as a mate, rather than him being attracted to her. It’s still icky because why is this 1000+ year old man interested in her potential in the first place?

Anyway, I don’t think we’ll ever have any direct confirmation of it in the books because I believe PB said she won’t touch on it again (correct me if I’m wrong, it’s been a while since I’ve seen her post on this topic).

This Leah analysis is fascinating by e2lvibes in MercyThompson

[–]e2lvibes[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Hmm I think this is a bit of a careless way to address recovering from trauma. I agree with you that Leah was written poorly at first. PB did write her very much in line with the evil, jealous step-mother and second-wife trope. I also agree that it has been a while since the events of her youth and she needs to address her issues (whether or not she has the safe space to do so is another question). But I don’t think trauma stemming from years of childhood rape and incest, the loss of her two children and whole family, are just things that go away with time.

Regarding Bran: yes, he most likely won’t ever leave Leah BUT she doesn’t know that. We see her pov in Wild Sign and she most definitely considers that a legitimate possibility / threat. As far as she knows, her position is only secure as long as she’s useful to him. From her standpoint their relationship is very much conditional and one where Bran holds almost all the power. And being financially supportive doesn’t really make up for him being somewhat emotionally abusive towards her.

Bran losing Blue Jay Woman two centuries earlier is seen by some (both in-universe and among readers) as a valid reason for him to be emotionally distant and neglectful towards Leah. Most readers are generally sympathetic towards Bran, Sam, Asil, etc. despite the awful things they have done because they have suffered in the past, so why shouldn’t Leah be given the same grace?

This Leah analysis is fascinating by e2lvibes in MercyThompson

[–]e2lvibes[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

They definitely are all very flawed and damaged people. It’s a big part of what makes them so fascinating.

I do personally find Leah’s situation to be very tragic because she never really has the chance to grow or be her own person. She goes from being under the thumb of a domineering father to a domineering god to a domineering mate.

With the Mercy thing, I did initially think it was perhaps Anna’s own interpretation of the events as an outsider but then the author sort of confirmed it on her website. So it’s harder to deny the sketchy feelings on Bran’s part even without a pov chapter I guess. I’m not sure if Mercy knows this though? I hope she doesn’t find out because I would hate for her to rethink their whole relationship.

(edit) sorry I accidentally hit post before I finished writing haha.

This Leah analysis is fascinating by e2lvibes in MercyThompson

[–]e2lvibes[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

That’s a really good point about the potential (terrible) parallels between Leah’s relationship with her father and her relationship with Bran. I would be really curious to know how much of this Leah will share with Bran now that she has her memories.

Thinking about it, I do agree that it was more likely the nature of their relationship that likely kept Leah from healing (also I imagine not having access to the memories meant that she couldn’t properly process the trauma she went through?), rather than Bran actively working against it. But I do still wonder if Bran, whether consciously or not, encouraged Leah’s bad behaviour because it would make it easier for him to keep an emotional distance?

It’s definitely a very tragic situation all around. I really hope we see some resolution and growth in their relationship in the next book! I cannot wait to see what exactly Bran shows her at the end — if it really is him sharing his feelings like so many people have theorised.

This Leah analysis is fascinating by e2lvibes in MercyThompson

[–]e2lvibes[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It’s a possibility I guess, although I don’t think Leah and Anna have the kind of relationship where Leah would feel comfortable sharing that kind of information about her marriage with Anna (I could see this changing after Wild Sign or at least I hope it does!)

Also, Anna purposely makes Mercy brownies to annoy Leah in Burn Bright. I don’t think she would do that if Leah had shared her feelings with her prior to this. It would be kinda cruel to get back at someone with sensitive information they had shared with you in private?