At first I was confused by how Ember was selfish and manipulative, and then I remembered that she almost murdered Jill in Sentinel just because she wanted Jill to talk to Benjamin again.

And Jill’s narration was like, yeah ain’t Ember goofy?

Jillian. Please.

Ember seems to have placed a lot of her relationship with Reid on his making her feel safe. How did that dynamic change once he lost his powers?

Ember did a lot of good, hard thinking during Reid’s convalescence. She rarely left his side, usually sitting in the corner chair and just looking at him. Most people, Jill included, assumed that Ember was thinking loving thoughts and standing watch over her beloved.

In reality, Ember was considering her options for if, and then when, Reid woke up. She loved him, and she wanted to be with him, but she was just as concerned for her safety in the hospital as she was at any other time. And like you said, her feeling of safety was a pillar part of their relationship. Could Reid offer her any protection anymore?

Things changed when Reid began to be able to talk to her again. She was able to visit him in his mind, and there she finally admitted what she’d been considering. Reid and her discussed how they’d construct their life, steps they’d take to make sure they were both safe, etc.

Even though Reid was comatose, he had his own two cents to put into the discussion: how Ember had treated people during Mercury. I said in another post that she didn’t get the dressing-down she deserved, but I meant that she didn’t get it in the book, which is probably what readers wanted. But she did get it from both Reid (kindly) and Marco (not so kindly). Reid told her that if they were going to be married, she needed to take responsibility for all the crap she’d pulled in the lab–and he didn’t even know what she’d done to Benjamin.

That was extremely difficult for her. In fact, when he told her to do it, she pulled out of his head and walked out of the room for several hours. She finally came back and admitted she’d been horrible.

In the end, the animal sanctuary was purchased in a roundabout way, so neither of their names are attached to it. It would be hard to track them via paperwork. Ember has virtually no social media presence, and Reid doesn’t publicly talk about her. All staff on the farm are hired and vetted through a third party company that doesn’t disclose the names of the owners until after the person has been hired, and everyone signs non-disclosure agreements. Even then, Reid deals with them almost exclusively.

Hi, Ember hater here. Did she ever get verbally called out for being such a cruel, self-involved hosebeast? Not only did she let Benjamin think his wife was dead, she made him experience the loss TWICE because she wanted a minute to still be his friend. Not to mention she took Reid’s virginity and then dumped him for not becoming enslaved to her thoughts and opinions. If they had been gender reversed we’d be calling for her head on a stick for that last part,

emeralddodge:

Hi Ember hater!

I’ve been waiting for this message. I didn’t know who was going to send it, but I knew it was coming. Frankly, I’m surprised it took as long as it did. This might surprise you, but I completely agree. Ember is kind of a jerk. Her trick in the helicopter to hurt Benjamin was nothing more than cruelty. It fell in line with the main theme of Mercury–the horrible, foolish things people do when they’re in pain.

Gonna be blunt: Ember is selfish. Ember is emotional, manipulative, and her morality is deeply Ember-centered. I’d hinted at this in the first two books, but Jill’s narrative filter always explained away Ember’s choices. Jill is love-starved and responds to kindness; watch carefully how she describes people. If she perceives someone as a friend/force for good, she’ll describe them as attractive. Benjamin, however, did not worship Ember the way Jill does, and what we see of Ember is a much more neutral depiction. Ember is at the end of her rope in Mercury, and what we see of her is truly her worst side. But it’s definitely her.

As for Ember dumping Reid, I’ll say that I’m kind of on both sides with that. For one thing, the Sentinels were an extraordinarily violent and unpredictable group of men, and I’d be deeply concerned if Mr. Dodge were to suddenly join them and start gunning people down, no matter the reason. Ember’s goal from book one, page one was to keep herself safe. She had to wonder if Reid would even turn against her for some reason. After all, he’d turned against his upbringing at the drop of a hat, and the Sentinels were openly hostile to superheroes.

As for the gender reversal, I’d argue that the pain of his personality transformation was underlined by the fact that he’d taken her virginity days before. She’d given herself completely to him, believing that they’d always be the same, and that he’d keep his promises to her. And he was being a hypocrite–he’d been so anti-criminal for so long, and he had been against Benjamin joining the team merely on those grounds, despite the extenuating circumstances. There was no way around the fact that he should’ve been against the Sentinels on the same grounds.

On the other hand, Reid at least apologized. He tried to understand where Ember was coming from. He tried to protect her even after the breakup, never once choosing the easier path of letting Ember handle her own affairs.

So, what’s the verdict on Ember? I say: very, very flawed. Far more gray than white. She never did get the verbal dressing-down she needed, but the reason for that is explained by the arc words I chose for Mercury: we don’t always get what we deserve.

emeralddodge:

Next up: Ember!

Ember Harris is 5′10. She is willowy; non-trainees were generally underfed at Oconee, and she’s accustomed to not eating much. Moreover, she loses her appetite when she’s stressed, which is often. Her curves are fairly unremarkable, and she wears pushup bras when in civilian garb to make up for it. (Reid approves.)

Her hair is auburn, leaning heavily on the red side. Her eyes are warm brown, and her face is freckled. Her eyebrows are light brown, and she keeps them plucked and gently arched. She has an aquiline nose that gives her a distinguished air. Her lips are slightly fuller than one would expect on someone her size. She wears little to no makeup.

Ember’s personal style is the most un-camplike. She often wears her hemlines above the knee, and shorts that would get her sent to the principal’s office if she were in middle school. She doesn’t wear jeans often, mostly because of the Georgia heat. She likes loose, roomy tops that drape nicely. She doesn’t care for hair accessories or fancy hairdos. She’s not much of a jewelry person, either. She has seriously considered getting a discreet tattoo, probably of an animal-themed quote.