Miles Vorkosigan, Asshole Pick Up Artist
Feb. 24th, 2011 11:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalJust re-reading the infamous "...there was nothing about this in my Imperial Academy training manuals." bit from Labyrinth for a bit of TV Tropes time wasting research, when I looked at it a bit closer than I ever had before. Here's something that comes a bit after this line, while he's cursing Dr. Canaba's name
Her voice was muffled with grief and the odd shape of her mouth. "You think I'm too tall."
"Not at all." He was getting hold of himself a bit, he could lie faster. (emphasis mine)
Whereapon Miles starts charming the living hell out her, as is his standard mode of operation.
Now, in Miles' defense, thirty seconds ago he thought Taura was going to kill him, then about ten seconds after that he was trying his damndest to distract her from killing herself. And he does finally fess up to lying to her about his mission when they're safe on the Peregrine.
But that really doesn't spare him from contempt, when he starts the very beginning of a very loving relationship with Taura by thinking he has to lie to get into her pants. Honestly, every bit of grief he got later about lying in Memory and A Civil Campaign was completely deserved, I think.
Her voice was muffled with grief and the odd shape of her mouth. "You think I'm too tall."
"Not at all." He was getting hold of himself a bit, he could lie faster. (emphasis mine)
Whereapon Miles starts charming the living hell out her, as is his standard mode of operation.
Now, in Miles' defense, thirty seconds ago he thought Taura was going to kill him, then about ten seconds after that he was trying his damndest to distract her from killing herself. And he does finally fess up to lying to her about his mission when they're safe on the Peregrine.
But that really doesn't spare him from contempt, when he starts the very beginning of a very loving relationship with Taura by thinking he has to lie to get into her pants. Honestly, every bit of grief he got later about lying in Memory and A Civil Campaign was completely deserved, I think.
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Date: 2011-02-24 04:59 pm (UTC)Except that he wasn't lying. Not at the "too tall" question, anyhow. Most of Miles's love interests were very tall, and Miles was frequently teased about his penchant for mountain climbing.
Also, he did not try to charm his way into Taura's pants. He tried to make her feel good about herself, and was taken aback when she responded with the suggestion that he prove it by having sex with her. That suggestion was in the form of "an offer he couldn't refuse", and he had to brace himself mentally for it.
If he's lying at all in that exchange, it's the "that dress doesn't make you look fat" kind of lie that most people consider acceptable etiquette, or that at least reasonable people differ over.
Of course, he screwed up big time in those later two books, and took the natural consequences for it. But it's kind of hard to see how he could be called a "pick up artist" with Taura of all people.